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Landon Collins doesn’t just like Kevin McCallister — he is Kevin McCallister. Or at least, close enough to win a contest celebrating the pint-sized hero of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.

On Sunday morning, the six-year-old from Alabama was crowned the winner of a Kevin McCallister lookalike contest held at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan — the same hotel where much of the holiday classic was filmed. The prize? A full “Home Alone: Fun in New York” experience, including an overnight stay at the Plaza, a limo tour of the city, and a towering 16-scoop ice cream sundae delivered to his room on a silver platter.

And yes, there will be cheese pizza.

“Cause you have a cheese pizza,” Collins said, smiling. “And it’s big.”

Collins, who flew up to New York with his family for the event, beat out four other finalists — all under age 12 — who were invited to compete in person at the hotel. The contest was organized by Qiviuk Boutique, a luxury knitwear shop located inside the Plaza, in collaboration with digital creator New York Mickey.

Each contestant wore Kevin’s signature look, including the iconic beanie and backpack, and performed one of his famous lines. Collins chose a classic: “Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal.”

Runner-up Cole Tomanek came from Massachusetts and delivered another fan favourite — “You guys give up or you thirsty for more?” — while standing in front of a custom backdrop of the McCallister house. His sister Kyla joined in the fun dressed as Harry from the Wet Bandits, complete with a crowbar, singed cap, and feather-covered coat.

Seven-year-old Anderson Forman from Long Island recreated Kevin’s homemade gadgets, using Magna-Tiles, Legos, and a spray-painted cassette player to make a version of the Talkboy voice recorder.

“This was the hard part,” Forman explained. “I found an old music player and you have to put something in it to make it play music. I used Magna-Tiles and glued it here and then we spray painted the whole thing.”

The finalists were treated to hot chocolate and serenaded with Christmas carols by three musical theater students from Marymount Manhattan College: Hannah Adams, Benjamin Brooks and Paulina Reyes. Each child also received a replica Kevin hat from Qiviuk Boutique — the same design worn by Macaulay Culkin in the film.

Fernando Alvarez, president of the shop, said the contest grew out of the popularity of the hat itself.

“We’ve been handcrafting these beautiful hats for about a year and a half and we realized that the hat itself brings memories and experiences to kids,” Alvarez said. “The movies really [resonate] with holiday time, with family time. We thought to enhance the experience we should have a lookalike contest because every kid in the bottom of their heart feels like Kevin: adventures, being able to fend for themselves, be in a big city.”

For Collins and his family, this was their first trip to New York. The whole thing started with a text message from his grandmother, Misty King — or “Mimi,” as Landon calls her — who happened to hear about the contest on the radio during a visit to the city in November.

“She texted me and said, ‘Can we enter Landon?’ and I said, ‘Of course!’” said his mother, Olivia Lindsey. “He is a big Home Alone fan, but our Mimi is just a bigger fan of New York in general.”

Once Landon was selected as a finalist, there wasn’t much hesitation. The family booked a two-night trip and headed north — just in time for the city’s first snowfall of the season.

“It’s very, very snowy,” Landon noted, adjusting his Qiviuk beanie as the flakes came down.

“There was never really a doubt that we were just gonna hurry up, get our plane tickets and be gone,” said King. “And it was perfect. It all worked out because it was meant to be.”

The Plaza will welcome them back after the holiday rush for their full grand prize experience. Landon will get his limousine tour, his cheese pizza, and of course, that giant ice cream sundae — though he’ll have to share it with his sister Lily and younger brothers Leo and Lewis.

“We’ll dish it out on them, too,” Lindsey said with a laugh.

Still, there’s one thing Collins doesn’t plan on sharing — his readiness for any troublemakers. Asked what he’d do if the Wet Bandits showed up during his Plaza stay, he didn’t hesitate.

“Set traps,” he said.

6-Year-Old Wins ‘Home Alone’ Lookalike Contest at the Plaza Hotel, Earns a NYC adventure

Good News Network

Hope is growing — quite literally — on the South Side of Chicago, where Quilen Blackwell and his wife Hannah Bonham are transforming abandoned lots into vibrant flower farms, providing jobs, purpose, and beauty in neighborhoods that have long been overlooked.

Their efforts through two nonprofits, Southside Blooms and Chicago Eco House, earned national recognition this month when Blackwell was named CNN Hero of the Year. The award includes a $100,000 grant to support their work — but Blackwell was quick to deflect the credit.

“This is my life,” he told Citizen Watch US. “My wife is involved, my kids are involved, my wife Hannah is our lead florist… We harvest our flowers, they get processed at our flower shop and then we sell ’em all across the city.”

Southside Blooms currently operates on six formerly vacant lots, all solar-powered and now teeming with snapdragons, zinnias, and sunflowers — flowers that don’t just brighten the community but also chip away at the $2 billion Americans spend each year on imported cut flowers.

And that’s where the idea started.

After serving in the Peace Corps and moving to Chicago for ministry school, Blackwell found himself in Englewood, where 40% of residents live in poverty. He first tried a social enterprise focused on fruits and vegetables — but the logistics were tough. Soil toxins, irrigation challenges, and strict food regulations created more problems than solutions.

Then he read a statistic that changed everything: over 70% of the flowers sold in the U.S. are imported.

“I said, ‘Wait a minute. Why are we importing flowers from other countries when we have all this land, all of this youth?’” Blackwell told CNN. “Maybe flowers are the answer.”

The answer, it turns out, was spot on.

By 2021, the Chicago Eco House had already turned multiple lots into working flower farms. Now, with Southside Blooms as the sales arm, they employ 25 young people, most between the ages of 16 and 25, who plant, grow, harvest, arrange, and sell flowers across the city. A second location on Chicago’s West Side is set to open this spring.

And the work is doing more than just giving teens a paycheck. It’s giving them pride.

“As long as they’re getting all of the ingredients they need to be successful, there’s nothing that they can’t do,” Blackwell said. “Our young people are blossoming and blooming every single day.”

Many of the flowers thrive in tough conditions — and that’s no accident.

“A lot of the most beautiful flowers we grow do very well in adverse conditions,” Blackwell said. “And that’s just like the people here.”

Through their work, Blackwell and Bonham aren’t just beautifying empty land. They’re creating pathways for young people to learn new skills, earn an income, and find stability in an area where opportunity is often scarce.

The success of the program also challenges assumptions about what economic development can look like. Instead of large corporate investments or gentrification, this is grassroots revitalization — driven by community, solar panels, and the simple act of planting something and watching it grow.

Holding his CNN Hero award, Blackwell made it clear: this isn’t just his win. It belongs to the whole team — his wife, the young workers, and the people of the South Side.

“This is just the beginning,” he said.

CNN Hero Of The Year Transforms Vacant Lots Into Flower Farms and New Jobs in Chicago

In the heart of Goa, a Christmas tree like no other is bringing together tradition, community, and sustainability — all through yarn and human connection.

Standing tall inside the Museum of Goa, the tree is made entirely of crocheted squares, handcrafted by 25 women who had never met in person before this project began. It’s the work of the Crochet Collective, a grassroots group brought together by a dream — literally — and stitched into reality through months of labor, conversation, and creative improvisation.

The idea came to life in August, when Sheena Pereira, one of the group’s organizers, had a vision of making a crocheted Christmas tree. She and fellow organizers Sharmila Majumdar and Sophy Sivaraman gathered a group of crocheters on Zoom. Most of them were strangers to each other, and none of them knew exactly how big the tree would be or how long it would take. But that didn’t matter.

“We decided to begin anyway,” Majumdar told The Better India. “We felt the place would come.”

What started as an online pandemic-era crochet group evolved into something tactile and celebratory. They began meeting in person at Majumdar’s home, sharing tea and coffee, swapping stories, and building bonds as the yarn squares slowly multiplied.

Then came a stroke of generosity: a local civil engineer offered to build a conical metal frame for the tree and transport it — all for free. That act transformed the project from a pile of crochet squares into a fully-formed community installation. With a structure to work around, the Museum of Goa agreed to host the finished piece as part of its “We Gather” exhibit, which celebrates collective creative efforts.

“It wasn’t supposed to be this big,” Sivaraman told The Better India, laughing. “But then again, none of us knew how big it would become.”

In the end, the tree included over a thousand individually crocheted squares, a patchwork of textures, colors, and reused materials. As the monsoon season rolled in, the group realized the original squares were too small — but instead of starting over, they adapted. Many women used up their personal yarn stashes, unraveling old items they no longer wore or wanted. The final result is filled with unexpected hues: pinks, oranges, and color combinations that would never have come from a factory.

“That’s why you see unexpected shades,” said Sivaraman. “There’s no factory-made decorations. Just what we already had.”

The tree is more than an artistic feat. It’s a statement against the global flood of plastic-heavy Christmas decor, and a celebration of an old craft that has deep roots in Goa’s colonial history. Goa was a Portuguese colony for over 400 years, and crochet — like the surnames Pereira and Fernandes — came to India with that European influence. Now, the women of Goa are reclaiming that legacy and making it their own.

With its recycled materials, communal spirit, and vibrant imperfections, the Crochet Collective’s Christmas tree has become a powerful symbol. It’s not just a festive decoration; it’s a stitched-together memory of laughter, labor, and shared purpose.

Crocheted Christmas Tree Unites Community Of Extraordinary Women

Mailboxes aren’t typically found in Antarctica — but now, thanks to a request from King Charles III, there’s a bright red one sitting at the bottom of the world.

Installed at the British Antarctic Survey’s Rothera Station, the post box was delivered just in time for the holidays by the UK’s polar research ship, the RRS Sir David Attenborough. The station, located more than 1,800 kilometers south of the Falkland Islands, is one of the most remote places on Earth — and one of the most isolated.

That’s exactly why the King asked for the mailbox to be included in this season’s supply delivery.

For the small group of climate researchers and support staff who live and work there for months at a time, the mailbox offers something most of us take for granted: connection.

“If you’re doing fieldwork for many months, the feeling of receiving a letter — an actual, tangible piece of paper with handwriting from friends and family — is such a lift,” said Kirsten Shaw, the station support assistant who oversees the British Antarctic Territory Post Office.

“It’s a wonderful way to connect people that goes beyond what an email or text message can do.”

The newly installed box features the cypher of King Charles III and now functions as one link in a long, cold postal chain. Letters leave Antarctica via the Sir David Attenborough or a British Antarctic Survey (BAS) aircraft, making their way to the Falkland Islands, and then on to a Royal Mail hub in Oxford. The reverse trip works just the same — all so that a handwritten card or note can find its way to a snowbound researcher, thousands of kilometers from the nearest city.

Despite the rise of digital communication, Christmas remains one time of year when letter-writing hasn’t faded. That’s especially true in a place like Rothera, where every envelope and scribbled message carries more meaning than usual.

Royal Mail red boxes have long been a symbol of Britain — found in nearly every corner of the Commonwealth, from bustling cities to overgrown roadsides. But this one might just be the most poetic: a bright red cylinder standing against Antarctica’s frozen white, waiting patiently to carry a few heartfelt words across the globe.

At the Edge of the Earth, King Charles Sent a Mailbox for Christmas

A citywide push to make Boston more bike-friendly is showing clear results. Thanks to the Better Bike Lanes project, daily bicycle trips are up across the city, while the number of cars on the roads is starting to fall.

The infrastructure upgrade, a key part of Mayor Michelle Wu’s election platform, aimed to address longstanding calls for safer, more accessible cycling routes. Between 2023 and 2024, the city added protected bike lanes, bikeways, and new crossings throughout neighborhoods in and around Boston.

By autumn 2024, most of the new infrastructure was in place — and the city set out to see whether the changes had actually made a difference.

They had.

In Brighton’s South Street, daily bike trips rose by 22%, a modest gain. But other areas saw much larger jumps. Boylston Street in Back Bay, for example, went from 615 to 1,127 bike trips per day — an 83% increase. The new lane there is protected by metal bollards to prevent illegal parking, making it one of the city’s safest stretches for cyclists.

On Milk Street downtown, a newly built single-direction bike lane is now handling almost 200 more bikes per day than before — when cyclists had to mix with car traffic. And on Western Avenue, which runs through both Brighton and Allston, average daily bike traffic rose by 51%, with over 200 more riders counted than in previous years.

While the report doesn’t definitively say how many cyclists ditched their cars for bikes, it does show a modest drop in car traffic where the new lanes were added. Near Fairfield Street, traffic fell by 9% between September 2022 and September 2024. Near Arlington Street, it dropped 14%.

“This is exactly the kind of evidence-based policymaking our city needs,” said Tiffany Cogell, executive director of the Boston Cyclists Union, speaking to Mass Streets Blog. “Protected bike infrastructure works. It’s reducing crashes, improving predictability, and expanding mobility options without increasing congestion.”

With Boston’s population growing and climate goals looming, city leaders hope investments like these will encourage even more people to swap four wheels for two. If the data keeps trending in the same direction, they just might.

Boston’s New Protected Bike Lanes Are Working — Bike Trips Are Up, Car Traffic Is Down

An Australian zoo known for pulling seven native species back from the brink of extinction is setting its sights on something even bigger: rewilding a massive tract of former farmland.

The Taronga Zoo Conservation Society (TZCS) announced plans to restore 3,050 acres in New South Wales, transforming the cleared land into a thriving wildlife corridor. The goal is to plant around 1 million Box-Gum tree seedlings across the Nandewar Range, part of the country’s vast Great Dividing Range, and use the regrown forest to reconnect fragmented habitats.

Eventually, the land will be home again to iconic native species like platypus, koalas, spotted quolls, and the endangered regent honeyeater.

“It’s about establishing the habitat and getting the ecosystem looking after itself,” said TZCS CEO Cameron Kerr. “At the right time we will assess what wildlife is coming in from outside and what wildlife we need to re-introduce.”

The rewilding plan is ambitious in scale. The area is roughly 100 times larger than Taronga Zoo’s main site in Sydney Harbour, and it marks the zoo’s first major effort to regenerate such a large wild landscape since it opened the Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo on 300 acres of land.

Kerr told ABC News Australia that part of the process involves monitoring how fast different species return on their own, and identifying which will need more time or support to reclaim their ancestral territory. He expects some animals may recolonize quickly once habitat conditions improve, while others could take a decade or more.

TZCS is no stranger to reintroducing wildlife. Over the years, its 16 targeted breeding programs have led to the successful release of around 60,000 animals, from tadpoles to koalas.

But large-scale land restoration is new ground for the organization. This latest initiative recognizes that existing forests alone are no longer enough to safeguard Australia’s unique biodiversity. Invasive predators such as foxes and feral pigs remain a serious threat, and controlling them will be essential to the project's success.

Kerr said Australia has reached a turning point. “We can’t rely on what forest landscapes we have left,” he noted. “We have to actively start to restore native forests if we want these animals to survive long into the future.”

If it works, the Nandewar project could serve as a blueprint for similar conservation efforts elsewhere — combining habitat restoration, species reintroduction, and long-term ecological care to give Australia's wildlife a fighting chance.

An Australian Zoo That Saved 7 Species Has Big Ambitions: Rewild 3,000 Acres of Land

Two towering statues of ancient Egyptian ruler Amenhotep III, toppled by an earthquake over a millennium ago, have been restored and unveiled in Luxor.

The twin statues, each standing more than 9 metres tall, were officially revealed on Sunday following decades of painstaking archaeological work. Originally carved from alabaster in the 14th century BCE, they once stood at the entrance to Amenhotep’s mortuary temple on the Nile’s west bank. Sunday’s unveiling marks the first time the two statues have stood in their full form since being destroyed roughly 1,200 years ago.

Amenhotep III, the ninth pharaoh of Egypt’s Eighteenth Dynasty, ruled during a period considered a golden age in ancient Egyptian history. So revered was he that he was worshipped as a living deity. The Colossi of Memnon — a name later given by Greek visitors — were among many massive statues erected to honour him.

The alabaster giants were carved from stone sourced in Hatnub, a quarry in central Egypt known for its high-quality material. Each statue depicts Amenhotep wearing the nemes headdress, a symbol of kingship often associated with gods and pharaohs.

The recent restoration is the result of more than two decades of work led by a joint Egyptian-German mission, headed by German Egyptologist Hourig Sourouzian. The team began work in the late 1990s and has since restored and documented a large number of statues and temple fragments, many of which had been reduced to rubble over the centuries.

The newly reassembled colossi were pieced together from dozens of broken alabaster fragments. The right-hand statue includes a nearly complete torso and head, with a well-preserved face and even the serpent emblem still visible on the forehead. The left statue has both legs intact, but its torso and head were more heavily damaged.

Egypt’s Supreme Archaeological Council confirmed that the restoration was conducted using modern scientific methods and internationally approved materials. Officials say the project respected the original nature of the stone, ensuring both historical accuracy and long-term preservation.

The two figures now stand once more in front of the remains of Amenhotep’s sprawling mortuary temple, a powerful reminder of Egypt’s ancient craftsmanship — and the patience required to bring it back.

2 Colossal Statues of an Ancient Pharaoh are Standing Again After 30 Years Of Work

For the first time, researchers have successfully reprogrammed cancer-fighting cells inside the human body, a major step forward that could make one of today’s most advanced cancer treatments cheaper, faster, and more widely available.

In two small but groundbreaking trials, scientists treated patients with multiple myeloma — a difficult-to-treat blood cancer — using a version of CAR T-cell therapy that didn’t require a lab. Instead, they delivered the treatment directly into the patients’ bodies. The results were presented this month at the American Society of Hematology’s annual meeting.

Traditional CAR T-cell therapy involves removing a patient’s T-cells, genetically modifying them in a lab to recognize cancer, and then infusing them back into the body. It’s effective, but expensive and time-consuming. The process typically takes a month and must be done off-site in specialized labs.

But what if that same genetic modification could happen in vivo — in the body itself?

That’s exactly what the new trials tested. In the first, four patients received the experimental in-body treatment. Their T-cells were genetically edited with the CAR gene inside their bloodstream using a deactivated virus as the delivery vehicle. The edited cells then multiplied and began attacking the cancer.

Two of the patients showed no signs of cancer in their bone marrow by the end of the study. The other two didn’t reach full remission, but their disease had improved significantly five months later.

Yvonne Chen, a cancer immunotherapy researcher at UCLA, told Science News: “The question is no longer can you really do this. The question now is can you reach the level of efficacy that’s expected and will the safety profile meet the target.”

The side effects were notable but manageable. While lab-based CAR T-cell therapy is known to cause severe flu-like symptoms — and in rare cases, can be fatal — the patients in the study experienced different reactions. They had low blood pressure, reduced oxygen levels, and some confusion, but all recovered.

A second trial using a similar approach showed even more encouraging results. Four more patients, all previously considered untreatable, had no detectable cancer in their bone marrow one month after treatment. One patient remained cancer-free five months in. This group also had fewer side effects, though researchers don’t yet know why.

“I think it gives us a glimpse into the future,” said Joy Ho, a hematologist at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Australia. “In vivo CAR-T for multiple myeloma is here and hopefully it will stay.”

The potential impact is huge. Current CAR T-cell therapy can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and requires an aggressive chemotherapy round to clear the body’s original T-cells before the lab-grown ones are introduced. If scientists can refine the in-body method, it could eliminate the need for that step and slash costs and delays.

That would open the door for many more patients to receive treatment — especially those too sick to wait the weeks it takes to produce the cells in a lab.

And the implications go beyond cancer. CAR T-cell therapy is also being explored as a possible treatment for autoimmune diseases. If researchers can continue to make the in vivo version safer and more effective, it could become a game-changing tool for a wide range of conditions.

For now, the trials are small and still in early stages. But for the eight patients involved — and potentially thousands more in the future — it’s a hopeful step forward.

For the First Time, Scientists Successfully Engineer Cancer-Fighting Cells Directly In Patients' Bodies

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Cody Sabol doesn’t use brushes. He doesn’t need them.

The Pittsburgh-based artist paints with his fingers, and he does it faster and better than most people could with a full toolkit. This week, he took his talents to live television, appearing on Talk Pittsburgh to recreate one of the most beloved holiday characters ever — Will Ferrell’s Buddy the Elf — entirely by hand, and in real time.

The result? A jaw-dropping portrait that came together in less than six minutes. No outlines, no tracing, just raw speed and talent.

It started with some broad strokes, but it didn’t take long before the familiar green hat and wide-eyed expression began to take shape. By the time Sabol added the details around the eyes, there was no mistaking it: Buddy the Elf was back, and staring straight at the camera.

“Painting Will Ferrell’s Elf in less than 6 minutes!! Who should I paint next!? What’s your favorite Christmas Movie!?” Sabol wrote on Instagram after the segment. “Huge thanks to my friends at @talkpittsburgh for having me!!”

Fans were quick to jump in with ideas — and jokes. “Would you rather eat the dessert spaghetti or have a snowball fight with Buddy the Elf?” one asked. “Either way, you eat cotton balls and smell like beef and cheese.”

Another fan dropped the classic line from the movie: “Bye Buddy, hope you find your dad!”

Some had holiday suggestions for who Sabol should paint next. “Christmas Vacation. Cousin Eddie and Clark. Home Alone crew Kevin, Marv, Harry,” one commented.

But the biggest praise came from a follower who compared their excitement to a certain elf’s energy level: “You know how Buddy the Elf gets excited when he finds out Santa is coming? That’s how I feel when you drop a new reel.”

Sabol is no stranger to viral moments. He’s painted athletes, musicians, celebrities, and now holiday icons — all with his signature finger painting style and lightning-fast speed. But there’s something about watching Buddy the Elf appear in just a few minutes, with nothing but hands and paint, that feels a little bit like magic.

Just in time for Christmas.

This Artist Finger Painted Buddy the Elf on Live TV — in Under 6 Minutes

A tiny dog named Choco is back where he belongs—curled up on the couch with the family that never stopped missing him.

After vanishing from his home in Antelope, California in 2019, Choco was found this November more than 3,000 kilometers away in Detroit. It had been five years since anyone in the family had seen the little pooch. His owner, Patricia, said they searched high and low after he disappeared, but eventually had to accept he might be gone for good.

Then came the phone call.

“Shocked,” was how Patricia described hearing the voicemail that said Choco had been found. At first, she thought they meant a nearby city. “I called the number, ‘You’re talking about Lincoln, California, right? No, Lincoln, Michigan,’” she told CBS News.

Choco had turned up chained to a fence and was taken in by the Lincoln Park Animal Shelter. When staff scanned his microchip, they found a match that led back to Patricia—more than 2,000 miles away. That’s when Helping Paws and Claws, a volunteer-run animal rescue group, stepped in.

Not only did they track down Choco’s original owner, they also made sure he got home.

With some help from a kind stranger named Pamela—who donated her SkyMiles to fly Choco back to California—the group arranged a flight for Penny, one of their volunteers, to bring the dog back herself.

The reunion was emotional. Patricia’s family had grown in the time Choco was away, but his spot in the house, and in their hearts, had always been saved.

“Microchip your dogs,” Patricia said. “With the holidays and the extreme cold, a story like mine can be your story next.”

Choco’s journey remains a mystery. No one knows how he ended up in Michigan or who had him all those years. But just in time for Christmas, he made it home.

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