Coca-Cola Pitches In To Turn Mardi Gras Waste Into Recycling Gold

Mardi Gras in New Orleans is getting a sustainable makeover! This year, Coca-Cola and Recycle Dat! launched "Recycle World" to tackle the 2.5 million pounds of waste left after the festivities. An interactive recycling station along the parade route showcased how cans, glass, and beads can be recycled instead of ending up in landfills. This initiative marks a significant step towards a cleaner celebration while highlighting sustainability's importance. Locals are thrilled with this eco-friendly move that makes recycling accessible for everyone.

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US Coast Guard Rescues Stranded Snowmobiler From Drifting Ice Near Mackinac Island

A snowmobile trip off Mackinac Island ended with a Coast Guard rescue after a man became stranded on drifting ice during a whiteout blizzard. Mackinac Island Fire Chief Jason St. Onge said fire officials were alerted at about 4:40 p.m. on Sunday, March 15, that a man had become lost on the ice, the Detroit Free Press reported. "The man was told (through a translator over the phone) to stay put, and that rescue was coming to him," St. Onge said. Firefighters then advised the man to use his GPS to move toward their location while St. Onge and five other firefighters went out on the ice as part of the rescue crew. Officials said the rescue moved slowly because of waist-deep snow and other conditions that made it difficult. The man then reached open water and became stuck on a piece of drifting ice, prompting a Coast Guard rescue. The Coast Guard said blizzard conditions made an air rescue unsafe, so it deployed the USCG Cutter Mackinaw, an icebreaking vessel. The cutter located the man and brought him and his snowmobile aboard the ship. The man's identity was not released by the Coast Guard or fire officials. He was reported to be in stable condition. St. Onge also told the Free Press that officials warned the man not to go onto the ice, but he went anyway and became stranded about 1.6 kilometres off shore. "The ice is no joke, not an inland lake or a mill pond. Conditions can and do change by the minute. Not one entity endorses the ice, nor is anyone in charge of its safety or security," St. Onge said in a news release. Mackinac Island is in Lake Huron and has been a Michigan state park since 1895. 📸@USCGGreatLakes on X.

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Good Samaritans Rushed to Save 3 Teens Trapped Upside Down in a Canal

A terrifying crash on a Mississippi highway ended with three teenagers trapped in an upside-down car in a canal, and strangers rushing into the water to pull them out. Three Mississippi teenagers are recovering after their car went off the road, flipped three times and landed upside down in water on the side of the highway, according to ABC and CBS local affiliate WLOX-TV. The teens were identified as siblings Mariah, Michael and Matthew Gill. Mariah, a Bay High senior, was driving at the time of the crash, WLOX reported. Witness J.D. Durant said he saw the incident while traveling eastbound on I-10 with his adult son James Durant and co-worker Missy Pearson. The three pulled over immediately to help. “When [the car] started flipping like it did, I was afraid we were in for some hard times,” Durant told WLOX. The crash left the vehicle upside down in a canal, and Mariah told the station she could hear her brothers as water started filling the car. “I could hear my brothers screaming, ‘Water is coming in,’ ” Mariah told WLOX. “They got out, and I hear them saying, ‘My sister is still in there.’ ” WLOX reported that dozens of bystanders entered the water to rescue the teens. Up to 15 cars pulled off on the side of the highway, and Mariah was quickly pulled from the wrecked vehicle. The family has alleged that another vehicle was involved in the crash. When reached by PEOPLE, the Harrison County Sheriff’s confirmed that deputies were able to identify a suspected vehicle, but said the case had been turned over to the Mississippi Highway Patrol for further investigation. Garside, who owns Long Beach Screen Printing with the children’s stepfather, has shared updates about the crash on Facebook. Garside also shared a GoFundMe fundraiser dedicated to supporting the children’s recovery and replacing the transportation they relied on. 📸 credit: gofundme

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Man With Motor Neurone Disease Just Created These Unique Gadgets To Tackle Daily Challenges

For Andrew Herbert, a bed that opens its own covers to the Wallace & Gromit theme tune is not a gimmick. It is one of many ways he has tried to keep control of daily life while living with Motor Neurone Disease. The 55-year-old tech specialist has turned his home into a workshop of practical and playful inventions, using smart sensors, cameras and artificial intelligence to deal with the day-to-day challenges of the progressive condition. Andrew, a father of two who was diagnosed with MND in 2022, said: "Necessity is the mother of invention. "When I'm sat here, I have plenty of time to think about how I can solve problems." MND is a neurological condition that attacks the nerves in the brain and spinal cord that control movement. Over time, it causes muscles to weaken, leaving people increasingly unable to walk, talk, eat or breathe independently. For Andrew, the diagnosis came after years of noticing changes in his body. He said: "I did a lot of cycling, running and all sorts of outdoor pursuits. "But about four years ago, I noticed I was getting weaker. I couldn't understand it." Before his diagnosis, he had prided himself on an active lifestyle and used to cycle a 103-kilometre round trip to work once a week. After a series of tests, doctors confirmed he had MND. Andrew, who has worked in tech for more than three decades and is now Chief Technology Officer at financial services firm Novuna, said: "It's a life-changing event. "I was thinking about my family and how they're going to manage with me deteriorating." As his mobility became more difficult, he started applying his technical skills at home. Using open-source smart home software called Home Assistant, Andrew built a network that lets him control devices and systems around the house from one place. He said: "It can centralise the controls of all the devices I have. "I've come up with various things to make my life easier." Some of those ideas solve practical problems. Others are there to make him smile. The bed-cover device is one of the clearest examples of both. Built from repurposed curtain motors, it rolls back his covers when he gets too hot or cold. Andrew said: "I'd get too hot or cold in bed, so I fitted the curtain openers, they actually work really well. "They're linked up to a smart speaker that plays the Wallace & Gromit theme tune." He said the lighter side of the inventions matters. "A lot of what I do is just for fun, as well as being useful." Around the house, he has added more systems to support his routine. At the front door, facial recognition software identifies approaching carers and plays a musical theme to welcome them. Inside, cameras powered by artificial intelligence help him monitor different parts of his life, from birds in the garden to readings from his ventilator overnight. Andrew said: "There's AI on the bird feeder that identifies any interesting birds that visit, but it does make mistakes sometimes, because it's an American programme. "The other day, it told me there was a chickadee in the garden." The same technology also helps him keep track of his health. Cameras scan the numbers on his ventilator while he sleeps so he can check the readings the next morning. Despite the progression of MND, Andrew still works three days a week and leads major technology projects for Novuna, which serves more than 1.3 million customers. He has also encouraged colleagues to take part in fundraising challenges for organisations including the MND Association and the My Name'5 Doddie Foundation. As well as helping him manage life at home, Andrew said sharing his inventions online has become an important outlet. He said: "I think people with MND should try to find creative outlets when they can't do what they used to be able to do. "This is an area where I can be creative and get a real sense of purpose."

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Farmer’s Daughter Turns Rejected Calf Into Viral Housemate And TikTok Star

A calf that was rejected by its mother has become an unlikely housemate, and a social media hit, after a Cheshire farmer started raising her by hand. Tash Thompson, 26, shares her home near Crewe with June, a 120-kilogram Simmental Pedigree calf that follows her around the kitchen and has developed a habit of chewing through WiFi cables. Videos of June wearing bows, scarves and Manchester City colours have drawn thousands of fans online. Tash said: "She was always following me around outside, so I thought, why not let her into the house? "After that, she kept coming inside, so I just decided to set up a tripod one day." June was rejected by her mother after birth, so Tash stepped in and bottle fed her herself. After caring for the calf around the clock, Tash said June did not want to leave her side. She said: "I made a TikTok video showing me making a bottle and feeding her, but I wasn't expecting it to get 500,000 likes. "All of my family were howling. It seemed to be really popular, so I just carried on. "I can't believe how many people have seen her now. "One of the videos has got millions of views." The videos show June waking Tash up in bed, getting her teeth brushed, drinking milk from a giant bottle and standing still while bows are clipped into her hair. Tash said: "I put her in a multi-coloured, fluffy snood from Dunelm Mill and she just started strutting around in the kitchen, it was hilarious." Despite the attention online, June still spends most of her time on the family farm, although Tash said she sometimes causes problems when she comes inside. Tash said: "She has chewed through our WiFi cable box which is a nightmare, she has a real thing for cables." She said the family has been surprised by how well behaved June is in the house. Tash added: "It's very cute when she puts her head on the kitchen top. "I think I've accidentally potty trained her too, because she knows not to go in the house. "She doesn't really make any mess because she's too small to cause any damage. She's like a big dog." June is about 0.9 metres tall, and her place in the house has stretched to football routines too. Tash said: "My whole family support Man City, so I've got lots of tops and scarves. "The derby was coming on, so I thought, let's get them on for June. It's like we share clothes!" Behind the videos, Tash said caring for June has also helped her manage epilepsy, which she has lived with for years. Tash said: "Because I've had to bottle feed her since she was a baby, I've had to keep to a strict schedule. "My medication is awful, I have to take six tablets a day and they zombify you. "But June has made sure I get up every morning and stay on schedule." She said the animals on the farm have helped her more broadly too. Tash added: "All of my cows are therapy for me, really. It's a great way to get yourself outside. "June brightens up my day and I think she does the same for everyone who watches her on TikTok." Tash also joked that the family may soon need to repair its French windows if June keeps squeezing through the back door as she grows. Asked if she expected one of her farm animals to become a viral star, Tash said: "I wouldn't have believed it. I'd think you were crazy."

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867-5309 Now Connects Callers To A Cancer Helpline

That famous phone number from the early 1980s has a new job. The number 867-5309, made famous by Tommy Tutone's 1981 hit "867-5309/Jenny," is now a helpline for people impacted by cancer. Run by the global nonprofit Cancer Support Community, the free line offers guidance, resources and emotional support. If people call, Jenny will not answer. A cancer support expert will. Tommy Tutone singer Tommy Heath, 78, told PEOPLE he was moved to take part because cancer has touched his own life. "I have some family members who are struggling with cancer," Heath told PEOPLE, adding that he is also dealing with "minor" skin cancer. He said the disease can appear without warning. "I'm out on tour with a lot of bands and suddenly somebody's not there," he explained to PEOPLE. Cancer, he said, is "affecting us all." Heath has joined the Cancer Support Community and Gilda's Club for the campaign. Gilda's Club was started in honor of the late actress Gilda Radner, who died from ovarian cancer in 1989. Under the campaign, anyone who dials the number linked to the song can speak with professionals. Cancer Support Community CEO Sally Werner told PEOPLE, "Anyone impacted by cancer can call CSC-867-5309 [272-867-5309] to receive immediate support, trusted information, and personalized guidance from trained specialists at Cancer Support Community." Heath said he hopes the number can offer some comfort in a difficult moment. "I hope when someone is depressed and confused, they'll go, 'Hey, I'll call 867-5309. Somebody's waiting there to help me.' And I hope they smile at that point." "That's the way I think it ought to work, and I hope it does," he said, adding that he jumped at the chance to help the cause. "I need to give back to the community, the people who have supported me all these years," he shared. "I'm going to do what I can." Heath also said he was drawn in as soon as he learned Gilda's Club would benefit. "[Gilda Radner] a big hero of mine," he said. "I'm just glad to be involved." Werner said the helpline is free and staffed by trained professionals. "It is staffed by trained professionals experienced in supporting individuals impacted by cancer. They are skilled in listening, resource navigation, and compassionate support. Many callers say the Helpline helped them feel heard, informed, and less alone. It often becomes a lifeline during one of the most difficult moments in someone’s life," Werner told PEOPLE. Heath said he would welcome the campaign becoming a lasting part of his song's legacy. "I'd be happy if this was an enduring legacy, and made people smile and give them hope," said Heath, who is hitting the road with a summer tour. "(And yes, he'll perform "867-5309/Jenny.") "I'm pretty proud to be part of it." The campaign was created in partnership with the health marketing agency Klick Health. More information is available at csc8675309.com.

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Study Finds Virtual Reality Games Can Boost Kindness

A lost dog, a distressed boy and a virtual reality headset were enough to shift how people felt about helping others. New research suggests virtual reality games can make players kinder by increasing their desire to help. The study found that VR games may raise a person’s sense of altruism and influence levels of empathy. The American study followed participants as they played through a virtual reality scenario in which they helped a boy find his lost dog. The findings were published in the journal Frontiers in Virtual Reality. Researchers said immersive games can motivate people to help, even when they cannot directly relate to someone else’s emotions. Study leader Dr Samantha Lorenzo is not a gamer, but she has widely studied the social and psychological impacts of different forms of communication. She has seen how narratives can play a big role in how people understand information. When Dr Lorenzo came across research about the social and emotional benefits of games, she became curious. She wanted to know if narrative-driven games could influence emotional processes, including altruism and empathy. Dr Lorenzo, from the University of Oregon, was particularly interested in VR because of how immersive the platform is. She believed VR could strengthen the emotional experience for players and lead to more positive outcomes and longer-lasting effects. Dr Lorenzo said: “I had an idea that VR might be an effective tool to influence people's ability to want to help others and better understand other people's perspectives. “I wanted to explore possible behavioral changes from immersive environments and the underlying mechanisms that foster altruistic engagement within, and beyond, the gaming world.” She worked with Dr Danny Pimentel, who co-directs the Oregon Reality Lab, where students and researchers can develop virtual, augmented and mixed reality media. The team created a narrative-driven VR game to immerse players in an emotional storyline and test if the experience changed levels of empathy and altruism. In the game, called Empathy in Action, players enter a neighbourhood community and meet Alden, a young boy who has just lost his dog, Buddy. Players are given several tasks, including physical and emotional ones. They search for clues and decide if, and how, to comfort the upset child. Dr Lorenzo said the team looked at a few possible narratives for the game but picked the lost dog scenario because it felt believable and like something that could happen in real life. The researchers thought a realistic narrative would be the most effective way to get people to consider how they would react in a similar situation. Before and after the game, participants answered a series of questions so the researchers could measure how the experience affected empathy and altruism. Dr Lorenzo said: “We wanted to see if the game shifted their motivation to help others and if it affected their ability to understand other people’s emotions." The team said they were surprised to find that empathy and altruism do not always rise together. Dr Lorenzo said people’s sense of altruism increased during the study, but the results on empathy were more complicated. The researchers found significantly higher ratings of “cognitive empathy”, which is the ability to recognise and understand someone else’s feelings. At the same time, they found a decline in “affective empathy”, when a person actually feels the sadness that another person is feeling. The findings suggested people might still feel moved to help, even if they do not feel greater empathy for those in need. Dr Lorenzo said: “People knew that this was a sad situation and that's why they wanted to help." As part of the study, participants suggested possible uses for immersive digital games like Empathy in Action. Their recommendations included classrooms and other learning environments, therapeutic or rehabilitation settings, and conflict-resolution training. Dr Lorenzo said future research could examine if different storylines produce different findings. She also wants to explore how immersive, narrative-driven interventions could be used for understanding and coping with medical challenges. Dr Lorenzo added: “This gaming technology is new and exciting, and there’s a lot of potential for researchers to keep exploring how immersive media can be leveraged for social good."

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A New Cross-Border Birding Route Puts Southern Africa On The Global Map

Birders have a new route to put on the map, and it stretches across five southern African countries. A new transboundary birding route has been announced across Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Known as the Great Kavango Zambezi Birding Route, it contains an estimated 650 endemic and migratory species. The route runs through what is described as the world’s largest conservation area, as big as Germany and France together. It passes through 36 protected areas and covers 12 birding zones. Those zones include ecosystems ranging from dry desert to forest and wetlands. Birdwatchers on the route will follow ancient migratory paths along five rivers, the Zambezi, Chobe, Kwando, Kavango and Kafue. “No single country could offer what these five nations can achieve together,” said Dr. Nyambe Nyambe, Executive Director of the Kavango-Zambezi Secretariat. “This route is a living example of cross-border cooperation, combining diverse habitats and guiding expertise into a single coherent product that puts southern Africa on the global birding map.” The route has also been tested by an international press expedition hosted across the region. That group documented 215 bird species, including 43 species recorded for the first time by experienced international birders. The announcement said that figure speaks directly to the route’s credentials among serious avitourists. Dozens of partners are already involved in the project. They include BirdLife International’s local chapters, which have overseen training courses for guides. Safari lodges and camps with experience transporting visitors across the region are also part of the effort. Conservation organisations working in the conservation districts to protect birds and mammals from poaching have also joined. In total, 100 Birding Route Ambassadors have registered to promote and operate experiences under the KAZA Birding Route brand. 📸 credit, Jae Zambia, CC 4.0. via Wiki

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Researchers Unearth 1949 Whale Recording That Could Help Unlock Ocean Mysteries

Sometimes the past is sitting on a shelf, waiting to be heard. Researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution say a humpback whale song recorded in Bermuda in March 1949 is the oldest known preserved recording of its kind, and they say it could help scientists better understand how whales communicate. The recording came from Woods Hole scientists working on a research vessel with the U.S. Office of Naval Research. They were testing sonar systems and carrying out acoustic experiments when they captured the sound, said Ashley Jester, director of research data and library services at Woods Hole in Falmouth, Massachusetts. The scientists at the time did not know what they were hearing, Jester said, but they kept recording and saved the sound anyway. "And they were curious. And so they kept this recorder running, and they even made time to make recordings where they weren't making any noise from their ships on purpose just to hear as much as they could," Jester told CBS News. "And they kept these recordings." Woods Hole scientists found the whale song last year while digitising old audio recordings. Jester located the recording on a well-preserved disc made by a Gray Audograph, a dictation machine used in the 1940s. "These audograph discs survived because of their material and careful preservation," Jester said. Peter Tyack, a marine bioacoustician and emeritus research scholar at Woods Hole, said the recording matters not only because it captured whale song, but because it also preserved the sound of the ocean around it. "The recovered recordings 'not only allow us to follow whale sounds, but they also tell us what the ocean soundscape was like in the late 1940s,'" Tyack said. "That's very difficult to reconstruct otherwise." Tyack said the ocean of the late 1940s was much quieter than the ocean of today, giving scientists a very different background for whale song than the one they usually hear now. He said a preserved recording from that period can also help researchers better understand how newer human-made sounds, including increased shipping noise, affect whale communication. Research published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration states that whales can vary their calling behaviour depending on noises in their environment. According to Sean Hastings, a policy manager for NOAA, ship strikes and entanglements in fishing gear are currently the number one and number two threats to whales. The recording also predates Roger Payne's discovery of whale song by nearly 20 years. Jester said the underwater recording equipment used in 1949 would be considered crude by today's standards, but it was advanced for its time. She said the plastic disc is especially significant because most recordings from that era were made on tape, which has since deteriorated. Whales rely on sound to survive. According to NOAA scientists, they make clicks, whistles and calls. Scientists say those sounds help them find food, locate each other, understand their surroundings and move through the ocean. Several species make repetitive sounds that resemble songs. Humpback whales are among the best-known singers. They can weigh more than 55,000 pounds and are capable of complex vocalisations that can sound ethereal or mournful. NOAA says humpback whales were listed as endangered in the United States in the 1970s, due primarily to commercial whaling, and a final moratorium on commercial whaling was established in 1985. NOAA says four of the 14 distinct population segments are still protected as endangered, and one is listed as threatened. Tyack said underwater recordings remain an important way to study and protect whales. "Underwater sound recordings are a powerful tool for understanding and protecting vulnerable whale populations," he said. "By listening to the ocean, we can detect whales where they cannot easily be seen." Hansen Johnson, a research scientist at the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium who was not involved in the research, said the recording from a quieter ocean could help scientists better understand the sounds whales make today. "And, you know, it's just beautiful to listen to and has really inspired a lot of people to be curious about the ocean, and care about ocean life in general," Johnson said. "It's pretty special."

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How a Message In a Bottle Connected Two Women Who Finally Met After 25 Years

A barnacle-covered bottle rolling in on a Tasmanian beach has turned into a 25-year friendship between two women who did not know each other existed. Back in 2001, Diane Charles was on one of her usual morning walks along a beach in Stanley, Tasmania, when she spotted something unusual in the surf. “I'd walked out along the beach … and as I came back, rolling in on the waves was a bottle … covered in barnacles,” she recalled. She picked it up and saw there was a note inside. “To my surprise, it seemed to have a note inside.” The message was hard to read at first because it was written in Spanish. Charles said she was determined to work out what it said, and locals helped try to translate it, including her brother, who had recently returned from Chile with a Spanish dictionary. “We just tried to pick words from the dictionary,” she said. A scholar eventually helped decode the note. Charles said it roughly read: “Life has taught me all is possible, receive love and success second to this.” The note also included a name, a Colombian address and a fax number. Those details led Charles to Erika Boyero, a woman from Colombia who had thrown the bottle into the sea four years earlier while working on a cruise ship near Norway. In 1997, Boyero had been bartending on a cruise travelling through the Nordic countries. One evening, she was bored and wanted something fun to do, so she wrote several notes, sealed them in empty bottles and tossed them overboard. Then she forgot about them. “I completely forgot about … that day,” she said. Years later, her father called with unexpected news. “Hey, you received a fax from Australia,” he told her. Boyero said she was stunned. “I said, ‘What? I don’t know anyone in Australia.’” She later realised the fax must be connected to the bottles she had thrown into the sea. “You don’t really think that can happen,” she said. “There are so many millions of people in the world … and when destiny, in this way, shows a person you have to meet in this life … it is beautiful.” What began as a mystery message became a long-distance friendship. Charles and Boyero stayed in touch for the next 25 years, sharing updates about their lives and major milestones, including the birth of children and Boyero’s move to Germany. Recently, the story added another chapter. Boyero was travelling in Kuala Lumpur when she called Charles with an idea. She wanted to fly to Tasmania so they could meet in person for the first time. When she arrived, Charles said the reunion felt immediate. Once Boyero walked into the terminal, the two hugged like “long lost friends.” “It was amazing and we've just talked ever since,” Charles said. The next morning, they walked together along the same beach where the bottle had washed ashore more than two decades earlier. They also visited the Stanley Discovery Museum, where the message that first connected them is now kept. Looking back, Boyero said the early translation Charles received was close to what she had originally written. “Life has taught me all is possible,” she said. “I wish you good fortune wherever you are.” 📸 credit: ABC News: Sandy Powell

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Clinical Trial Finds 24 Minutes Of Music Therapy Can Ease Anxiety

A 24-minute listening session may be enough to take the edge off anxiety, according to a new randomized clinical trial from researchers at Toronto Metropolitan University. The study tested specially designed music paired with auditory beat stimulation, or ABS, a technique that uses rhythmic sound patterns to influence brain activity. Researchers said the approach could offer an accessible, drug-free option for people looking for additional ways to manage stress and regulate emotions. The clinical trial was conducted by psychology researchers Danielle K. Mullen and Frank A. Russo at Toronto Metropolitan University, in partnership with LUCID, a digital therapeutics company that emerged from TMU's Zone Learning ecosystem. Anxiety affects millions of people around the world. Common treatments include medications and cognitive-behavioral therapy, or CBT, but the researchers said those options can come with challenges such as side effects, long wait times, cost and the time required for ongoing treatment. The researchers said those barriers have led them to explore music-based digital therapeutics as a low-cost and widely accessible way to help people manage anxiety symptoms. They said the tools are designed to deliver quick relief through guided listening experiences that can be used almost anywhere. The study included 144 adults who had moderate trait anxiety and were already taking medication to help manage their symptoms. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four listening conditions: pink noise for 24 minutes as a control, music with ABS for 12 minutes, music with ABS for 24 minutes, or music with ABS for 36 minutes. Before and after the listening sessions, participants completed standardized assessments that measured anxiety levels and mood. The results showed that listening to music with ABS significantly reduced both cognitive and somatic symptoms of anxiety compared with the pink noise control. Participants also reported improvements in negative mood. Among the listening durations tested, the 24-minute session produced the strongest overall reduction in anxiety. The researchers said its effects were similar to the 36-minute session and clearly stronger than the 12-minute session. "What we're seeing is a dose-response pattern where about 24 minutes of music with ABS seems to be the sweet spot," said Russo, Professor of Psychology at TMU and Chief Science Officer, LUCID. "It's long enough to meaningfully shift anxiety levels, but not so long that listeners need to carve out a large block of time." The study, "Investigating the dose-response relationship between music and anxiety reduction: A randomized clinical trial," was published in PLOS Mental Health on January 21, 2026.

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