Goodable

An adorable young hockey fan was ecstatic to be featured on the jumbotron during an Anaheim Ducks game against the Calgary Flames on April 9.

Camera operators at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, pitted 4-year-old Ducks fan Brayden Yorke against rival Calgary Flames fans, creating an atmosphere of energy for the team as the game went into overtime.

The Ducks beat the Flames 4-3 in overtime.

“A special moment for 4-year-old Brayden Yorke turned into a rallying spark for our team,” the Ducks wrote on Instagram. “We brought him and his family down after our thrilling OT win Wednesday night to meet everyone after a night he’ll never forget.”

During the meeting, several Ducks players and staff credited their overtime win to young Brayden, thanked him for his cheering assistance, and signed his T-shirt.

An adorable young hockey fan was ecstatic to be featured on the jumbotron during an Anaheim Ducks game against the Calgary Flames on April 9.Camera operators at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, pitted 4-year-old Ducks fan Brayden Yorke against rival Calgary Flames fans, creating an atmosphere of energy for the team as the game went into overtime.The Ducks beat the Flames 4-3 in overtime.“A special moment for 4-year-old Brayden Yorke turned into a rallying spark for our team,” the Ducks wrote on Instagram. “We brought him and his family down after our thrilling OT win Wednesday night to meet everyone after a night he’ll never forget.”During the meeting, several Ducks players and staff credited their overtime win to young Brayden, thanked him for his cheering assistance, and signed his T-shirt.

4-Year-Old Jumbotron Star Gets to Meet Anaheim Ducks

Police work is often about community ties, and that was literally the case for an officer in Texas recently, as he stepped in to help a young man with his neckwear.

Footage published by the Stafford Police Department shows a young man with an open tie asking officers for a helping hand.

“I was just asking if you could tie my tie for me? I was kind of in a rush,” the young man asks.

“The younger officers attempted to assist the male; however, PPO Florian, who has a bit more life experience, was able to assist the young male in not only instructing him how to tie his tie, but also practicing with the individual to help him get it right,” the police department said.

Afterwards, the young man told the officers he was on his way to his first job interview, and that he wanted to make a good impression.

Police work is often about community ties, and that was literally the case for an officer in Texas recently, as he stepped in to help a young man with his neckwear.Footage published by the Stafford Police Department shows a young man with an open tie asking officers for a helping hand.“I was just asking if you could tie my tie for me? I was kind of in a rush,” the young man asks.“The younger officers attempted to assist the male; however, PPO Florian, who has a bit more life experience, was able to assist the young male in not only instructing him how to tie his tie, but also practicing with the individual to help him get it right,” the police department said.Afterwards, the young man told the officers he was on his way to his first job interview, and that he wanted to make a good impression.

Cop Helps Young Man With His Tie Ahead of Job Interview

The Guardian

A quick-thinking three-year-old boy in Michigan is being hailed as a hero after using his mother’s face to unlock her phone and call for help while she suffered a severe epileptic seizure.

Authorities say little Cody James Williams likely saved his mother’s life that day. “This young man figured it out,” Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said during an October 14 news conference, where Cody was honored and symbolically deputized as a junior member of the sheriff’s office. “The most important win … is that mom’s here.”

Cody’s mother, Shantell Woods, said she was cooking at home on October 9 when she suddenly felt dizzy, sat down on the couch, and lost consciousness. The seizure, she later wrote on her GoFundMe page, was “so intense that I could have lost my life.”

Cody had seen his mother have seizures before, so when it happened again, he knew what to do. He grabbed her phone, held it up to her face so it could unlock using facial recognition, and called a neighbor on a video chat.

“Help mommy, help mommy,” Cody said during the call, according to local news outlet WXYZ. The neighbor immediately alerted first responders, who arrived quickly to treat Woods.

“It’s amazing – I was surprised but happy he knew what to do,” the neighbor told WXYZ.

At the sheriff’s office ceremony, Bouchard praised the toddler’s calm instincts, calling the moment “a good reminder for all parents that you should talk to your kids [about what to] do in an emergency.”

Woods, who has had more than 20 seizures in recent months while managing diabetes and high blood pressure, fought back tears as she thanked her son. Holding him in her arms, she told Cody, “I’m very proud of you – you saved my life. I could have been gone.”

As Cody smiled shyly in his new junior deputy badge, Bouchard turned to Woods and added, “Mom, we just got to know him and we’re proud of him. You did a good job, mom. We’re glad you’re OK. And we’re thankful for Cody.”

The young hero turns four next month — and he’s already got a head start on saving lives.

Three-Year-Old Michigan Boy Uses Mom’s Face to Unlock Phone and Save Her Life

Gizmodo

It turns out there’s real science behind the relief we feel when we sigh. A new study has found that taking a deep breath and letting out a long exhale isn’t just emotionally soothing — it physically helps your lungs breathe more efficiently.

Researchers at ETH Zurich in Switzerland discovered that deep breaths “reset” the thin fluid layer that coats the inside of our lungs, making them more flexible and better able to expand and contract. The findings, published in Science Advances, shed new light on how a simple sigh helps keep our lungs healthy.

“The entire surface [of the lungs becomes] more deformable or—with a more technical word—compliant,” said Jan Vermant, a material scientist at ETH Zurich and the study’s senior author.

To understand why, the researchers recreated how lung fluids behave during breathing using a bubble-like device filled with surfactant — the liquid that lines the lungs and prevents them from collapsing. The device was connected to a syringe to mimic the physical forces of inhaling and exhaling.

What they found was surprisingly simple. Each time we take a deep breath, the motion helps reorder the multiple layers of this thin fluid film, restoring its ideal structure. “Directly at the boundary with the air, there is a slightly stiffer surface layer,” explained Maria Novaes-Silva, the study’s first author and a doctoral student at ETH Zurich. “Underneath, there are several layers that should be softer than the surface layer.”

When we sigh, that deep exhale compresses the lung fluid in a way that “lowers the surface stress to balance the remaining tension and thus facilitates breathing,” the paper noted. In other words, sighing gives our lungs a mini tune-up, helping them move more smoothly.

The findings also help explain why people who take only shallow breaths over long periods — such as patients on ventilators — often struggle with breathing difficulties. Regular deep breaths, or “sighs,” appear to reset the lungs’ natural rhythm and maintain their elasticity.

Researchers say this insight could lead to better treatments for people with respiratory failure. Therapies that mimic the multilayered behavior of lung fluids might make artificial ventilation more effective.

For now, though, the takeaway is simple: taking a moment to breathe deeply really does make a difference. “The feeling of relief experienced in the chest that often occurs after a deep sigh” has a clear physical basis, the researchers said.

So the next time you feel the urge to sigh, don’t hold back. You’re not just calming your mind — you’re helping your lungs do their job a little better.

Scientists Find Why Sighing Feels So Good — It Helps Your Lungs Work Better

Al Jazeera

In the misty hills of Baja Verapaz, Guatemala, women are rediscovering something long denied to them: their voices. For generations, Indigenous women have carried families, traditions, and entire communities, often while silencing their own needs. Now, through “Well-Being Clubs” supported by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), that silence is breaking.

“Many women suffer from a lack of love and respect,” says Reina, from the town of San Miguel Chicaj. “We need to know ourselves, value ourselves, and strengthen our self-esteem.”

San Miguel Chicaj, home to about 33,000 people in the Achi Maya territory, is a place where farming and weaving still sustain daily life. But its isolation has left many women feeling invisible. “Sometimes we’re overlooked because our villages are so far away,” says Norma, a young participant in the program.

The Well-Being Clubs give women a space to speak, to share, and to heal — in their own languages, Achí and Kaqchikel. More than 500 women and girls across Baja Verapaz and Chimaltenango have joined so far, guided by local facilitators trained to lead sessions on self-esteem, stress management, and emotional health.

“It was something beautiful,” says Norma. “We made time for ourselves, even with chores waiting at home. We set that time aside to learn from one another.”

In San Miguel Chicaj alone, over 300 women have participated in ten sessions led by facilitator Vanessa Canahuí. Another 200 women in Santa Apolonia, Chimaltenango, have joined in Kaqchikel, the language spoken by nearly 90 percent of the community. “Our words have power,” one participant reflected. “In Kaqchikel they are heard more clearly.”

The gatherings go beyond talk. Women practise gratitude journaling, self-regulation exercises, and group activities designed to rebuild trust — like drawing while blindfolded, guided only by another participant’s voice. “It reminded me how much we depend on others and how valuable support can be,” says Jacqueline, one of the women in the program.

Each session creates space for listening, validation, and encouragement. Slowly, confidence grows. “Some neighbours don’t dare to come, they just stay home with chores,” says Ortensia. “I encourage them to join because women have rights and play an important role in our community.”

The initiative is part of a broader regional effort in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, aimed at supporting women in areas with high risks of irregular migration. Funded by the Government of Canada, the project strengthens community resilience by focusing on emotional wellbeing — a key factor in keeping families and communities stable.

Jacqueline says the experience has changed how she sees herself and others around her. “When a woman finds her voice, she finds her power,” she says. “And when she does so within her community, change multiplies.”

In the highlands of Guatemala, that change has already begun — spoken softly at first, but growing louder every day.

Women In Guatemala are Forming Clubs To Boost Self-Worth And Community Support

Science Daily

New research out of Switzerland suggests that not all stress is bad — at least not when it comes to aging.

A team of scientists at the University of Basel has found that certain nutrients in the diet of microscopic worms can trigger a mild stress response that helps them stay healthier as they age. Far from being harmful, this small dose of stress appears to boost the worms’ ability to fight off age-related damage.

The study, published in Nature Communications, focuses on Caenorhabditis elegans, a tiny roundworm often used in aging research due to its short lifespan and well-mapped genetics.

The researchers discovered that certain double-stranded RNA molecules in the worms’ bacterial diet helped prevent the build-up of toxic protein clumps inside cells — a process linked to diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and age-related muscle disorders.

“These molecules prevent the formation of harmful protein aggregates that are typically linked with aging and disease,” said study leader Professor Anne Spang.

As organisms get older, their ability to clean up damaged proteins declines, leading to clumps that can interfere with normal cell function. But in this study, the dietary RNA molecules appeared to kickstart a gentle, system-wide stress response that activated the worms’ internal clean-up system — a process called autophagy.

“This low-level stress essentially trains the body to cope with protein damage more effectively,” said Emmanouil Kyriakakis, the study’s first author.

The effect wasn’t just local to the digestive system. “We observed protective effects not only locally, but also in muscles and throughout the whole organism,” Kyriakakis said.

In short: the nutrients helped the worms clean up cellular waste more efficiently — which kept them healthier and more active in old age.

The broader goal of the research is tied to a growing focus in medicine and aging science: not just how long we live, but how well we live. Known as healthspan, this concept refers to the number of years spent in good health, free of serious disease or disability.

“Specific food components can stimulate the body’s own protective mechanisms,” Spang said. “So, a little stress can be good for you.”

Whether the same mechanisms apply to humans remains to be seen. But the study adds to a growing body of evidence that what we eat doesn’t just affect how we feel — it could also play a role in how we age.

For now, the takeaway is clear: diet matters, and some nutrients may do more than nourish — they may actually help the body protect itself from aging, one cell at a time.

New Study Reveals That A Little Stress Could Be The Secret To Healthy Aging

People

When a thunderstorm rolled through San Antonio in early June, it frightened Sandy, a 12-year-old blind dog, into fleeing her home. What followed was a frantic, month-long search — and a reunion made possible by a new kind of tool: artificial intelligence.

Sandy’s owner, Juliette Gonzalez, was devastated. “I was very worried and so scared for her, especially because she is blind and a senior,” she told PEOPLE. “I was scared to death.”

After weeks of searching her neighborhood and local shelters with no sign of Sandy, Gonzalez turned to Love Lost, a free national database that uses AI to match photos of missing pets with those recently brought into shelters or posted online.

Love Lost works by scanning submitted images of lost pets and comparing them to thousands of intake photos from shelters across the country. It also pulls from community platforms like Nextdoor and Ring to increase the odds of finding a match.

Gonzalez uploaded Sandy’s photo and waited.

On July 4 — more than a month after Sandy disappeared — Love Lost alerted Gonzalez to a possible match. She clicked the notification and immediately recognized her beloved dog, thinner but unmistakably Sandy, in a photo from the Footbridge Foundation shelter.

“I was so excited, and my heart was racing,” Gonzalez said.

She contacted the shelter and confirmed the match. Staff at the Footbridge Foundation were thrilled to facilitate the reunion after Sandy’s 33-day disappearance. “She was so very happy,” Gonzalez said of Sandy. “Her tail was wagging so much. Sandy is very happy to be back home with our family and playing in her yard with her brother.”

Sandy’s story is one of more than 140,000 pet reunions made possible by Love Lost, which is part of Petco Love, a national nonprofit focused on animal welfare.

"One major obstacle to reuniting lost pets with their families is the sheer number of places where people can choose to post lost and found pets online," said Abbie Moore, chief operating officer of Petco Love. “If I lose my pet and post somewhere, and you find my pet and post somewhere else, we are not going to connect. That’s a missed opportunity.”

Love Lost is designed to bridge that gap. Regardless of where a pet is posted — whether it’s on a shelter site or a neighborhood app — it feeds into Love Lost’s centralized system, where AI compares photos to find potential matches.

"It's pretty revolutionary," Moore said. "For every lost pet there's a heartbroken human feeling absolutely frantic with worry. Pets make our families whole. Love Lost keeps families together."

Later this year, the platform is launching a new tool called “Search Party” to make it even easier for pet owners to organize help. The feature will allow users to quickly print flyers, coordinate volunteer searches, and manage social media outreach.

“When a pet goes missing, almost every pet parent has help from the community to find their pet, but 75% of them find it difficult to manage and organize help,” said Aaron Klein, head of product at Petco Love. “Search Party can reduce the mental and emotional burden on pet parents by offering structured ways to ask for help.”

With more families like Gonzalez’s now relying on AI to bring lost pets home, Love Lost is showing how technology can lend a hand — or a paw — when it matters most.

AI Technology Locates Blind Dog 33 Days After Thunderstorm Disappearance

Fox News

A team of researchers in Germany may have just cracked one of the biggest problems in infrastructure: how to fix roads before they fall apart.

At the Fraunhofer Institute, engineers have developed a new kind of “smart” fabric embedded with ultra-thin sensors and powered by artificial intelligence. Once laid beneath a road, the material constantly monitors what's happening below the surface — long before cracks and potholes appear.

It could mean fewer construction zones, longer-lasting roads, and far less wasted money.

Right now, most road maintenance is reactive. Cities and transportation agencies wait until visible damage appears, then scramble to resurface or patch affected areas. But by the time damage shows up at the surface, deeper layers may already be compromised.

Fraunhofer’s innovation aims to catch those problems early. The fabric, made from flax fibers interwoven with conductive threads, can detect minute structural changes as vehicles pass overhead. Each time a car drives over the road, the embedded wires register subtle changes in resistance, which can indicate stress, deformation, or micro-cracks developing in the base layer.

The data doesn’t just sit there. A roadside unit transmits it to an AI system, which analyzes the information in real time. That system can not only detect where damage is forming, but also predict how and where it’s likely to spread.

The researchers say the system, part of a project called SenAD2, is already being tested in an industrial area in Germany. So far, results are promising — the smart fabric has flagged internal road damage without disrupting traffic or requiring destructive testing methods like core sampling.

This could be a game-changer.

Drilling into pavement is expensive, invasive, and limited to small sample areas. Fraunhofer’s system offers continuous, wide-area monitoring instead. Engineers can pull up a web-based dashboard and get a live view of the road’s health — and make decisions based on actual data, not educated guesses.

Beyond the tech, the implications are big. Smarter road monitoring could extend the life of roadways, reduce emergency repairs, and help governments prioritize maintenance budgets years in advance. Instead of reacting to crumbling roads, cities could get ahead of the problem.

For drivers, it could mean smoother commutes and fewer delays from sudden construction. For cities and towns, it means better infrastructure management, fewer surprise costs, and less frustration from residents.

And while no system will make roads indestructible, this one could make them a lot more predictable — and a lot less expensive to maintain.

The smart road fabric is still in the pilot phase, but if adopted widely, it could signal a major shift in how cities around the world think about infrastructure: from reactive to proactive, from patchwork to precision.

Whether drivers ever realize it or not, the future of roadwork might just be happening quietly, right under their wheels.

Researchers Develop AI Fabric That Predicts Road Damage Before It Happens

Talker News

Scotland’s last traditional shoemaker’s shop, left untouched for more than half a century, is set to be brought back to life.

The Souter’s Shop in Birse, Aberdeenshire, has received $74,500 in funding from Historic Environment Scotland to repair and restore the historic building — a rare, time-capsule glimpse into rural craftsmanship before the era of mass production.

Originally opened in 1897, the shop was run by local shoemaker James Merchant and his son until it closed in the 1940s. Then it simply sat, doors shut and tools untouched, with its ledgers, fittings, and workbenches left just as they were. When it was rediscovered in 1999, everything was still in place, frozen in time.

Now owned by the Birse Community Trust, the Souter’s Shop will be repaired and opened to visitors, both on site and through a virtual exhibition online. Work is scheduled to begin in spring 2026.

Repairs will focus on the roof, timber, chimney, and original glazing. But what sets this restoration apart is the commitment to using traditional skills and techniques — just like those employed when the shop was first built. The project will also include training opportunities to keep those skills alive.

Dr. Susan O’Connor, Head of Grants at Historic Environment Scotland (HES), called the site “a fascinating building with an important story to tell.”

“We are excited to support the Trust’s efforts to unlock this story with the community and the wider public,” she said. “Our historic environment is one of Scotland’s greatest assets, but it needs care, investment and collaboration to thrive.”

The funding comes from HES’s Historic Environments Grants Program, which helps preserve buildings of national importance while encouraging public engagement.

Listed as a category A building since 2000, the Souter’s Shop is considered nationally significant and is the only known example of its kind still in existence in Scotland. Remarkably, even the business ledgers have survived, providing insight into the economic and social role of the local souter — the Scots word for shoemaker — in the community.

Toni Watt, Manager at Birse Community Trust, said the restoration is about more than saving a building.

“BCT are absolutely delighted to receive such generous funding from Historic Environment Scotland,” Watt said. “This grant together with support from other funders and from many individuals, means that we are able to start work to save the Souter’s Workshop and Shop.”

“It is such a special place. To enter the Souter’s feels like you are stepping back in time. It is a window into a now-disappeared way of life, showcasing the life of a souter and his role in rural society.”

She added that the stories of souters still resonate for many people.

“At one time every settlement would have had a souter; our visitors tell us about grandparents who were souters, but in a few more generations this tradition will be lost from memory,” she said. “History, oral history and saving the rural architecture where this history takes place matter so much.”

Volunteers are now being trained to carefully pack and conserve the collection of tools and artifacts inside the shop in preparation for the building work.

When it reopens, the shop will serve not only as a museum of shoemaking but as a record of a once-common trade that helped stitch rural communities together — one sole at a time.

Restoration Begins On Shoemaker’s Shop Left Untouched For 60 Years

A Chicago couple’s trip to the delivery room turned into a moment they’ll never forget — and not just because of their newborn son.

Challis Bell, 28, had just welcomed her first child with her partner Denzel Kimbrough, 30, on Friday, Oct. 10, when she was hit with another life-changing surprise. As a nurse brought over their newborn son, Ace, dressed in a custom onesie, Bell noticed something printed across the front.

It read: “Mommy, will you marry Daddy?”

“I looked over and he was on one knee,” Bell told Fox 32 Chicago. “I was shocked.”

A video of the surprise proposal, shared with the outlet, shows the moment Bell realizes what’s happening. At first, she looks puzzled as she reads the onesie, asking out loud, “What? What does that say?” Seconds later, Kimbrough, dressed in a gray suit and holding a ring box, steps forward and kneels beside her hospital bed.

Bell appears stunned, speechless, before finally saying, “Oh my god! Yes.”

As laughter and cheers echo around the hospital room, Kimbrough slides the ring onto her finger. Bell, still dazed, examines the ring in disbelief and says, “What the heck?” A nurse then hands baby Ace back into her arms.

The couple says the proposal came after years of reconnecting. Bell and Kimbrough first met over a decade ago while attending the same high school on Chicago’s South Side. They lost touch after his family moved away, but mutual friends brought them back into each other’s lives three years ago.

“Since she came back into my life, I knew I wanted to marry her,” Kimbrough said.

He worked with the staff at Advocate Christ Medical Center to orchestrate the proposal, including arranging the onesie and timing the moment just right.

Now back home with their newborn, Bell and Kimbrough say they’re grateful to the hospital for both the care they received and the help pulling off the surprise. With baby Ace in their arms and a ring on her finger, the newly engaged couple say they’re looking forward to planning their wedding — and soaking in this unforgettable start to parenthood.

Chicago Mother Receives Surprise Proposal in Delivery Room — With Newborn's Help

Diane Keaton may be best known for her iconic roles in Annie Hall and The Godfather, but for the Helen Woodward Animal Center in California, she was something even bigger — a tireless advocate for animals.

On Tuesday, Oct. 14, the Center paid tribute to Keaton’s lifelong commitment to animal welfare, just days after she died at age 79 on Saturday, Oct. 11. In a statement, the organization described her as “the real deal,” someone whose actions matched her words across more than two decades of service.

Keaton first partnered with the Center in 2001 as a celebrity spokesperson. By 2005, she had joined the Board of Directors and was given the Helen Woodward Animal Center’s Humane Award. From there, her involvement only deepened.

“She created numerous promos for the Center and Center programs, such as the international campaign Remember Me Thursday®,” the tribute read. “Keaton continually donated her personal time, dedicating herself to a lunch with the highest bidder at Center Galas, and making numerous appearances at Helen Woodward Animal Center’s Telethons, even answering phones and matching bids with callers.”

She also used her film press tours to promote pet adoption and regularly used her platform to spotlight the needs of rescue animals.

Her work didn’t stop at events or speeches. Keaton was instrumental in supporting legislation such as the Big Cat Public Safety Act, which banned the private ownership of wildcats in the United States. She also backed stronger protections for animals working in entertainment and pushed for improved welfare laws for wildlife and farm animals.

Helen Woodward recalled one story in particular: Keaton once rescued a dog she found on a California freeway and brought it directly to the Center. After receiving medical care and training, the dog was adopted into a loving home.

“It’s impossible to count the number of lives that Diane has saved,” said Mike Arms, President and CEO of the Helen Woodward Animal Center. “She was the real deal. The many years she committed to improving the lives of animals and encouraging families to adopt their pets from animal shelters have certainly had an overwhelming impact on untold numbers of animals around the world. She was a dear friend to the Center and to animals everywhere. She will be greatly missed.”

Keaton lived her values — advocating for adoption, living a vegetarian lifestyle, and showing up when it mattered most.

Her final Instagram post on April 11 marked National Pet Day. The image showed Keaton alongside her golden retriever, Reggie, in collaboration with the home and lifestyle brand Hudson Grace. “Proof our pets have great taste too! Happy National Pet Day from HG & @diane_keaton 🖤🐾” the caption read.

For those who worked alongside her in animal advocacy, Keaton leaves behind more than a legacy. She leaves behind thousands of pets now safe and loved — and a reminder of what it means to put compassion into action.

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