Goodable

In a moving full-circle moment, Carrie Underwood reunited with Make-A-Wish alum Noel Miller, whom she first met in 2008 when Miller, then 12 and battling a heart condition, got her wish to meet the country star.

Now 28 and a dedicated WishMaker herself, Miller joined Underwood onstage during the finale of her Las Vegas residency to perform the chart-topping hit All-American Girl.

“That was so awesome, to be able to reunite with my idol, so great!” Miller said.

Underwood presented a donation to Make-A-Wish America of more than $200,000, representing $1 from every ticket sold in the residency.

April is World Wish Month and 2025 is the 45th anniversary of Make-A-Wish, the organization told Storyful.

In a moving full-circle moment, Carrie Underwood reunited with Make-A-Wish alum Noel Miller, whom she first met in 2008 when Miller, then 12 and battling a heart condition, got her wish to meet the country star. Now 28 and a dedicated WishMaker herself, Miller joined Underwood onstage during the finale of her Las Vegas residency to perform the chart-topping hit All-American Girl. “That was so awesome, to be able to reunite with my idol, so great!” Miller said. Underwood presented a donation to Make-A-Wish America of more than $200,000, representing $1 from every ticket sold in the residency. April is World Wish Month and 2025 is the 45th anniversary of Make-A-Wish, the organization told Storyful.

Carrie Underwood Just Had an Epic Reunion With a Make-A-Wish Alum

CTV News

In Quebec, a nine-year-old girl is making waves in the competitive world of ninja sports. Justine B. Simard has become a sensation at the World Ninja League Championships, where she recently secured an impressive 11 medals and two trophies in North Carolina. Her journey began by watching Ninja Warriors on television with her family, which led to a visit to a ninja center, thanks to her grandparents.

Annie St-Pierre, Justine's mother, recalls the moment they realized her potential. "The owner of the gym said, ‘Wow, she’s very good,’" she shared. This prompted the family to enroll her in classes, and soon enough, Justine was competing at high levels.

Despite her success, Justine remains modest about her achievements. "I’m not the best; I could improve, and then sometimes I’m really great," she said. Her parents are proud of their daughter's accomplishments but admit they're unsure where she inherited such talent.

Justine's trainer, Mathieu St-Ours, believes her focus and strength set her apart from others in the sport. "She’s very strong for this type of ninja, where she can focus only on what she has to do," he explained. According to him, she's even more impressive than some teenagers training at his facility.

Next on Justine's agenda is a competition in Barbados next month. Her mother emphasizes that, beyond winning medals and trophies, the sport is about enjoyment and staying active. Annie St-Pierre also hopes that Justine's participation encourages other girls to pursue similar interests confidently.

Justine herself dreams of one day competing on the Ninja Warrior TV show, the very program that sparked her interest in this unique sport. "I would really like that," she expressed enthusiastically.

This 9-year-old girl is dominating the Ninja Warrior World

Science Daily

Watching nature scenes in virtual reality eased pain symptoms in a new study, with the effect nearly doubling compared to regular 2D video.

The research, led by the University of Exeter and published in Pain, looked at how immersive 360-degree VR experiences influence the brain’s response to pain. Long-term or chronic pain, which lasts more than three months, is often hard to treat.

“We’ve seen a growing body of evidence show that exposure to nature can help reduce short-term, everyday pain, but there has been less research into how this might work for people living with chronic or longer-term pain,” said Dr. Sam Hughes, senior lecturer in pain neuroscience at Exeter. “Our study is the first to look at the effect of prolonged exposure to a virtual reality nature scene on symptoms seen during long term pain sensitivity.”

The team tested 29 healthy volunteers by inducing mild pain on their forearms with electric shocks. On one visit, they were shown no scenes, allowing researchers to track how pain sensitivity developed naturally. On another visit, the same people watched a 45-minute immersive VR film of Oregon waterfalls, and on a third, they viewed the same footage on a flat 2D screen.

The results were clear: VR immersion significantly reduced pain sensitivity, an effect that lasted even after the experience ended. Participants reported less pain from sharp, pricking sensations, and the relief lasted at least five minutes after the headset came off.

Brain scans at the Mireille Gillings Neuroimaging Centre showed why. The immersive VR scenes strengthened connectivity between brain regions involved in controlling pain. Those who reported feeling “present” in the virtual environment — as if they were really there — experienced the greatest pain reduction.

“We think VR has a particularly strong effect on reducing the experience of pain because it’s so immersive,” said co-author Dr. Sonia Medina. “It really created that feeling of being present in nature – and we found the pain-reducing effect was greatest in people for whom that perception was strongest.”

The researchers say the results could open new approaches for managing pain in settings like hospitals and care homes, especially for patients who cannot easily spend time outdoors.

Virtual Reality Is Revolutionizing Pain Relief—No Pills Required

Researchers at the University of Michigan have mapped, for the first time, the complete pathway that allows the skin to tell the brain when something feels cool.

The study, published in Nature Communications, shows that cool temperatures — between about 15 and 25 degrees Celsius — have their own dedicated neural circuit, separate from the one for heat. This helps the brain react more precisely to environmental changes.

“The skin is the body’s largest organ. It helps us detect our environment and separate, distinguish different stimuli,” said Bo Duan, senior author of the study and an associate professor of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology. “We now have one pathway for how it senses cool temperatures. This is the first neural circuit for temperature sensation in which the full pathway from the skin to the brain has been clearly identified.”

The pathway works like this: sensors in the skin detect mild cool temperatures and excite primary sensory neurons. These neurons send the signal to the spinal cord, where specialized interneurons act as amplifiers. Those interneurons then activate projection neurons that pass the signal on to the brain. Without this amplifier step, the signal gets lost.

While researchers had previously identified the skin’s molecular “thermometers” — a discovery that contributed to the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine — this amplifier role in the spinal cord had not been known before.

Duan said the discovery has medical implications. More than 70 percent of people who undergo chemotherapy experience cold-induced pain. The new study found that this newly mapped pathway does not mediate that type of pain, meaning scientists can now better distinguish normal cool sensation from cold pain, a step that could guide therapies that reduce pain without affecting temperature perception.

The work, led by postdoctoral researcher Hankyu Lee with doctoral students Chia Chun Hor and Lorraine Horwitz, used advanced imaging and electrophysiology in mice. Genetic data suggest humans have the same pathway.

Duan said the next step is to find the circuits responsible for painful cold sensations, which he expects will involve multiple pathways.

This discovery also sheds light on how the brain links emotions to temperature sensations — why a cool breeze feels refreshing in summer but harsh in a Michigan winter.

Scientists Just Discovered Why Chilly Temperatures Actually Feel Refreshing

Sunny Skyz

After record floods tore through central Texas this summer, a 54-year-old grandmother from Boerne has been quietly leading one of the most unusual recovery efforts. Not with bulldozers or rescue gear, but with a Facebook group.

When the Guadalupe River surged out of its banks, homes and belongings were swept away. Dondi Persyn, who lives nearby, watched the aftermath and felt pulled to help. Her own home was safe, but her neighbors’ lives were scattered.

She started small, picking up items along the riverbank while waiting for search crews. Then she launched a Facebook group, “FOUND on the Guadalupe River,” to post photos of what she collected. Within days, the page had grown to more than 20,000 members, all working to reunite flood survivors with the things they lost.

Posts began flooding in: children’s shoes, life jackets, jewelry, even a totem pole with its feathers intact. A teacher spotted her missing necklace. Another woman got back clothes and jewelry. Dondi helped track down a dental retainer. Two weeks after the storm, the group even helped reunite a cat named Samson with its family.

“I had this feeling that if it were my family, or my children or my grandchildren, I’d probably want something,” Dondi said.

She now leads a loose network of volunteers who collect, wash, and organize the things they find. Everything gets labeled, sorted, and handled carefully. “We’re treating everything like it’s the most important thing,” she said. “We don’t know if that’s someone’s last remnant of a loved one.”

Dondi isn’t a first responder. She used to run a vintage store and now works as a perfumer. But her instincts for care and connection have turned into something larger. “It’s really fated,” she said. “We have to teach other communities to do what we did.”

What started as one woman’s act of kindness has grown into a community-wide effort that is putting lives back together, one found item at a time.

Meet The Texas Grandma Reuniting Flood Survivors With Their Precious Memories

Scientific American

Just watching someone appear sick in virtual reality was enough to trigger the body’s immune defenses, a new study has found.

Researchers in Switzerland outfitted healthy volunteers with VR headsets and showed them human avatars displaying symptoms like rashes and coughing. As the avatars walked closer, participants’ brains reacted as if they were facing an actual infection. The study was published July 28 in Nature Neuroscience.

“We found that the brain activates front-line immune cells in response to the mere sight of a sick person,” said study co-author Andrea Serino, a neuroscientist at the University Hospital of Lausanne. “It shows the power of the brain to predict what is going on and to select the proper response.”

Using brain scans and blood tests, the team discovered a chain reaction. First, brain regions that monitor personal space lit up. Then, the brain’s salience network — which processes important or threatening events — activated. That led to an increase in innate lymphoid cells, a type of immune cell that acts as a first responder to infections.

The same immune cell boost was seen in a separate group of participants who received an influenza vaccine, showing that just the sight of infection can create a reaction similar to an actual pathogen.

For the experiment, researchers used Oculus Rift headsets, avoiding the need to expose volunteers to real diseases. Control avatars appeared healthy and did not produce the same effect.

Isaac Chiu, an immunologist at Harvard Medical School who was not involved in the research, called the results “a really interesting example of teamwork between two of the most complex systems of the body.” He added, “They coordinate responses with each other because both systems interface with the environment and establish protection against potential dangers like pathogens.”

The authors say the findings could one day be used to improve vaccines. VR exposure to infectious-looking avatars might help prime the immune system to respond more strongly when an actual vaccine is administered.

Virtual Reality Reveals How Our Brains Fight Off Illness at First Sight

Africa News

Ethiopia set out to plant 700 million trees in a single day on Thursday, part of an ambitious plan by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to green one of the most drought-prone countries in the world.

The tree-planting push is a centerpiece of Abiy’s Green Legacy program, which aims to plant 50 billion trees by 2026. Since the project began in 2019, government officials say 40 billion have already gone into the ground.

By dawn, city streets, fields, and hillsides were filled with people digging and planting. Tesfahun Gobezay, a government spokesman, said that by 6 a.m. alone, 14.9 million Ethiopians had already planted 355 million seedlings. These figures have not been independently verified.

Abiy announced the campaign early on social media. “We have launched the annual Green Legacy planting campaign early this morning,” he posted. “Our goal this year is 700 million seedlings. Let's achieve it together.”

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning prime minister planted trees himself in Jimma, while members of his cabinet spread out across the country to join local planting drives. Public offices were closed for the day so that civil servants could take part.

In Addis Ababa, the planting took on a community feel. At one site, 72-year-old Almaz Tadu worked beside her grandchildren. “It’s an environmental mission and a community gathering,” she said. Thirteen-year-old Nathenael Behailu placed his third sapling into the soil, saying, “I want to see a green environment for my country.” Another participant, Ayanaw Asrat, said he had already planted 15 trees before mid-morning.

Abiy has framed the campaign as a unifying effort in a country dealing with the aftermath of conflict in Tigray and unrest in the Amhara region. The initiative has drawn international attention as a potential model for other nations confronting deforestation and climate change.

Whether the trees planted this week will survive and grow is uncertain. But for now, the sight of schoolchildren and grandparents planting side by side has offered Ethiopia a day of optimism — and a vision of a greener future.

Ethiopia Aims for World Record: 700 Million Trees Planted in a Day

BBC News

Margo the whippet has become a standout in the canine surfing scene. She clinched the UK Dog Surfing Champion of the Year title with her owner, Carl Barnes, at an annual event held by Shaka Surf in Poole, Dorset. The competition took place on Sunday at Branksome Dene Chine Beach and drew more than 30 dogs and their human companions.

Barnes and Margo dominated the "Dog Masters" segment of the event. The pair managed to paddle ahead of the competition on their board, securing first place. This was no small feat, as the event is likened to the Board Master surfing festival but tailored for four-legged surfers.

Shaka Surf has organized this fun-filled contest for five years now. The event also featured several Guinness World Record attempts. Participants aimed for records like most dogs surfing a single wave, fastest dog-human 50-meter paddleboard sprint completed in 32 seconds, and fastest solo 50-meter paddleboard sprint.

Barnes initially entered the race casually, motivated by Margo's love for water activities. "I've developed a relationship with Margo where trust is involved and a lot of love," Barnes explained. His bond with Margo runs deep; she gets visibly upset if he paddles without her. "If I go out on one of our paddleboards without Margo, she will cry and cry and cry at the gate until I return," said Barnes.

After their victory, Barnes described seeing their faces pop up on social media as surreal. However, he is already looking forward to next year's showdown. "I entered for fun, but there's a little bit of competitiveness in me," he admitted. "When I realized I was in with a chance, I dug deep and bought the win home for all of us."

Adorable Canines Make Waves: Inside the Annual Paddleboard Pup Surfing Competition

At the Ontario SPCA in Midland, a routine intake of a stray cat turned into a joyful reunion after staff discovered the animal had been missing for more than a year.

“A Good Samaritan brought a stray cat into our animal centre. When we scanned him, we discovered it was Fraser — a beloved cat who had been missing for over a year,” the Ontario SPCA team posted on social media.

The grey cat was identified immediately thanks to a microchip. Staff contacted his family, who had spent over 12 months wondering what had happened to him. In June, Fraser finally went home.

“Fraser was heading home to a four-year-old child who had never stopped missing their best friend,” the SPCA post said.

The organization says the reunion is a reminder of how valuable microchips are when pets go missing. “It’s an important step that can make all the difference in bringing lost pets home,” the SPCA team said.

The Ontario SPCA recommends that pet owners not only microchip their animals but also keep their contact information up to date.

Missing Kitty Reunited with Family After year-long Disappearance

Dr. Candace Johnson, a vocal instructor from the University of California, Berkeley, is turning the spotlight on herself to share her personal story with ADHD through a one-woman show called "Scat-ter Brain: The Music of ADHD." Running at The Marsh in Berkeley until mid-September, this production aims to highlight the often-overlooked experience of Black women with ADHD.

Johnson knows firsthand the frustrations that come with feeling different. "I understand what it's like to be at a place where you are wondering, 'What's wrong with me? Why can't I this, why can't I that?' And you just keep hitting a wall," she explained. Her candid performance not only addresses her challenges but also encourages others in marginalized communities to seek support for mental health issues.

The timing of Johnson's show coincides with Minority Mental Health Awareness Month in July. By sharing her experiences, she hopes to empower others who might feel hesitant about seeking help. "I wasn't the best at being organized when I was by myself," she confessed. But despite the difficulties she faced juggling responsibilities and artistic pursuits, Johnson wants people to know that progress is possible. She emphasizes the importance of introspection and getting assessed to understand oneself better.

Research supports Johnson's message. A 2022 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that Black women are less likely than white women to be diagnosed with ADHD, even when they show similar symptoms. This gap underscores the need for greater awareness and understanding within these communities.

Stephanie Weisman, founder and director at The Marsh, appreciates what Johnson brings to their stage. "We give people the opportunity to use our resources and our space...important issues for people to hear about," Weisman said. Through music and storytelling, Johnson wants her audience to connect personally with her narrative. "I want them to see their family, their friends," she said.

The show serves as an invitation for audiences to rethink mental health perceptions and consider how it affects those around them. For Dr. Candace Johnson, it's all about embracing one's truth through every note sung.

This Groundbreaking Play Sheds Light on ADHD Experiences of Women of Color

Smithsonian Magazine

In 1962, while serving in Nepal with the Peace Corps, Dan Pelzer started keeping a handwritten list of every book he read. Goodreads didn’t exist, so he used a notebook. By the time his eyesight failed in 2023, Pelzer had logged 3,599 titles.

Pelzer died on July 1 at 92, but his reading record is now public at what-dan-read.com, a website created by his daughter, Marci, with help from her godson. It was originally built for his funeral, where guests could scan a QR code to see the list. After Marci shared it on LinkedIn as her family’s “most precious inheritance,” it began circulating more widely. When the Columbus Metropolitan Library posted his story on Facebook on July 21, the site went viral.

“I just keep thinking about how crazy it is that we’ve spread the list to so many people,” Marci told WBNS-TV. She wrote to the library that “nobody loved the library more than Dan,” recalling weekly Saturday trips with her dad. His obituary even asked people to honor him by reading “a real page turner” instead of sending flowers.

The library branch Pelzer visited most often has set up a display of books he read, including Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century and Garth Stein’s The Art of Racing in the Rain.

The list doesn’t include books he read before 1962 or the Bible, which he read about a dozen times, according to his son John. It does show patterns in his reading life: books on teenage mental health from the 1980s, likely linked to his work as a social worker at a juvenile correctional facility, as well as politics, religion, memoirs, and plenty of fiction. His final book was Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, following Gabrielle Zevin’s 2022 novel Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow.

“We know he was sometimes reading at work,” Marci told CBC Radio. “But he also read on the bus and everywhere he went. He always had a book open, a book in his hand. And it stimulated great conversations with all kinds of people.”

Pelzer averaged around 80 books a year, earning local press in 2006 when the Columbus Dispatch interviewed him about his reading habits. He didn’t shy away from tough books, even when he disliked them. After tackling James Joyce’s Ulysses, he called it “the worst… pure torture.” Still, he read it cover to cover, as he did every book he picked up.

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