It was 2009 when Courtney Connolly’s wallet containing $141 in cash, her social security card, and ID was stolen out of her car while she was working a summer internship.
Now, 8 years later, it has somehow returned to its owner fully intact.
Someone gave the wallet to a Boston police officer on Monday, who then located Connolly’s address on a pay stub found inside.
The police officer then brought the wallet to Connolly’s sister-in-law’s house. When she was told about the return of her possessions, she was shocked.
Nothing had been used, touched, or stolen. Even the fortune cookie message that was taped inside reading “Soon you will receive pleasant news” was still there.
The timing is more than ideal for Courtney – since she works as a nursing student, she hasn’t had the money to enter a powerlifting competition that she was passionate about. Coincidentally, the cash that she found in her long lost wallet is the exact amount that she needed to enter the competition.
“Some way or another the universe will come back and say, I see what you’re doing, I know you’re doing well, I know you’re trying to here’s your thank you for trying. I believe whole heartedly what this is,” Connolly told WFXT.
Click To Share The News With Your Friends(Photo by Courtney Connolly)
Julian Rubenfein may only be 15 years old, but his biology experiment was so impressive, it earned a spot on the upcoming cargo launch to space.
Julian, a New York-based student designed and pitched his project to NASA for the 2nd annual Genes in Space Competition.
Out of 200 other submissions from students, Julian’s was voted the most impressive.
Julian’s proposal involved exploring how astronauts age while they are in space. The experiment performs this by measuring length of telomeres, the caps that protect the DNA in your chromosomes and shorten with age. If the student’s proposal is correct, astronauts will have shorter telomeres than Earth-bound people, implying that they age faster while in space.
The experiment was scheduled to travel to the International Space Station on March 24th as part of a cargo resupply mission, however the flight has been delayed until a later date within the coming weeks.
“Before I applied to the competition, I didn’t even know that the ISS had a functional laboratory, much less that biological experiments were being performed there,” Julian told the Good News Network. “Competitions like Genes in Space open students’ eyes to the vast amount of cutting-edge research that is performed in outer space.”
“It’s incredible that I’m able to do something like this as a high school student. The Genes in Space competition made me realize that high school students can contribute to mainstream science in legitimate and meaningful ways.”
If you’re a seasoned wine drinker, you know the horror of accidentally staining lighter fabrics with those pesky drips running down the bottle.
But now, thanks to a physicist at Brandeis University, we may never have to undergo that stressful situation ever again.
Daniel Perlman, an inventor and biophysicist, has spent the last three years trying to develop a drip-free wine bottle. Though there are already patented devices that you can attach to the wine bottle to prevent drips, Perlman viewed them as unnecessary steps to an easy-to-solve problem.
By watching slow-motion videos of wine being poured, Perlman noticed that the liquid tended to stick to the bottle’s neck because the glass is hydrophilic. He then figured out that by cutting a groove in the wine bottle’s lip, it prevented the liquid from dribbling down the neck.
According to officials at the university, the wine bottle design hasn’t changed much in the 200 years since it was invented, making Perlman’s invention revolutionary indeed.
Perlman is currently in negotiations with bottling companies for the adoption of the design, bringing an end to the centuries-old problem of drips.
Despite restaurants and businesses being ordered to evacuate the exclusion zone during Wednesday’s terror attack in London, this man insisted on staying open and feeding 500 police officers and emergency personnel while they worked.
Ibrahim Dogus, a Muslim-born man who owns three Kurdish restaurants in the Westminster area, was ordered to shut down his locations as a part of the evacuation. After closing two of his businesses, he informed law enforcement that he wanted to keep the third restaurant open as a place where emergency workers could eat and keep warm.
Though many police officers tried to pay Ibrahim for their meals, he insisted that they eat for free.
Ibrahim guesses they they fed anywhere from 300 to 500 members of the London Ambulance Service and the London Fire Brigade until the restaurant closed at 11:30PM.
Since Wednesday’s attacks involved a 52-year-old man driving into pedestrians on the Westminster bridge with his car, Ibrahim was shaken by their proximity to the event.
“We wanted to play our role in terms of supporting the emergency crew,” Ibrahim told the Independent. “This was happening right at our doorstep. If you walk two seconds on my doorstep I would be on the bridge. I use the bridge to take my kids to school, not on that day, but I live next to the area, I work next to the area.”
“It’s so terrible, but London has pulled together very quickly. The first day after business was quiet, but now it’s back to normal.”
Even though the Ninth Ward of New Orleans has never fully recovered from the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, this man has created a lush oasis of free food and sustainability right in the heart of the community.
David Young founded a volunteer-run organization, Capstone Community Gardens, to support low income city residents, as well as honeybees that are in need of a safe, environmentally-friendly home.
He started the gardening initiative after Katrina destroyed much of the district’s infrastructure. The gardens, erected in more than 30 abandoned lots, grow everything from swiss chard, to brussel sprouts, mustard greens, kale, cucumbers, and tomatoes – all totally accessible to the community for free.
“There are no good grocery stores around this area,” 39-year-old Capstone volunteer Amy Kraus told Good News Network. “The Lower Ninth Ward is the area that was devastated the most – the worst of the worst.”
Although there is a food pantry that opens once each month to the public, it usually doesn’t provide the sustenance needed to feed all the district’s poorer residents.
“If you’re low-income, if you don’t have any money, if you have no way to support yourself, that is not enough to live off of. They give a small amount of food for the entire month,” said Kraus. “So David has made sure that these gardens are all over the community and people can go harvest them at any time, if they feel the need for the food – which I think is a wonderful thing.”
In addition to being an important food supply to New Orleans, the gardens also play host to rescued honeybees.
Due to the dilapidated condition of many buildings here, homes often become infested with bees and homeowners need a solution. Instead of calling an exterminator to destroy the beneficial insects, they can now call David.
Using a low-suction vacuum, the urban farmer sucks up all of the bees, and transports them and their hives to the gardens. There, they can live freely among wildflowers and clover — and give back to their rescuer by pollinating his flowers and vegetables.
Capstone is also home to a group of goats who earn their keep by “mowing” the weeds in unkempt local lots that were abandoned or in disrepair. This gives nourishment to the goats as well as keeping the community tidy without consuming fossil fuels via lawn mowers.
The goats also share a hutch with a flock of happy chickens who create a steady supply of eggs that provide an important protein source for poor families.
“We’ll take the eggs that we collect from the chickens and we’ll take them to people – who, you know, either can’t get out of their house to get food for themselves, or they don’t have enough money,” added Kraus. “Just yesterday we delivered food bags with eggs, cabbage, spinach, and greens to those who needed it.”
“I call David the Santa Claus of Food, cause he seriously looks like Santa Claus,” Kraus says with a laugh.
But unlike Santa Claus, David doesn’t just work one day of generosity – he’s ready to help the community all year round.
“If we all did our part, if we all did what we could for our community, to help one another, to help the environment as much as we could, could you imagine how peaceful – how wonderful life would be?”
If you’d like to find out more about Capstone or look into volunteering of donating, check out the garden’s Facebook page or website.
This horse may be elderly, but, after being swept away by raging floodwaters, she somehow managed to return to her home nearly 2 weeks later–in almost perfect health.
The 20-year-old thoroughbred mare named Voice was a victim of the floods that struck the North Island of Auckland, New Zealand in early March. Though her owners searched everywhere for their beloved equine family member, she was nowhere to be found.
Then, 13 days after the incident, Voice returned to her owners as if nothing had happened. Apart from a few scratches and being a tad malnourished, Voice was virtually unscathed.
“Where she came from, I have no idea, because we’ve scoured every part of that river over and over again,” Voice’s owner Liz Currie told the New Zealand Herald. “She’s obviously been stuck on a bank somewhere because she was a real mess. I’ve given her a bath to try and get some of the mud and that off her, but it’s all river sand.”
Though the affair is puzzling, Liz is thrilled that Voice is safe—and healthy as a horse.
Don’t Horse Around: Click To Share With Your Friends(Photo by Liz Currie)
Loss of biodiversity is a major challenge in today’s world, as is the quest for peace in the Middle East. But these scientists believe the efforts to conserve natural resources present opportunities to find common ground between former foes, building trust and renewed hope for peace.
“Nature can build bridges between nations,” said Alexandre Roulin of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. “We use nature conservation to favor communication between communities in conflict. Although we’ve developed efforts in the Middle East, including Israel, Jordan, and the Palestine Authority, we hope that our work will become a platform to stimulate similar initiatives around the world.”
Roulin says it all started about 35 years ago when co-author Yossi Leshem from Israel’s Tel-Aviv University noticed that Israeli farmers were using poison to kill rodents. The trouble was that the rodents’ natural bird predators were also dying from poisoning. It took years, but they ultimately convinced farmers and the Israeli government to eliminate the use of the pesticides and begin building nest boxes to help propagate barn owls and kestrels instead.
The effort helped to protect wildlife without any increase in crop loss. That’s because each pair of owls can produce 11 offspring in a year. Those owls, in turn, consume thousands of rodents per year.
But there was more. The scientists began to realize that farmers in Jordan and the Palestinian Authority faced similar challenges, which needed to be addressed on a regional scale. They also began to realize that the project could unite Jordanians, Israelis, and Palestinians in a common cause, despite their religious and political differences. Roulin recounts many examples in which people who engaged in the project over the years have laughed and joked together, visited each other’s places of worship, and become friends.
Roulin says it’s best to start small. By documenting small-scale successes, you can begin to identify committed partners in other places. Ultimately, programs such as their “Birds know no boundaries” effort can be expanded to reach a national and international scale.
“The combination of nature conservation and peace-building is not only important, but it also brings a new message of hope that our society is looking for,” Roulin said. “We hope to persuade the international community to consider such projects as diplomatic tools to pave the road to peace.”
Their continuing project in the Middle East has attracted the interest of officials in the Chinese army. There’s also hope that a similar effort could be a starting point for bringing people from North and South Korea together. With a new educational program in Europe, Roulin aims to encourage connection between refugee children from the Middle East and European youth.
“Unexpected ideas, such as working scientifically with barn owls, can be the source of great inspiration for issues that are far bigger than our scientific questions,” Roulin said.
Click To Share The News With Your Friends (Source: Cell Press – Photo by Hagai Aharon)
This 2-year-old rescue boxer may be young, but he’s still got some pretty impressive parenting skills.
When 9-month-old Graham starts crying, Jeeves the boxer pup starts tickling the baby with his nose to stop the wails.
What ensues is the cutest giggle-fest in history.
Graham’s mother Katie Wahrhaftig employed the same method months earlier and Jeeves might have picked up the idea from witnessing the little boy’s happy reaction.
This passenger plane destined for South Sudan was carrying 44 passengers and 5 crew members when it crashed nearby and caught fire – but miraculously, every single person aboard survived.
The South Supreme plane was in a landing pattern on Sunday in Wau when the craft wavered and the pilot lost control. When it crashed, the door flew open and everyone was able to escape.
While some passengers reportedly suffered injuries, they were quickly taken to the hospital after the successful evacuation.
According to TIME, several UN peacekeepers from China, Bangladesh, and Nepal who were at the airport during the incident, jumped into action in order to help with the evacuation.
(WATCH the video below)
Click To Share This Miraculous Moment With Your Friends
This dapper father-daughter dance isn’t your ordinary formal affair—because it takes place in prison.
As a means of encouraging inmates to turn their lives around, the Richmond City Justice Center of Virginia hosted a dance for their convicted fathers and younger daughters.
The dances also helps the families stay closer and connected while the dads are serving time.
In what is being hailed as the most creative job application of all time, Jake Sirianni landed an internship with Jimmy Fallon’s “Tonight Show” by rapping all the reasons why he was the man for the job.
Jake, who is a communications major at Washington State University, got the idea for the application from an old episode of the talk show in which Daniel Radcliffe raps the “Alphabet Aerobics”.
The student edited his own face over Radcliffe’s and replaced the lyrics with his own.
“Do you need an intern? Cause I’m getting a degree in communication. [If you’re] looking for an intern then I recommend you listen,” raps Jake. “Optimistic, obedient, and a trend setter. Need more information? Please read my cover letter!”
Fallon was so impressed by the youth’s unique approach, he announced on the show that Jake had landed the position.
“That is amazing. Jake. If you’re watching, and you better be watching, the answer is yes,” said Fallon. “Pack your bags, buddy. I’ll see you this summer, baby. I can’t wait to meet you, man. Get ready to work.”
Jake, who has been watching the “Tonight Show” since he was a kid, called it a “dream come true”.
Eleven years ago, Los Angeles based painting company ALLBRiGHT Painting was invited to participate on ABC’s Extreme Home Makeover. ALLBRiGHT founder Josh Abramson, and his capable crew of painters, helped transform the residence of one needy family, turning it into their dream home.
So inspired and uplifted by the project, Josh decided to create his own charity program so he and his team could give back to the community.
In 2005, ALLBRiGHT began their “Paint-It-Forward” program. They encouraged their community to help nominate a local family or small business that was in desperate need of painting services, but unable to afford it. The chosen recipient of the program would be awarded with up to $10,000 in free painting services, courtesy of Abramson and his team of merry painters. The first event was such a success that they decided to do it again the next year—and every year since then.
Struggling families, widowed parents, small businesses, and local charities have since benefitted from nearly $100,000 in services. As the program gained momentum, Josh set his eyes on inspiring a nationwide use of the program. The ALLBRiGHT team began reaching out to painting contractors and media personnel all across the nation, encouraging them to adopt the Paint-It-Forward program or create their own similar idea.
Collectively, this movement has now provided over $1,000,000 worth of charity painting services all across the nation, and is only growing stronger!
What started in a reality TV show has spread into a nationwide movement, transforming the lives of all those involved. The good deed ripple effect applies to all aspects of charity and being a good person: You never know when your positive outlook on life will inspire others to pay it forward.
You can learn more about the Paint-It-Forward program by visiting their website.
Murray the beagle was in sorry shape when he was first admitted to an animal rescue shelter – but now he’s strutting his stuff at his new job with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The pup arrived at the Northeast Georgia Animal Shelter with half of an ear and an injured tail. Though he was extremely nervous and unsocial, he was fostered by the Alcovy Pet Rescue where he was given the love and attention he needed to become more adoptable.
But then his caretakers started to noticed Murray’s uncanny ability to sniff out food. The hound was always getting into cabinets and investigating scents and prying into compartments.
In recognition of his skills, Murray was entered into a training program with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop his abilities.
The pup graduated on March 15th started working at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport customs department to sniff out illegal plants, food, and produce within the airport.
(WATCH the video below)
Click To Share The Pawesome Story With Your Friends (Photo by Alcovy Pet Rescue)
These orphaned baby rhinos may finally be able to recover from losing their parents thanks to the help of these colorful knitted blankets keeping them warm.
The rhinos at the Rhino Revolution sanctuary in South Africa are actually greatly benefited by the blankets, which are knitted by volunteers at Blankets For Baby Rhinos.
The young mammals, many of whom lost their parents to poachers, find comfort in the blankets, as well as warmth during colder weather. They also help to keep wounds from getting dirty or infected.
One of the Blankets For Baby Rhinos volunteers, Angie Goody, drove five hours in order to personally deliver five new shawls to the younger orphan residents.
The rhinos pictured above are already older and well-adjusted, but they apparently couldn’t resist giving the blanket’s material a good sniff.
“The blankets we received will be used for future neonate calves that are admitted,” orphanage veterinarian Natalie Rogers told the Dodo. “It was an absolute delight to receive the blankets and you can rest assured they will be put to very good use with future neonate calves and carers sleeping with these young babies, bringing comfort to both. The love and attention that has gone into each and every blanket we have received is clear to see.”
Click To Share The Sweet News With Your Friends(Photos by Angie Goody)
U.S. Army service member Cadence Davies was stationed overseas in Iraq when she received a heartbreaking message from the Red Cross: her mother had just passed away and was being laid to rest in Rhode Island.
Cadence could only reportedly make it as far as North Carolina, but then she would have to make a 950-mile drive to Rhode Island. Since her family was already struggling with funeral costs, none of them could afford to pay for a gas or a rental car.
Cadence then wrote to Boots For Troops, a nonprofit care package program for soldiers around the world, and explained her situation.
Without hesitating, the program’s members rented a van for Cadence and sent her gas cards for the trip.
“We are so incredibly thankful for BFT for helping us so much… during such a hard time,” says Cadence. “They were also caring and compassionate the entire time we spoke to them; they often checked in on my family during our travels; they genuinely cared about me and my family, and we are so blessed to have found them and received help from them.”
Cadence Davie is the 53rd service member who has received travel assistance since the organization was founded in 2015. The organization aims to continue bringing military families together and proving to U.S. troops that they will always stand behind those who stand in front for them.
Naomi Strain has been dealing with uncontrollable epilepsy for years now.
Since she usually has one to two seizures a week, according to Stuff, Naomi tries to stay indoors so she doesn’t undergo a fit in public.
But that doesn’t stop her from riding her bike now and then.
And that’s exactly what she was doing earlier this week on Tasman’s Great Taste coastal route trail in New Zealand when she felt an epileptic fit coming on.
Naomi had just enough time to lock up her bike when she succumbed to the seizure. When she awoke, however, her backpack containing her medical ID, wallet, and bike helmet was gone.
She returned home and posted a plea to social media asking if anyone knew the whereabouts of her possessions.
A mortified mother reached out to Naomi saying that after interrogating her 13 and 14-year-old sons, they had confessed to nabbing the backpack.
“Apparently the elder brother had dared the younger one [to take it] – they’d both come across me, were sh**t scared, and didn’t know what to do so they just grabbed the bag and ran,” Naomi told Stuff. “I think it was literally a spur of the moment thing, playing silly buggers with no thought into it at all.”
After dropping by the family’s house, the bicyclist’s possessions were returned. The boys’ mother asked what kind of punishment Naomi deemed fit for the crime.
Instead of issuing any heavy consequences, Naomi requested that the brothers pay for her new bank cards and enroll in a first aid course. This way, the next time that the boys would find themselves in a similar situation, they would know what to do.
Appropriate justice for a couple of frightened little boys and their apologetic mother.
(WATCH the video below)
Click To Share The News With Your Friends – Photo by Stuff
This 25-year-old man may not have survived nine days in the Bolivian jungle if it wasn’t for a group of monkeys that were watching over the endangered tourist.
The Madidi National Park in Bolivia is made up of some of the densest jungled terrain in the Amazon. But the park service says that they haven’t experienced a disappearance in over 15 years – that is, until Chilean tourist Maykool Coroseo Acuña went missing.
Maykool was returning from a jungle tour with when he started behaving oddly, according to National Geographic. When the tour guide asked if he would like to participate in a thank you ceremony for Mother Earth Pachamama, he declined and retired to his cabin for rest.
When the tour guide returned to check on Maykool five minutes later, he was nowhere to be found.
Madidi shamans believed that Maykool had been driven mad by evil spirits of the Amazon because he did not give thanks to Pachamama. Forest rangers searched the jungle for six days before they finally found a muddied sock that was confirmed to have belonged to the missing tourist.
Shamans used the sock to call Maykool home and ward off the evil gripping his soul. Three more days later, the Chilean man was found only a half mile away from town. Though he was extremely dehydrated and riddled with mosquito bites and spines, Maykool was mostly unharmed.
The rescued man said that when he was resting at the cabin, he was suddenly driven mad by the urge to dash into the jungle. He cast off his sandals and dropped his flashlight as he plunged deeper into the greenery. When he finally came to his senses, he could not find his way back.
Maykool said that he was only able to survive because he was following a group of monkeys who would lead him to water and shelter. They would also drop fruit from the trees for him to eat.
If it weren’t for the compassion of the tree-dwelling creatures, Maykool would most certainly not have survived.
Maykool says that the whole experience is something that he will carry with him for the rest of his days – with respect and gratitude.
(WATCH the video below)
Click To Share The News With Your Friends(Photo by National Geographic)
Jaden told his aunt and guardian Barbara DiCola that since he was so tired of seeing everyone looking sad all of the time, he wanted to make other people smile. So the two took to the streets with a bag of toys – including rubber dinosaurs and ducks – and gave them away to strangers who looked like they could use a pick-me-up.
The young orphan’s goal is to make at least 33,000 people smile; and judging by how talented he is at making people grin, that’s a pretty achievable goal.
Shaedon Wedel has been friends with 15-year-old Carlie Wittman for 7 years – and judging by his thoughtful promposal earlier this week, they’re going to be even better friends for 7 more.
Ever since the beginning of the school year, he knew that he wanted to ask the young teen to be his date. For months, he plotted out exactly how he would pop the question.
Since Carlie’s favorite snack is Doritos, Shaedon created a custom-made Doritos tee shirt with a pun-tastic caption.
The front of the shirt read: “I know I may be NACHO typical Dorito but…”. On the back of the shirt, the words continued to say: “… I’m going to be CHEESY and ask: Will you go to prom with me?”
So when Shaedon approached her house in Kansas earlier this week while wearing the shirt with a bouquet of flowers, Carlie couldn’t believe her eyes. Delighted, the youth accepted the 18-year-old’s proposal.
(WATCH the video below)
Click To Share This Cheesy Story With Your Friends(Photo by Shaedon Wedel)
Due to the success of one of their most impressive fiscal years to date, Porsche gave all 21,000 of its German employees – from engineers to cleaning ladies alike – a bonus of $9,800.
And when they say every employee, they mean every employee; janitors, line workers, engineers, and cafeteria staff are all benefiting from the company’s generosity.
The bonus, translating to about €9,111, is an allusion to the automotive company’s Porsche 911. Last year, the company gave every German employee €8,911 – but thanks to the financial success of 2016, they bumped the number up a bit.
During 2016, Porsche saw a 10% increase in sales, resulting in over $17,000 of profit per car sold.
Drive This Story To Your Friends: Click To Share – Photo by Paul Saad, CC
