HUMANS
The helicopter crew got him off the truck in under five minutes.
An 80-foot hoist, one deputy on the wire and a crew that did not waste a second.
SOURCEMaricopa County Sheriff’s Office via People
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MOST COUNTED AS PROGRESS
These are the stories readers most often counted as progress.
731 COUNT THIS WEEK
741 COUNT THIS WEEK
SCIENCE
A small headset trial found improvements in long-covid brain fog.
Four weeks of at-home magnetic-field sessions produced encouraging early signals for long-COVID cognitive impairment.
SOURCEMount Sinai
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751 COUNT THIS WEEK
ANIMALS
The wallaby clocked back in after 50 years.
Conservationists confirmed endangered nabarleks at two mainland sites on Dambeemangaddee Country — the first detections there in more than 50 years. Turns out the tiny wallaby had not entirely left the building.
SOURCEAustralian Wildlife Conservancy
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761 COUNT THIS WEEK
WEIRD JOY
Two new sea spiders turned up in the Salish Sea. One has hairy feet.
UBC divers found the first new sea spider species described in the Salish Sea in almost a century. One has red eyes and fuzzy-looking legs.
SOURCEUniversity of British Columbia
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771 COUNT THIS WEEK
ANIMALS
Los Angeles emptied the dog kennels for a day. 37 dogs never went back.
Los Angeles got 395 shelter dogs out for a day. Twenty-three were adopted and 14 entered foster homes instead of returning to kennels.
SOURCEBest Friends Animal Society
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781 COUNT THIS WEEK
WEIRD JOY
This one-gram robot can hop over a stair.
DirectHop uses a tiny motor and three folding legs to make controlled, repeated jumps. The prototype can clear a standard stair and twitch itself upright after a fall.
SOURCEUniversity of Washington / Newswise
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791 COUNT THIS WEEK
HUMANS
THE LINE HELD.
HUMANS
A high school football team pulled a pontoon out of a flash flood.
When flash flooding hit New Richland, Minnesota, players from the New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva football team helped with a pontoon rescue instead of watching from the bank.
SOURCEKEYC News
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801 COUNT THIS WEEK
WEIRD JOY
NINETY-NINE, IN SQUASH.
WEIRD JOY
A farm built a world-record Attenborough portrait out of pumpkins.
Sunnyfields Farm unveiled a giant mosaic portrait of Sir David Attenborough assembled from pumpkins, breaking its own world record for the largest pumpkin mosaic.
SOURCEBBC News
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811 COUNT THIS WEEK
WEIRD JOY
THE CLEANING CREW HAS SHELLS.
WEIRD JOY
Alabama put 1,500 mussels to work cleaning a river.
About 1,500 rare native freshwater mussels — including two endangered species — were released into the Paint Rock River on August 25 after years of streambank repair.
SOURCEOutdoor Alabama
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821 COUNT THIS WEEK
WEIRD JOY
THE PATIENT KNOCKED.
WEIRD JOY
An injured pelican knocked on a NOAA lab door for help.
A brown pelican tangled in fishing line, with a treble hook in its wing and cactus spines in its foot, repeatedly tapped on NOAA’s Panama City Laboratory door. Biologists freed it in about 10 minutes, and it flew away.
SOURCENOAA Fisheries
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831 COUNT THIS WEEK
WEIRD JOY
THE LETTUCE LIVES UPSTAIRS.
WEIRD JOY
Alaska found the place vertical farming actually makes sense.
The brewery put a lettuce farm upstairs. In Skagway, that actually works.
SOURCEReasons to Be Cheerful
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841 COUNT THIS WEEK
WEIRD JOY
EIGHT LESSONS. NEARLY 2,000 SCHOOLS.
WEIRD JOY
Kindergarten PE now includes learning to ride a bike.
An eight-lesson learn-to-ride curriculum is now in nearly 2,000 US elementary schools. Balance bikes first, pedals when you are ready, gym class credit either way.
SOURCEAssociated Press
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851 COUNT THIS WEEK
WEIRD JOY
A SHED FULL OF GLOW.
WEIRD JOY
The glowworms came back. A garden shed was involved.
After a century away, tiny green lights are blinking again in North Yorkshire.
SOURCEThe Guardian
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861 COUNT THIS WEEK
WEIRD JOY
HE BOUGHT THE MARQUEE.
WEIRD JOY
Rick Steves bought his hometown movie theater so it wouldn’t die.
A century-old neighborhood movie house just got a very determined new owner.
SOURCEKNKX Public Radio
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871 COUNT THIS WEEK
HUMANS
SPIN CYCLE, STORY TIME.
HUMANS
The laundromat has a library now.
Laundromats are becoming tiny literacy hubs, with children’s books and family reading spaces turning wash-cycle downtime into reading time. Apparently the spin cycle comes with a library card now.
SOURCELaundryCares Foundation / Reasons to Be Cheerful
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