A Daily Antidote to Everything Else
The slimy strings from okra and the gel from fenugreek seeds can trap microplastics better than the slightly-toxic synthetic polymer in use.
Source: Okra and Fenugreek Extracts Safely Remove Microplastics From Water in New Texas Research
Behold the power of … okra? 
CDC study finds big declines in hospitalizations—and they may be underestimates.
Source: New RSV vaccine, treatment linked to dramatic fall in baby hospitalizations
Vaccines work.
A nursing home in the heart of the Netherlands is giving college students free housing. All they ask is that the students lend their time, and friendship, to their senior neighbors.
Source: Dutch nursing home has a simple fix for senior loneliness: give college students free rent
Neat idea.
The tiny mammal’s population was decimated by drought and bushfires, but after five years of struggle they are starting to thrive.
Source: From slim chance to ‘shiny and fat’, pygmy possums back from the brink
Because: cute!
Pegleg’s story of perseverance is among many at a celebration of 100 years of surfing in Cornwall.
Source: ‘Nothing stops me,’ says Cornish surfer with one leg
Inspiring.
“My first couple bites were really crazy,” he says. “It’s like a bee sting times a thousand. I mean, you can have levels of anxiety that goes through the roof.”
Source: He let snakes bite him some 200 times to create a better snakebite antivenom
Wow. “Really crazy” indeed.
Four months after the Los Angeles area wildfires tore through the Angeles National Forest and destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses in Altadena, wildlife is returning to the Eaton Fire burn area and scientists are closely tracking them.
Source: Left alone by humans, wildlife returns to the Eaton Fire burn area
Very cool.
An act of kindness is set to make life a little easier for a disabled kindergartner in Virginia Beach, and it’s all thanks to ambitious engineering students at Old Dominion University.
Source: Virginia students help create child’s prosthetic device
Great idea.
A delegation of veterans aged 96 to 105 being celebrated as heroes by the Dutch
Source: Remarkable scenes of gratitude greet Canadian war veterans in the Netherlands
My parents were living in The Netherlands at the time, and I heard the stories. It’s one of the reasons they moved to Canada after the war, and one of the reasons I was born Canadian.
After years of suffering, a cutting-edge test diagnosed Ellie Irwin with a rare bacterial infection.
Source: Metagenomics test saves woman’s sight after mystery infection
Fascinating.