Uncategorized

Hayley Orlinsky has sold more than $20,000 worth of loom bracelets to help buy personal protective equipment for staff and visitors at a children’s hospital.

Source: Chicago 7-year-old raises money for hospital’s pandemic gear

Very cool.

Three years after losing Lola in a Chicago suburb, the Mejeur family received a call that her microchip was detected.

Source: Kalamazoo woman reunited with her lost service dog after three years

Pretty amazing. Chip your pets!

Binish Desai has developed ways to recycle multiple types of industrial waste into useful products, and thereby diverted 1996 metric tonnes of trash from entering landfills.

Source: This 26-year-old is making value out of waste and paving way for a greener environment

While the linked article is from earlier this year, I stumbled on to this via a report he’s now using this technique on massive accumulations of used PPE (might be paywalled) resulting from the pandemic. Nice!

“This evening our hotline operator took a call. At first she thought she was the victim of a prank call,” wrote the organization in a Facebook post Wednesday.

Source: Curious koala sneaks into Australian home and climbs Christmas tree

Can I be jealous? I think I’m jealous.

Google’s deep-learning program for determining the 3D shapes of proteins stands to transform biology, say scientists.

Source: ‘It will change everything’: DeepMind’s AI makes gigantic leap in solving protein structures

Everything I’ve been reading would indicate this is a very big deal.

The owner of a Toronto bar says her business will be able to weather the worst of the COVID-19 lockdown after customers bought up their beer stock to help keep them in business.

Source: ‘We’ve been saved’: Thirsty drinkers buy bar’s entire beer stock to keep them in business

Local communities, coming together.

“Regardless of the poor choices that people make, most people want to take part in something good,” said Jason Bryant, a former inmate who was instrumental in launching the scholarship. “Guys were eager to do it.”

Source: How California prisoners raised $30,000 for a high school student in need

Just a few doses of an experimental drug can reverse age-related declines in memory and mental flexibility in mice, according to a new study by UC San Francisco scientists.

Source: Drug reverses age-related cognitive decline within days

This feels like a “too good to be true” story, but very exciting if true.

Kaavan says “hi” to a new mate after being rescued from a shabby zoo in Pakistan.

Source: The moment the ‘world’s loneliest elephant’ makes his first friend in years

This story has been making the news of late, but I like this one showing the result. Very cool.

A national initiative called the Confess Project is training Chicago barbers to become front-line supports for the mental health of their customers.

Source: These Black Barbers Offer A Fade, A Shave, And A Trained Ear

What a great idea.