ThisisBigBrother.com - UK TV Forums

ThisisBigBrother.com - UK TV Forums (https://www.thisisbigbrother.com/forums/index.php)
-   Serious Debates & News (https://www.thisisbigbrother.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=61)
-   -   The Good News Thread (https://www.thisisbigbrother.com/forums/showthread.php?t=392056)

Ammi 24-09-2024 05:18 AM

100-Year-Old Holocaust Survivor Granted Wish to Reunite with Sister One Last Time, Thanks to AARP Program…

Helena Stefaniak’s life story is one marked by the bonds of sisterhood growing up in war-torn Warsaw—and she rekindled that spirit of resilience one last time at age 100, thanks to an AARP program that grants wishes for seniors.

Helena and her sister Barbara protected one another from the horrors of their surroundings during World War II. Yet, the war ultimately tore them apart five years after the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939. They forcibly took her to a work camp in Germany in 1944, while Barbara’s fate remained unknown.

Helena recounted her harrowing experience being on her own for three years, saying, “I was really lost. Most of the time the war was going, I was scared.”

Despite the odds, Helena never lost hope of reuniting with her sister.

After enduring years of hardship and uncertainty, Helena was liberated from the work camps and became determined to find her sister. The relentless search finally led to their reunion in Germany in 1947.

Helena and her new husband started afresh, moving to Connecticut and living among fellow Polish immigrants. The sisters reunited again in New Jersey in 1950, where Barbara lives—and their bond remained unbreakable through the decades.

This year, though, as she approached her 100th birthday—and with her health deteriorating—Helena’s greatest wish was to reunite with Barbara once more.

Touched by their story, Wish of a Lifetime from AARP made Helena’s dream come true, allowing her to travel from her current home in Montana to New Jersey, so she can spend precious time with her beloved sister.

“At our age, you have to say goodbye,” Barbara told GNN.

“I was very, very happy. I know I won’t see her again, and that was our last time.

Founded by Jeremy Bloom in 2008, Wish of a Lifetime, a charitable affiliate of AARP has granted over 2,700 wishes nationwide, averaging 300 per year.

“We believe that everyone should be able to age with hope and joy. We empower wish recipients to fulfill their hopes while reconnecting with the people and passions that matter most to them.”

Helena, for one, is grateful beyond words. “Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”


Ammi 27-09-2024 07:31 AM

…I’m such a huge supporter of the dots…

Brontë sisters finally get their dots as names corrected at Westminster Abbey…



An 85-year injustice has been rectified at Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey with the corrected spelling of one of the greatest of all literary names. Reader, it is finally Brontë, not Bronte.

An amended memorial to Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë was unveiled on Thursday with added diaereses (two dots) that ensure people pronounce it with two syllables. As if it rhymed with Monty, not font.

The memorial was installed in 1939 and, for whatever reason, came without the diaereses that the Brontës used.

The correction came about after an approach to the abbey by Sharon Wright, the editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, who visited Poets’ Corner as part of research for a new book.

“The first thing I thought was: ‘They’ve spelt the names wrong!’ Surely I can’t be the first person to notice it. I don’t think I am but I might be the first to call it to anyone’s attention and say ‘can we spell the names right please?’,” Wright said. “These women are three of this country’s greatest writers. They deserve to have their names spelt correctly on the memorial created to honour them.”

Wright remembered feeling genuine indignation when she saw the plaque. “I’m from Bradford like them and I want them celebrated properly in London, or that London, as we say. They are Yorkshire heroines and their name is Brontë, not Bronte.”

Wright said everyone else’s name in Poets’ Corner was spelled correctly, not least the poet Robert Southey who is represented by a magnificent monument and bust.

Southey is something of a villain in Brontë circles in that he told 20-year-old Charlotte that poetry and literary creation could not and should not be a woman’s work. “I thought ‘they’ve got his name right’ before I went stomping off,” Wright said.

She was half expecting a battle to get the name corrected but actually found an open, friendly door and a willingness to correct.

The reasons for the mistake are not clear although timing presumably played a part, in that the tablet was installed on 8 October 1939, soon after the outbreak of the second world war.

It meant there was no fanfare. In a letter dated 2 November that year, Paul de Labilliere, then the dean of Westminster, wrote: “I should greatly wish that its completion should be marked by a ceremonial unveiling but in these times anything of that sort is out of the question.”

The installation was sponsored by the Brontë Society, founded in 1893 and one of the oldest literary societies in the world.

It was July 1947 before there was a formal ceremony at the abbey with the society, by which point bigger issues about rebuilding the nation were on collective minds. Or society members perhaps felt they should be grateful for just being there. “I don’t know,” said Wright. “You know Yorkshire people, we do like to stick our hand up and make a fuss, so I don’t know what happened there.”

The missing diaereses may be as much of a mystery as the diaereses themselves. No one can say with absolute certainty why the Brontë name evolved from their father Patrick’s Irish surname of Prunty or Brunty when he arrived at St John’s College, Cambridge, in 1802.

It may have had something to do with his admiration for Horatio Nelson, who was made Duke of Bronte, and the way Patrick, as someone born in County Down, would pronounce it. It may also have been a gentrification based on a Greek word for thunder.

None of that matters in Wright’s eyes. “This is not about the men, it’s about the women and their name was Brontë, that is how they spelt it from being really little girls. This is a really happy and timely ending to the story.”

Those sentiments were echoed by the dean of Westminster, David Hoyle, who said he was grateful to have the omission pointed out and now put right.

“Memory is not a locked cupboard, but an active thing,” he said. “The Brontë Society have given us a glimpse of their commitment to a lively remembering.”

Ammi 27-09-2024 07:33 AM

…I knew that some day, this would apply as the perfect gif…85 years actually but close enough…

https://i.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc...FJZu/giphy.gif

bots 27-09-2024 08:38 AM

i've been waiting for my name to be spelt correct ... böts

Ammi 27-09-2024 08:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bots (Post 11511567)
i've been waiting for my name to be spelt correct ... böts

https://i.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc...FJZu/giphy.gif


…:fan:…

bots 27-09-2024 09:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ammi (Post 11511570)

not quite that long :laugh:

I was just thinking the other day that i was born about 14 years after the 2nd world war ended and the technology jump from then to now is just mind bending :laugh:

Ammi 27-09-2024 09:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bots (Post 11511575)
not quite that long :laugh:

I was just thinking the other day that i was born about 14 years after the 2nd world war ended and the technology jump from then to now is just mind bending :laugh:

…for any of us if we live to an older age…?..the changes in our lifespan will be incredible…I mean, even for much younger people, the landscapes of their childhood will look entirely different from the landscapes that are familiar to them now…that’s a thought I often have in thinking of my parents who have both passed now, how many changes they saw through their lives and how many ‘firsts’ they felt a part of…?…you know…


"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die."

Ammi 28-09-2024 06:19 AM

….is this a good news story…?…I think so, any old cheese is good news…

Cheese dating back 3,600 years found in Chinese tomb, researchers say…


The world's oldest piece of cheese has been discovered - found laid across a mummy's neck.

A 3,600-year-old coffin was opened in the Xiaohe Cemetery in Xinjiang, China, during an excavation in 2003, where a substance was draped across the neck of a mummified young woman.

Despite seeming like a piece of jewellery at the time, scientists have now said they have identified the sample as the oldest piece of cheese in the world.

Qiaomei Fu, a paleogeneticist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, told Sky's partner network NBC News: "Regular cheese is soft. This is not. It has now become really dry, dense and hard dust."

She explained that when the woman's coffin was exhumed, it was found to be well preserved because of the Tarim Basin desert's dry climate.

While the production of cheese has been long depicted in history, the researchers wrote in a study - published in the journal Cell - that the "history of fermented dairy is largely lost in antiquity".

Speaking to NBC News, Ms Fu said that she and her team took samples from three tombs in the Xiaohe Cemetery and processed the DNA to trace the evolution of the bacteria across thousands of years.

The samples were then identified as kefir cheese, made by fermenting milk using kefir grains, and there was also evidence of goat and cow's milk being used.

In their research, the team said the use of kefir cheese shows how Bronze Age populations interacted and how the Xiaohe people - who were known to be genetically lactose intolerant - consumed dairy before the era of pasteurisation and refrigeration.

They wrote: "These 3,500-year-old kefir cheese samples are among the few dairy remains preserved more than 3,000 years and were produced by the Bronze Age Xiaohe population - a population that possesses mixed lifestyles and techniques."

However, when asked by NBC if the cheese was edible and if she would try it, Ms Fu said "no way".

arista 28-09-2024 09:33 AM

https://www.instagram.com/p/C_3fulCuW7l/


Dog running after that Ambulance
as his owner is off to hospital................................



In Columbia

Ammi 28-09-2024 09:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arista (Post 11512015)
https://www.instagram.com/p/C_3fulCuW7l/


Dog running after that Ambulance
as his owner is off to hospital................................



In Columbia

….awwwww, the power of dog love and devotion…:lovedup:….I hope that his human was ok and recovered/recovering well…

Benjamin 04-10-2024 06:38 AM

Quote:

An 8-year-old heart transplant candidate was craving pickles, so a hospital chef taught her how to make them

https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/i...-01-4f63b5.jpg
Emerson Bayse, 8, and her homemade pickles at Boston Children's Hospital.

Emerson Bayse loves pickles.

The 8-year-old heart transplant candidate got a hankering for the briny bite once she started preparing for her procedure. Many cardiac patients are on fluid restriction, which can cause them to crave salty things.

She’s partial to a dill spear but also appreciates a pickle chip now and then.

The team at Boston Children’s Hospital, where Bayse is a patient, fully embraced her new obsession back in March, and a child life specialist from the Association of Child Life Professionals started decorating her peripherally inserted central catheter (aka PICC line) with pickle stickers.

Bayse began her treatment at home in Medway, Massachusetts, while she was still seven years old. Once school let out in June, she went inpatient at Boston Children’s, where she met chef and program manager of culinary services Sarah Bryce.

In her hybrid administrative role, Bryce leads tasty, interactive and often bedside experiences.

She uses cooking and food to engage with patients and (hopefully) make their time spent at the hospital a bit more fun. She’s done everything from cupcake decorating to bedside nachos and, now, in-room pickling.

“I’ve done pizza, which is probably the most asked for and the one I do the most,” Bryce says, later adding that she mainly works with kids ranging in age from four to 16. She’s also made waffles with a mini waffle iron to try to get patients excited about eating breakfast, decorated whole birthday cakes and sugar cookies, filled cannoli to order and even attempted to make soft pretzels, which Bryce says didn’t work out so well.

Bryce was a patient at Boston Children’s as a kid, and she remembers how impacted she was by some of the moments she shared with staff.

“I really wanted to make a difference,” she says of the decision to revisit the hospital in a non-patient capacity. Now, she’s studying to be a dietitian.

“I’ve worked in these rooms and I’ve seen what a difference it is for a child to eat — just trying to get them to eat something,” she continues. “It sounds so simple, right? But it really can be a huge difference.”

https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/i...-02-3745bb.jpg
Bryce (left) and Bayse (right) pickling

Bryce tells TODAY.com she received several emails from Bayse’s doctors and administrative caretakers about her craving for pickles.

After working with Bayse’s clinical dietitian, Bryce knew just the right activity to suggest when it came time to make her culinary rounds.

Bryce asked Bayse if she knew how pickles were made.

“She said, ‘No! I would have never thought about it,’ and I said, ‘What if we made some together?’” Bryce recalls. “Her eyes lit up and she was like, ‘We can do that?’” And Bryce replied, “We can do anything — if you say you want to do something, I’m gonna try my best to do it.”

Three days later, Bryce had found a refrigerator-stable recipe (she can’t bring equipment like induction burners into hospital rooms, so she had to get creative), prepped brine and brought all the necessary parts over to Bayse’s room.

They ended up making seven different kinds of pickles, including cucumbers, garlic, onions and watermelon.

“She loves Ken’s Italian Dressing; we made a pickle with those,” says Bryce.

“My mouth was also watering,” Bayse says of the exciting moment she learned about the activity, adding that the resulting pickle party is now a fun hospital memory for her.

After the first mini taste test, the duo threw a pickle party where folks from several departments stopped in for a treat. And by the end, “The pickles were gone,” Bryce says. “All of them.”

Bayse used her expertise to guide visitors through the different varieties, helping them decide which to try first and which would be best as a follow-up.

She says she was most excited about her pickle juice ice cubes, which she served with lemonade to anyone who stopped in.

“It was the best two hours of my life,” Bryce says of the party.

“The fact that they’re so supportive of just knowing what the kids are interested in and like to do and then just going with that idea, they’ve really normalized the experience for Emerson here at Children’s Hospital,” Allison Bayse, the patient’s mom, tells TODAY.com. “Taking something like a PICC line that runs into your body and delivers medication and to put pickles on it and to like make it not scary is such a gift.”

The point of the culinary program, Bryce says, is to spread a little joy. Bayse took that intention and extended it to others.

https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/i...-07-9f8b6c.jpg
Bayse welcomed folks into her room for a pickle tasting.

Bryce says Bayse does a “great job” getting other people involved in her activities. When the hospital debuted its lobby aquarium, Bayse created an under-the-sea-themed table — featuring Goldfish and blue candy, of course — for staff and visitors, as well as a fall-themed one earlier this month.

Bayse’s nurses and doctors have also dubbed her the “unit magician” — she performs magic tricks under the moniker “The Magnificent Cardio” for both patients and staff on her floor, and she broadcasts her magic show to anyone in the hospital who wants to watch but might not be able to leave their rooms.

https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/i...-06-cc0239.jpg
Bryce (left) teaching Bayse (right) how to pickle.

“She’s modeling from these adults their care and interest in her, and she’s taking that and trying to give it back to the other kids here in the building,” says Bayse’s mom.

Pickling is an age-old practice used to preserve foods that would otherwise spoil. So, when asked what she would choose if she could pickle anything at all, food or not, Bayse thought for a moment and emphatically said, “Ketchup!”

The staff, on the other hand, said they’d choose to preserve Bayse’s magic.
https://www.today.com/food/people/he...rty-rcna170806

Ammi 04-10-2024 06:43 AM

….awww, a great story…:love:.many happy pickle making times to Emerson and wishing her excellent health with her new heart…:love:…

Benjamin 04-10-2024 06:20 PM

The fact she made pickle juice ice cubes for lemonade :clap1:

Ammi 04-10-2024 06:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Benjamin (Post 11515475)
The fact she made pickle juice ice cubes for lemonade :clap1:

…:laugh:…if Ben had a daughter….eh…you and she would be a great/enterprising team of home makes…:flutter:…

Benjamin 04-10-2024 06:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ammi (Post 11515481)
…:laugh:…if Ben had a daughter….eh…you and she would be a great/enterprising team of home makes…:flutter:…

Hahaha we’d be at farmers markets selling the **** out of chutneys, preserves, pickled goods, candles and wax melts :laugh:

rusticgal 04-10-2024 06:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Livia (Post 11487733)
I never will. I remember watching Bambi as a child and sobbing till my throat hurt.



lol….me too :bawling:

Ammi 04-10-2024 06:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Benjamin (Post 11515483)
Hahaha we’d be at farmers markets selling the **** out of chutneys, preserves, pickled goods, candles and wax melts :laugh:

…you really would…not the dream team but the pickle pair…and I know from games etc that you’re very good at selling your product so I’m thinking that you’d be making your chutneys and pickles from a paradise island somewhere gorgeous…

Benjamin 19-10-2024 11:19 AM

Quote:

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/wp-c...a-gofundme.jpg

Boy with Rare Skin Condition Can Sleep with Eyes Closed for The First Time in 7 Years


This little boy from Nevada is pictured here before a life-changing surgery that allowed him to blink and sleep with his eyes closed—for the first time in his 7 years of life.

Can you even try to imagine what that must have been like?

Carter Bresee was born with lamellar ichthyosis (LI) a rare genetic skin disorder in which the body creates skin cells that do not separate from each other at the surface of the skin the way they should. In addition, the body does not shed the skin fast enough, causing brown scales to form.

Fox News has followed his condition for years, leading to Carter developing a bit of a supporter base in Nevada, many of whom contributed through a GoFundMe to his medical bills in May, when he had the chance for a life-changing eyelid skin graft.

It also resulted in Carter’s eyelids turning outward, preventing him from closing his eyes.

“He cannot blink, he sleeps with his eyes open and is often experiencing lots of pain and discomfort because of this,” Shai, Carter’s mom, wrote on that GoFundMe, which raised $46,000 towards the $8,000 cost of an oculoplastic surgery that would help the boy close his eyes.

“I didn’t realize what a sense of community we really had,” she admitted to Fox 5, after seeing how much money the two had received. “It’s really crazy to feel so included.”

Last month in San Diego, the surgery was carried out successfully, and Carter slept. Oh boy did he sleep.

“He slept until noon today. He got the best night’s sleep,” Shai said in a video interview after the boy’s first night of being able to sleep with his eyes closed.

She added that he was a “champ” throughout the sometimes painful surgery, remaining calm and asking for medicine if it got too severe.


https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/boy-...me-in-7-years/

Ammi 20-10-2024 09:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Benjamin (Post 11536551)

…oh I’ve read of this condition before and with eyelashes growing inwards and I can’t even begin to imagine that pain almost every second of every day…’he slept until noon…:love:…wow, how it must feel for his mom to be able to say those words after the years of pain she’s watched him had to suffer…so amazing and wonderful to hear about this surgery…and as the person to perform the surgery/or the team, I should say…how incredible that must feel for them to, to know that they’ve been part of giving this little guy some sleep and a release from his constant pain…so emotional for them, I imagine they’ve shed some tears…I wish Carter well for his future…:love:..

Ammi 09-11-2024 06:37 AM

Britain Celebrates Birth of Baby Bongo Antelope–with Fewer Than 100 Left on Earth…

In an English safari park, keepers are celebrating the arrival of a calf from the world’s most endangered species of antelope, the eastern mountain bongo.

Born October 16th, first-time mom Othaya welcomed a male calf in the late afternoon marking the first bongo calf born at Woburn Safari Park in over 10 years.

It’s both a major success for the park and global conservation efforts to save this species native to Kenya.

“Othaya the bongo has successfully given birth to her first calf on Wednesday afternoon. After a long labor, the large healthy male calf was born and was soon seen standing on wobbly legs, in the deep bed of straw prepared for his arrival,” stated Tom Robson, Head of Reserves at the park. “Both mom and calf are doing really well.”

Sonny, the calf’s father, joined the four-strong bongo herd at the park last November and successfully mixed with the females, wasting no time in doing his job and displaying breeding behaviors.

“The bongo is part of a crucial breeding program and we are hoping in the future our new calf will travel to another wildlife collection and start a breeding group of his own,” Robson added.

Once the mom and baby are ready, they will rejoin the rest of the bongo herd in the African Forest exhibit, where visitors will soon have the chance to see the calf in person.

The eastern mountain bongo species has been hunted almost to extinction in the wild, and with less than 100 individuals remaining, this birth is hugely important for the future of the species.

Its near-cousin the lowland bongo is readily dispersed across the Congo region and southern West Africa, and is not endangered. The mountain bongo, with its much deeper red coat, is found only on Mount Kenya.

It has been estimated that without appropriate protections, the eastern mountain bongo may go extinct within 2 decades. However, several Critically Endangered species, like the West African lion, have made recoveries on the continent in recent years.



bots 11-11-2024 12:37 PM

very cute :laugh:

Kate! 11-11-2024 12:45 PM

Omigosh that's adorable

Ammi 21-11-2024 02:54 PM

…this story is around one year old but I’m going to post it anyway because it’s pretty cool…

NASA Finds Cluster Of Young Stars That Looks Exactly Like A “Cosmic Christmas Tree”….

https://www.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-c...2-png__700.jpg


https://www.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-c...397bd__700.jpg
All of these little stars are in our Milky Way, located about 2,500 light-years away from Earth, and are both smaller and larger than the Sun, ranging from some with less than a tenth the mass of the Sun to others containing about seven solar masses, NASA stated.
In the jolly photograph, the cluster’s resemblance to a Christmas tree has been enhanced through image rotation and color choices.
According to the American Space Administration, optical data from a telescope showed gas in the nebula represented by wispy green lines and shapes, which created the boughs and needles of the tree shape.

https://www.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-c...-cluster-3.jpg

Niamh. 21-11-2024 02:56 PM

looks like the grinch running away in the that top picture

Ammi 21-11-2024 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Niamh. (Post 11578649)
looks like the grinch running away in the that top picture

…after stealing the cosmos like he stole Christmas…


All times are GMT. The time now is 10:14 AM.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
User Alert System provided by Advanced User Tagging (Pro) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2025 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.