You really don’t appreciate the little luxuries in life until they’re gone. There is nothing more comforting than the silence, for instance, that follows a long episode of a leaf blower going right outside your window. The air conditioner is never as crisp as when you get power back after days and days without it. (Ask me how I know.) What other everyday things get overlooked as we count our blessings? Well, we’ll find out the next time something breaks!
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Our favorites this week
Get going with some of our most popular good news stories of the week
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All her ducks in a row
A mother duck in Florida found the perfect place to hatch her ducklings: A maternity ward! The duck flew into an enclosed courtyard at the Baptist Medical Center Beaches in Jacksonville Beach, where she made a nest, laid her eggs, and charmed patients and staff with her strangely fitting presence. The problem was, once her brood of 10 little ducklings hatched, she couldn’t exactly fly away with them again. Instead, she got a special escort through the labor and delivery unit — with a (human) nurse manager and lactation consultant following behind her. Video of the medical staff gently coaxing the little family with boards as they waddle through the halls has gotten thousands of views on Facebook.
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Decoding life
Now THIS is an amazing sentence: Scientists have sequenced the entire human genome for the first time. A genome is a full set of “instructions” inside of a cell — the plan, let’s say, for how an organism is formed. In this case, having a fully sequenced human genome will help scientists understand how we differ from person to person, and how differences in our genetics affect things like resistance to certain diseases and reactions to certain drugs. Sequencing an entire human genome is a game of huge numbers. There are more than 3 billion letters in the complete human genome, and each piece of it fits together like a jigsaw puzzle. That’s why it’s taken scientists around the globe decades of hard work to map out the whole thing. Now that it’s complete, scientists can also learn more about how humans formed as a species, and how we vary from other beings. Eventually, personal gene sequencing may become an affordable option so people can learn if they are susceptible to certain diseases, and doctors can prescribe more individualized treatments.
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A new perspective
A new exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art features pieces curated by a group that probably spends more time with them than anyone else: security guards. “Guarding the Art” features 25 works selected by 17 members of the BMA’s security team. Participating guards engaged in a two-year process to select works, design the installation, create content for a catalog and other materials, and plan visitor tours and other public programs. Museum security guards have a special relationship with the art they watch, since they revisit the pieces day after day; forming long-term relationships with them that patrons can’t. For instance, security guard Rob Kempton chose “Evening Glow” by Alma Thomas because it was “always a painting that I could return to and engage in.” The exhibit works both ways, as well. Visitors won’t just learn more about art, they’ll learn more about the guards themselves.
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Merrill Pittman Cooper, who received his high school diploma at the distinguished age of 101. Cooper attended Storer College in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, from 1934 to 1938, but had to drop out when his family moved to Philadelphia. He made a long and successful career for himself in the transportation industry, but told family members he regretted not earning his diploma. Storer College was established in 1865 to serve newly freed slaves in the wake of the Civil War, and was the only education resource for Black residents of West Virginia at the time. It closed in the 1950s, but is still part of the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. Cooper’s family reached out to park staff who worked with local education teams to get Cooper a special ceremony and, at long last, the diploma he deserves.
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A massive Airbus A380 just completed a full trial flight fueled by cooking oil! The plane completed a successful three-hour flight from Blagnac Airport in Toulouse, France, while running on Sustainable Aviation Fuel, or SAF -- predominantly made of used cooking oil and waste fats. SAF claims carbon neutrality because of the CO2 absorbed while its organic ingredients are being grown, and is a big part of Airbus’ lofty climate-friendly goals. The aviation company wants to get its aircraft certified to fly on SAF by the end of the decade, and bring the world's first zero-emission aircraft to market by 2035.
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A huge triumph for conservation has been delivered in an adorable, furry little package. An extremely rare Sumatran rhino was born at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Way Kambas National Park in Indonesia, marking a new hope for the critically endangered animal. Sumatran rhinos are the world's smallest rhino species, and only about 80 remain in pockets of South Asia. The International Rhino Foundation says without breeding programs like one at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, the animal would already be extinct. Instead, their numbers are holding steady, and every time a new one is born, like this baby girl here, the species gets one step closer to thriving in the wild once again.
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Last year, more than 21 million metric tons of cheese were produced around the world. That’s a lot of cheese, but it’s even more whey — the byproduct that’s left after milk is curdled and strained. Every pound of hard cheese produces about nine pounds of whey, and while some large manufacturers can use the whey for things like animal feed, much of it gets discarded. Now, a California distillery called Wheyward Spirit (fantastic) is using the byproduct to make alcohol! Truly, humans are tireless innovators when it comes to food and drink. Liquid whey is 95% water, but contains enough lactose sugar to ferment into alcohol. It takes a more complex process, but it ends up saving water in the end, and using up that whey waste. (And no, it doesn’t taste like cheese, because that would be gross ... right? Like, definitely not something you'd want to try, at least once ... )
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My CNN.com colleagues and I have been thinking a lot about how difficult the news can be, and how important it is to tell stories of hope and kindness even during times of sadness and strife. If you have a personal story to tell about profound gratitude -- an act of kindness or generosity, for example -- from the past year or so, we want to hear from you. Click here and enter your story in the submission box. Tell them The Good Stuff sent you!
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Rec of the week
Brought to you by CNN Underscored
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Shameless animal video
There's always time for cute animal videos. That time is now.
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A few notes here: 1. Taco is a top-tier name for a tortoise. 2. I can only imagine the serotonin that would be coursing through my veins if I summoned a little tortoise and he actually came when I called. (Click here to view)
Thank you to Taco's family for sending me this cute video of baby Taco!
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