Dutch city coordinates blackout to see the night sky
The residents and local businesses of Leiden, a city in the western Netherlands, combined forces and shut down all household lights, billboards, and streetlights in order to see the night sky on Sept. 25.
Without light pollution, it was possible to see Saturn, the big dipper and other constellations normally not visible from the front porch.
The project, “Seeing Stars,” was organized and created by Daan Roosegaarde and UNESCO in order to unite as a city and see the stars.
Non-profit organization trains rats with cameras to search for disaster survivors
APOPO, a non-profit Belgian organization has a solution- trained rescue rats with high-tech backpacks to spot survivors under piles of debris after a natural disaster.
The rats are trained to carry video cameras on their backs to search out survivors and other rats are trained to sniff out landmines and detect Tuberculosis, a serious infectious disease.
APOPO has used African giant pouched rats in this project, as they live longer in captivity than the common brown rat.
Boy goes viral for his wheelchair-accessible Halloween costumes
A father in Illinois and his son have received national attention after their yearly creative wheelchair-accessible Halloween costumes. Anthony Alfano, who has cerebral palsy, has gone viral with the help of his dad, Tony, who creates the costumes from scratch.
Anthony’s costumes have included Cameron from “Ferris Buehler”, Beetlejuice, Zoltar from the movie “Big”, and this year’s costume: the bone organ from the 80s classic film “Goonies”. Tony started working on the costume weeks in advance, in order to perfect it by the 31st.
The Alfano family has donated two of Anthony’s Halloween costumes to other children in wheelchairs. “We just want to keep doing it because it keeps filling us up and keeps moving us forward,” stated Tony.
