Some people are in the right place at the right time when tragedy strikes. A mother and her 2-year-old are both lucky to be alive after being struck by a car that was blinded by the sun. Bridgette Ponson was walking across the parking lot of Layton Christian Academy in Utah when the accident occurred. Students rushed to the car realizing that Ponson and her two small children were stuck beneath it. While the 3-year-old managed to free themselves to crawl from under the car, the mom was trapped on top of her younger child unable to move. Help arrived nearly instantly in the form of more than 20 high school students, and a United States Airman. The school's surveillance cameras caught the entire heart-stopping rescue on video as the teens struggled to lift the car. Eventually, the high schoolers were able to lift the car high enough for senior airman Dominique Childress to help pull the mom and toddler to safety.Childress was there picking up his kids when he was asked to help by his child's teacher. He explains to KSL News, “Mom was holding him, and once we were holding the car high enough, she was able (to) get up and kind of hold the car on her back as we were lifting.”Childress went on to tell KSL that the baby's face was purple and he was unconscious but the airman was able to find a pulse. The teens worked in unison to lift the car off of the trapped mom and child, not knowing it was someone from the school's administration office. Their only focus was saving the family. Theo Roach, one of the students that helped lift the car said the reality of the situation didn't click in until afterward.“It was a relief because I didn’t understand fully. I didn’t grasp the realness of the situation until I saw the kid breathing,” Roach told the outlet. But it was thanks to their quick acting that Ponson and her child were spared. The youngest child was life flighted to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City but has since been released with minor injuries. Ponson is still hospitalized and has received multiple surgeries. The school set up a GoFundMe for the family to help with medical bills and income since both Ponson and her husband will be out of work while everyone recovers. You can watch the entire interview, including the heroic rescue below.This article originally appeared on 12.8.23

We've all done it: You snap a selfie, look at it, say, "OMG is my nose swollen?" then try again from a different angle. "Wait, now my forehead looks weird. And what's up with my chin?" You keep trying various angles and distances, trying to get a picture that looks like how you remember yourself looking. Whether you finally land on one or not, you walk away from the experience wondering which photo actually looks like the "real" you. I do this, even as a 40-something-year-old who is quite comfortable with the face I see in the mirror. So, it makes me cringe imagining a tween or teen, who likely take a lot more selfies than I do, questioning their facial features based on those snapshots. When I'm wondering why my facial features look weird in selfies it's because I know my face well enough to know that's not what it looks like. However, when a young person whose face is changing rapidly sees their facial features distorted in a photo, they may come to all kinds of wrong conclusions about what they actually look like. Not that it should matter, of course. But we're talking about people living in a society obsessed with personal appearance. It's going to matter to a lot of people, and if they get the wrong impression of their face, some people will go to all sorts of lengths to change it. That's why understanding a bit about how focal lengths on cameras can impact what we see in photographs is vital.Writer Evey Winters shared some of that education in a post on Facebook. She writes about this topic through a trans and dysmorphia lens, but it applies to everyone. Winters points out that if someone is thinking of doing surgery to change their bodies, they should seek sources outside of themselves and a cellphone camera. "I have dysmorphia and recognize that in myself," she wrote, "but even if I didn’t, there’s not a selfie I’ve ever taken that would accurately help me make choices about my face. Mirrors are slightly better only for their minimal distortions.""If you want the best chance at getting good feedback pre-op about what you might want to change," she added, "I’d recommend a skilled photographer take a series of photos of you at different focal lengths and even then none of these will be entirely accurate as none of these employ humans binocular vision and filtering."Winters shared a collage of photos of the same girl's face at different focal lengths to show the significant difference it makes. "Notice how in different photos this child’s eyes may appear to be slightly hooded," she wrote. "The nose appears enlarged disproportionately. Hairline seems to shift with every snap. So does jaw shape, face shape, and even the width and size of the ears."The difference between each of these photos is significant, but the difference between the first and the last is stunning. Cellphone selfie cameras usually have an even smaller focal length than the 40 mm shown here (Winters points out that the iPhone 13 Pro Max selfie camera has the equivalent of a 23 mm focal length), so they distort facial features even more. It also depends on how far away from the camera you are—the closer you are, the more distortion you'll see. Lighting matters, too, but even the best lighting can't cancel out what the focal length is doing. Vox shared a video specifically about the "big nose" phenomenon with selfies, showing how drastic the distortion can be. As a parent of two teens and a young adult, I find these photos to be fantastic tools for teaching my kids not to put too much stock in what they see in a selfie. Far too many people are increasingly seeking out plastic surgery to change a nose or a forehead or a jawline that doesn't even really exist. Imagine looking in a funhouse mirror and thinking you need to do something to change how you look. Selfie cameras are basically mini funhouse mirrors. Smartphones and apps are getting better at making filters that adjust for those distortions, but none of us should be relying on selfies of any kind to see what we really look like, much less taking major measures to alter our appearance based on what we see in them. Even if you have some physical feature you simply can't accept and want to change, make sure you get a skilled photographer to give you the most accurate picture of what it actually looks like. As Winters concluded at the end of her post: "Make sure you’re not reshaping your body for a you that only exists in selfie cams." Thank you for the reminder, Ms. Winters. This article originally appeared on 1.18.22

There's a certain etiquette that audience members generally adhere to while watching a live performance, and that goes doubly for the opera world. But you don't have to be an opera-goer to know that it's generally frowned upon—to put it lightly—for a member of the audience to stand up and start singing right in the middle of an opera singer's performance. It ain't Lollapalooza, for crying out loud. But an audience member adding his voice to an opera performance was exactly what happened at the Verdi Festival in Parma, Italy in 2022. According to Classic FM, renowned soprano Lisette Oropesa was performing an encore at the end of her recital, singing the female part from "Sempre Libera" (Always Free) from Verdi's "La traviata." The song is a duet, usually sung between a female soprano and a male tenor, but she was performing it solo. So when the tenor part arrived and no one sang opposite her, 24-year-old Liu Jianwei, a fan of Oropesa and a student of opera at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Nicolini di Piacenza, stood up and filled in the gap.No one expected it. Not Oropesa. Not even Liu himself, apparently. But the pianist kept playing and Oropesa appeared to be delighted as the young man beautifully filled in the tenor part. Oropesa's initial "Oh," is written into the piece (though you can see her searching the audience for where the man's voice was coming from), but the "Oh, grazie," she added herself to say thank you. It's a good thing he had a lovely voice. Watch: @babatunde_hiphopera Reply to @campmeldinal Reply to @campmeldinal This is the best one I could find #wholesome #opera According to Classic FM, Liu took to the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo to explain himself—and to warn others not to do what he did. “I stood up to sing because Lisette Oropesa is a musician I love very much and I happened to have learned this opera before,” he said. “It is definitely not something worthy of pride, nor something worthy of being advocated. Please don’t interrupt singers when they are singing on stage. It’s impolite behavior. Don’t imitate me and I will never do this again in the future.”Many disagree with him on the "worthy of pride" part at least, and most people commenting on the video were thrilled with both the unexpected singing and the reaction from the opera star."She was so gracious and kind!! The shock and delight on her face was so wonderful!! This is beautiful," wrote one commenter."I love how her face just lights up, it's so sweet!!!" wrote another."That is the reaction of when a musician does it for the love of music," added another "They are both amazing!"And regarding the "impolite" bit:"Look I know it would technically be considered rude but he shot his shot and was successful ?. Can’t blame him one bit.".Liu approached Oropesa after the concert to apologize. She took photos with him and gave him her autograph. Brava and bravo to them both.This article originally appeared on 1.12.22

Blink 182 said it best: Work sucks, I know. When we're kids, we dream of becoming astronauts, marine biologists, firefighters … only to discover that these jobs are nowhere near what we imagined them to be. As it turns out, all jobs require work, sadly. A recent Reddit thread asked: "What is an overly romanticized job?" And though the answers are blunt, they do reveal another side of these so-called "dream jobs." Working With Animals"You spend most of your time cleaning poop and you're paid like shit." – Coc0tteFBI Agent"I dated a woman who was with the FBI and she enjoyed what she did most of the time but wow was it dry. Imagine sitting in a car watching a house for 6 hours then going back to the office and spending a few hours writing a report. Or looking through 10 years of purchase records and receipts that you pulled out of the trash to build a case. Or sitting in a room at midnight listening in on a dude having phone sex with his mistress.The overwhelming majority of her job was writing reports, status updates, and reviewing financial documents in an office. The hours were terrible, the work seemed boring, and the bureaucracy was thick." – L_Bart0Video Game Testing"I had a boyfriend who did it for several years… You play the same five minutes of game over and over again, hundreds of times (sometimes thousands). The job kinda killed his passion for gaming, and as far as I know, he still doesn't play anything for fun." – QuinnRMonroeKnight at Medieval Times"Those guys start as squires and deal with tons of grunt work and when they become knights, hours are still terrible but now you risk very serious injuries during practice or during a show. All of my friends that have worked or work there have had multiple surgeries, broken bones, you name it. They do like having the spotlight on them and they're like brothers but usually hate it after a while." – Linas416Traveling Sales"For some reason some of my old coworkers got it in their heads that my traveling sales job was whisking me away to exotic places and gourmet meals on the company dime. No. No no no. Unless you think Syracuse is basically Paris and eating a poorly wrapped burrito while driving because you don't have time to stop for lunch between appointments is fine dining, sales is not sexy." – FistedTate"Saddest part for me was on the road one time going out to a solo dinner (as usual) and being sat with a candle and rose in the middle of the table. I looked around and saw every other table was a couple and only then did it hit me it was Valentine's Day." – rocket-guy-12Academia"If you get offered a professorship in Boise Idaho you have to take it, because you almost certainly will not be offered another one." – workacct1999Architect"Seems like lots of good romcom boyfriends are architects. In reality, the hours are long, the stress is extremely high, and pay is really poor for a skilled profession.Edit: I'm an interior designer, and it never stops surprising me that I make FAR more money than architects, with far less training." – RandomRavenclaw87"There's a great essay that's titled something along the lines of 'the best time to be an architect is at a cocktail party.' I'm lucky. I genuinely love architecture and design and didn't really mind the killer hours and stupid tests when I was younger, and I have mostly worked for firms that ask me do quality work most of the time. But man oh man do the general public have no idea how cutthroat and fragmented the business side of it is." – BulloakHumanitarian Work"People imagine you selflessly save starving babies. In reality it's a commute to a desk job and staring at a computer all day." – DJRooneThe Film Industry"I'm currently on a show I love with people I love and it's the weirdest mix of dream job and ruining my life. I get to make incredible things but the deadlines are unreasonable, I haven't had a weekend in months and neither have my coworkers. I feel like I'm in a suicide cult where we are all too afraid to let each other down, meanwhile we are just lining the pockets of the CEO of Netflix." – jerisad"Other people: "Do you ever get to meet {insert famous performer} ?Me: "Sadly, yes." – Wuz314159Lawyer"Working as a lawyer isn't anything like on TV." – Grapezard "I'm a lawyer and most of my friends are lawyers and I know very, very few who enjoy their jobs. The disconnect between what people think lawyers do and what lawyering is actually like on a day to day basis is massive." – _Doctor_Teeth_Chef"It's not all creativity and celebrity. It's almost entirely grunt work, danger, injury, and long hours resulting in missed time with family." – tamiraisredditingFashion"People have big dreams, but most people end up working positions similar to quality control assistant at a random industrial uniform company rather than a designer at Forever 21, let alone Dior. Reality is quite brutal. Even if you do make it into the mainstream side of things, be prepared for all the negative stereotypes. It's pretty much true that it's filled with toxic, judgmental, superficial people who are also kinda racist…And those ethically sourced, made by women in developing countries, feel good brands? You'll be shocked by how morally questionable it gets behind the scenes.I left the industry kind of by accident due to life circumstances, but I always knew I was never going to be happy in that environment. Nor would I have made as much money or have any semblance of a work life balance." – lithelyloveLibrarian"It's not quiet, we don't read all day, we clean up our fair share of bodily fluids, plunge many toilets, and interact with homeless/mentally ill patrons fairly regularly depending on our location. Sure a bulk of our job is recommending books to readers and coming up with fun programs, but sometimes I feel like a community secretary…Or a social worker, which I did not sign up for. I love my job, but it is absolutely exhausting and gross and stressful and scary sometimes." – _s_p_q_rWriter"You picture yourself at a typewriter in a cabin by a lake, crackling fire in the fireplace, a golden retriever asleep at your feet and a glass of lagavulin in your hand dreaming up the next great American novel. Contrast that to reality where the writing jobs that actually pay the bills usually involve long nights and weekends sitting in a cube farm writing the instructions that come with a toaster that nobody will ever read." – capn_gingerbeardAirline Pilot"People think you are like Leonardo Dicaprio in Catch Me if You Can; swaggering through the airport, wearing sunglasses, surrounded by hot flight attendants. In reality, we're like glorified bus drivers whose job is 1% excitement and 99% absolute boredom just sitting in a cockpit waiting for life to pass by." – Essex1820By this point, you might be wondering, IS there a job that's as romantic as it sounds? One user provided a humorous answer: "IT is exactly as romantic as it sounds. It really is a bunch of nerdy guys in a basement spending most of the day on Reddit and acting like we're swamped with work."And a delivery driver came in to offer the thread a different perspective: "I work at a Dominos delivering pizza and everybody acts as if it is the most embarrassing job but I love it! I basically get paid 20 bucks an hour on average… and honestly I like it a lot more than my graphic design job."Though maybe no job is as glamorous as it looks on paper, hopefully we can all find that sweet spot where even the less-than-ideal working conditions are still workable. This article originally appeared on 11.24.21

For the past 55 years, scientists have theorized that a major reason why humans live so much longer past their reproductive years than other species is because of grandmothers.The "grandmother effect," as it's known, postulates that in hunter-gatherer societies, grandmothers played a vital role in finding food and raising children. In fact, the grandmother's role was so important that it had a huge impact on whether or not children survived. "By relieving a mother of some of her child-raising responsibilities, so the thinking goes, grandmothers make it easier for their daughters to have more children and also make it possible for those children to have longer lives by helping them during the difficult early years of life," Haider J. Warraich writes in Stat.Two studies further this hypothesis by showing the important roles that grandmothers have in the survival of their grandchildren. A study of birth and death records in Finland for individuals born between 1731 and 1890 found that having a maternal grandmother between the ages of 50 and 75 increased a child's survival rate.Another study found that proximity to grandmother matters, too. The shorter the distance between grandmother and grandchild, the more involved the grandmother can be and the more benefits that accrue to her daughter and grandchildren.The grandmother effect could be a major reason why a new study shows that grandmothers may feel a closer emotional bond to their grandchildren than their own offspring.A study by James Rilling of Emory Universityin Atlanta, Georgia published in "The Royal Society" measured brain function in 50 grandmothers with at least one biological grandchild between 3 and 12 years old.Grandmothers were shown photos of their grandchild, an unknown child, an unknown adult and the same-sex parent of the grandchild. The study found that when a grandmother saw a photo of their grandchild it activated parts of their brain associated with emotional empathy and movement.When the grandmothers saw a photo of their adult child, it activated areas of the brain associated with cognitive empathy. So, to put it simply, when shown the pictures, the grandmothers were attempting to emotionally empathize with their grandchildren while trying to cognitively understand what their adult children were thinking."That suggests that grandmothers are geared toward feeling what their grandchildren are feeling when they interact with them," Rilling said in an Emory news article. "If their grandchild is smiling, they're feeling the child's joy. And if their grandchild is crying, they're feeling the child's pain and distress."Given the importance of the grandmother effect, it's no surprise that our grandmothers seem to be hardwired to love us in the deepest way possible. Science shows that without this incredible bond, humans may not have made it this far. Conversely, it also shows that without having such an important role in their post-reproductive years, our grandparents may not have evolved to live so long.In the end, the relationship appears to be symbiotic. Grandmothers promote the survival of a child who one day may grow up to be a grandparent and live longer because they have such an important role in the life of their grandchild.This article originally appeared on 11.24.21

Hey friend,Do you remember me? It's been a while, I know. I sat behind you in civics in junior high.Do you remember me? You were my base on the cheer squad, and once you caught my head just before it hit the ground after a long day of stunting.You don't remember? Our boys played together on the soccer team in 4th grade.We drank wine out of solo cups in college together.You totally remember. My vernacular is so similar to your own that it's a running joke that I'm not actually Black, but I am.And so are my boys.Friend, I don't get deep enough with you and it's not your fault. I just see the quick twist in your face that quickly screams "I'm uncomfortable" when I broach the subject of race.Discomfort I can deal with most days, but some days it's more than discomfort. Some days it's disbelief, and that hurts more, so I don't tell you.I don't tell you the fear I feel on a daily basis as my boys continue to grow. I don't tell you that all on their own they've developed a healthy fear of the police, and even the school resource officer.I don't tell you that my oldest son has said "the SRO treats the Black kids meaner. It gives me anxiety."I don't tell you that even though we are careful not to watch these awful videos of unarmed people getting shot, your children are showing them at school, and my children have noticed the theme.I would never tell you that as they shoot up to be as tall as I am, soon to tower over me, that my mama heart breaks for reasons you'll never fully grasp.I'd never tell you that at the ripe age of 14, my son "fits the description," and his brother is not far behind.I would never tell you that, because you can't imagine that being truth. You know my boys. You know their hearts. You know they're the sweetest, most respectful and helpful children you've met. The thought of anyone seeing them as a threat just does not cross your mind.I love you for loving my boys, I do. But I need you to love them enough to demand change so parents that look like me aren't afraid our children aren't going to make it home.I need you to love them enough to not just see them as your sons, but to see all boys that look like them as your potential sons.I need you to love them like you love your own sons, because this world doesn't. Love them because my mama heart cannot handle another man being shot that looks like my brothers, cousins, uncles, and sons.Love them because my son has said the words "I can't breathe" when talking about how seeing a police car makes him feel.Love them because my big brother likes to jog.Love them because my younger brother has the best contagious laugh you've ever heard.Love them because my baby brother has the sweetest soul, but it takes him a while to say things. He gets excited and his stutter gets in the way.Love them because the movie American Son is so many Black mothers' realities.Love them so it does not become my reality.Love them and demand America do the same.You know me. I'm your friend.Jacalyn is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, writer and a mother of 4. She runs the blog Stop Yelling Please and has been featured in publications such as HuffPost, Today Parenting Team, Filter Free Parents, Her View From Home and more. She's an advocate for justice and believes everyone has the power to be an agent of changeThis post was originally published on Jacalyn Wetzel's blog, Stop Yelling Please. You can read it here. It first appeared on Upworthy on 5.28.20

Artist Tom Ward has used his incredible illustration techniques to give us some new perspective on modern life through popular Disney characters. "Disney characters are so iconic that I thought transporting them to our modern world could help us see it through new eyes," he told The Metro.Tom says he wanted to bring to life "the times we live in and communicate topical issues in a relatable way."In Ward's "Alt Disney" series, Prince Charming and Pinocchio have fallen victim to smart phone addiction. Ariel is living in a polluted ocean, and Simba and Baloo have been abused by humans. Not all the news is bad though. LeFou form "Beauty and the Beast" has finally come out of the closet and his crush, Gaston, appears to be pretty accepting of the revelation.Although, was it really such a shock?Ward believes that his illustration of Artur from "Sword and the Stone makes" a particularly strong point. "I also think the message of Arthur from The Sword in the Stone sitting on his phone has some resonance today," he said. "He's too engrossed in his phone to experience other opportunities and realize his true potential in life."You can see more of Ward's work on Instagram. Click through the photos to see the slideshow. 1. Pinocchio's selfie See on Instagram This article originally appeared on 9.18.202. LeFou is out and proud.  See on Instagram Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.3. Prince Charming is addicted to the 'gram. See on Instagram Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.4. Poachers have devastated Dumbo's herd. See on Instagram Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.5. The kings of the jungle forced to work for human amusement. See on Instagram Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.6. Freedom is a bear necessity. See on Instagram Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.7. "One more wish. Can you make the Xbox vanish?" See on Instagram Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.8. Phone addiction robs us of the wonder that's right before our eyes.  See on Instagram Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.9. We've become prisoners to safety.  See on Instagram Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.10. The hunt-ed is now the hunt-er. See on Instagram Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.11. Life "Under the Sea" is a lot less fun in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.  See on Instagram Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.12. It's a lot harder to find anything that'll make you wanna chase the White Rabbit these days.  See on Instagram Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.

Despite controversial-but-compelling evidence that homework takes time away from families with little to no appreciable benefit for students, kids continue to slog through hours of school work outside the time they spend in the classroom. And despite evidence that small acts of kindness can infect a community like a positive virus, far too many kids are on either the giving or receiving end of unkind bullying on a regular basis. Perhaps that's why an elementary school in Ireland has decided to do something radical—ditch all homework for the month of December and assign kids "acts of kindness" instead. In the weeks leading up to the holidays, kids at Gaelscoil Mhíchíl Uí Choileáin, Clonakilty have been given a kindness task for each weekday. Mondays they are asked to reach out to and communicate with an elderly person. Tuesdays they make a family member's life easier by taking over a chore or helping out without being asked. Wednesdays are for random acts of kindness of any kind, and Thursdays are for doing something kind for themselves to take care of their own mental and emotional well-being. Students are asked to keep track of their kind deeds in a Kindness Diary. The school has also created a Kindness Bucket, where students can write down and deposit positive observations and affirmations to boost the self-esteem of their schoolmates. On Friday mornings, a random selection of the notes are read aloud for everyone to hear. In addition, each class will cooperate in a collective act of kindness for the community based on the students' own brainstorming as a team. How lovely. According to a Facebook post from the school, the students have been doing similar programs in December for three years running. Last year, the focus was on Gratitude, which resulted in "overwhelming success and positivity." Vice Principal Íde Ní Mhuirí was quotes in the post: "We are encouraging our pupils to think of the real spirit of Christmas, the spirit of kindness and giving. With such an emphasis on the materialistic and commercial aspect of Christmas, we often tend to overlook what it's really all about…. Good will! Unfortunately not everyone is in a position to be able to enjoy Christmas, some are lonely, some are sad, some might yearn for what they do not have and some might simply not enjoy the festivities. But there is nobody in this world who wouldn't benefit from an act of kindness, and the joy of kindness is that it costs nothing. What if schools everywhere did something like this, and not just during the holidays? What if we focused just as much on good character and citizenship as we do on test prep? What if each school took it upon themselves to say, "Being kind is more important than being smart," not just for a month, but always? The most pressing issues our world faces are not so much due to a lack of intelligence or knowledge, but rather a lack of shared values that compel us to care about one another. Without a foundation of basic human decency and kindness, knowledge and skill-building will only lead to more problems, while focusing more energy on kindness can only help build a better world for all of us. As the school noted on Facebook: In this world, consumed by social media, where our young people are constantly experiencing pressure, there is no better way to show them the way forward in the world than by practicing kindness. We all know that helping others makes us feel good about ourselves…. What's not to love about that?!? That feel good factor we experience form helping others cannot be quantified. Our message to the children is very simple: they can be the reason somebody smiles today and they can definitely help make this world a better place for others and for themselves. How wonderful. Less homework and more kindness all around, please and thank you. This article originally appeared on 12.9.19

Ahead of its time. The post “Insane”: The Led Zeppelin song Robert Plant hails as their greatest musical moment first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

A historic moment. The post “A unique sound”: The song that formed Crosby, Stills and Nash first appeared on Far Out Magazine.