At 33 years old, Kaedi Cecala faced a devastating diagnosis. Doctors told her she had myelodysplastic syndrome, commonly known as MDS. The disease affects bone marrow and can be life-threatening if it progresses into acute myeloid leukemia, Good Morning America reported. “Either the low counts from the MDS or the development of leukemia will prove life-threatening,” Dr. Jayesh Mehta, a hematologist at Northwestern Medicine’s Lurie Cancer Center in Chicago, explained to GMA. Kaedi Cecala wanted to live and did everything she could to survive. That meant aggressive chemotherapy while trying to find a compatible stem cell donor. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kaedi Cecala | Chicago Bridal & Event Hairstylist (@nichebeauty.bykaedi) Kaedi Cecala Found a Donor Far Away But there was a bit of a catch, Kaedi Cecala and the donor remained anonymous to each other for two years. “I remember looking, and it’s just like, who is this person, and my angel, honestly,” Kaedi told GMA. A 26-year-old Polish man named Karol Zwierzyńsk saved Kaedi’s life. Karol said she never thought twice about donating. Kaedi had no issues with the transplant and felt great. She and her now-husband, Mikey Cecala, began planning their wedding. Kaedi knew she wanted to find her donor and have them present at the wedding. Karol flew in from Poland to meet Kaedi and Mikey and surprise their guests. “Our guest of honor and his wife are here with us tonight,” Mikey shared during the reception. Karol took the microphone and shared a toast with Kaedi, Mikey Cecala, and their totally astonished guests. “I’m not a hero here,” Karol said. “So please raise your glasses for Kaedi.” As he spoke, Karol made a very sweet remark that touched the hearts of many and may even have piqued their interest in stem cell donation. “Somewhere out there, your Kaedi might be waiting for you,” he said. What a beautiful and selfless gift. This story’s featured image can be found here

Now I've covered some exotic hunting, but this is on another level

New York Times reporter Kellen Browning is a superfan of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) – in April 2025 he celebrated the “monster crowds” the younger leftist generated on her “Fighting Oligarchy” with older leftist Sen. Bernie Sanders. After an embarrassing performance at the Munich Security Conference in which she blanked out, made factual gaffes, and otherwise demonstrated the perils of rarely being challenged by reporters stateside, she called in a Times reporter, who’d been tweeting about her European tour, for a lifeline. He readily obliged with stenography, even admitting it on X: AOC came to Munich to warn about the far-right. Coverage focused on 2028 & verbal missteps. She gave me a call. "Everyone’s got this story wrong, that this is about me running for president," she said…. The story’s headline deck made it clear Ocasio-Cortez was in charge of the story’s framing: “After First Big Overseas Trip, Ocasio-Cortez Expresses Frustrations -- The congresswoman argued in an interview that presidential speculation, which included scrutiny of her slip-ups, had overshadowed her anti-authoritarian message at the Munich Security Conference.” But rather than the substance of her arguments, it was her on-camera stumbles when answering questions about specific world affairs that rocketed around conservative social media and drove plenty of the discussion about her visit, as political observers speculated whether they would make a dent in a potential presidential run in 2028. .... The way her performance was microscopically dissected through the lens of what it meant for a hypothetical White House campaign frustrated Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, 36. She said she worried that her message — warning that wealthy world leaders must better provide for their working classes or risk their countries sliding toward authoritarianism — was being lost in all the commotion. So on Monday night, while still in Berlin, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez spoke to The New York Times by phone and tried to underscore that message. …. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez argued that efforts to make clips of “any five-to-10-second thing” from her remarks go viral online, especially in the conservative ecosystem, had been done to “distract from the substance of what I am saying.” What substance? At least Browning remembered the ideological labeling sometimes, even if it was employed more in praise than as a warning label, which is standard procedure for conservative figures. Mary Robinson, a former president of Ireland and the former head of a group of world leaders known as the Elders, said that Ms. Ocasio-Cortez offered a generational freshness and that her left-wing ideals appealed to Europeans. “I’m not sure America’s ready for that yet,” she said. “But maybe it is.” Still, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s missteps were striking for a politician who is usually quick on her feet and is considered one of the best communicators in politics. In addition to the answer on Taiwan, critics highlighted comments referring to the “Trans-Pacific Partnership” (she clarified online that she meant Atlantic) and suggesting that Venezuela was below the Equator (the country lies just to the north). The journalist commiserated with AOC against political enemies rude enough to notice her painful performance. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s frustration, she said, was that she felt there had been an effort “to shadow and obscure this all through the idea of a horse race….  Online reaction to Browning's clean-up op was scathing. Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald sarcastically parroted Browning on X: So anyway, last night I was sitting around, and a politician called me. She told me to get a pen and write down what she wants me to put in the NYT about her, in response to widespread criticism. So I wrote it down and put it in the paper, while adding my own defenses of her. In the words of National Review’s inimitable Charles Cooke: One could dissect her words for the next ten years straight, with the best of intentions, and still one would not glean anything coherent or useful from them. This wasn’t the fault of “conservative social media” or “rocketing” or “speculation”; it was the fault of Ocasio-Cortez herself, who went to a security conference, was asked questions about security, and fell flat on her face at the first hurdle. 

A new study of the only complete wooden coffin from the Roman Iron Age, the Princess of Bagicz burial, has solved the debate about its age and revealed fresh information about the deceased. The coffin was discovered near the village of Bagicz, northwestern Poland, in 1899 when it was literally fell out of a cliff on the Baltic Sea coast, exposed by erosion. It held the remains of an adult woman buried with a bronze fibula, a bone pin, a pair of bronze bracelets and a necklace of glass and amber beads. The burial had been preserved for almost 2,000 years in the low-oxygen waterlogged sandy soil. In addition to the coffin, organic materials including a wooden stool and fragments of woolen clothing and bovine hide had survived in excellent condition. Unfortunately, those elements did not survive the Second World War. Because of her fine grave goods and the location of the burial in an isolated location overlooking the ocean, at the time she was believed to be someone of extremely high social status, earning her the monicker the Princess of Bagicz. Later discoveries nearby revealed that in fact her burial was part of a larger Iron Age cemetery, so she wasn’t quite at the “princess” level of elite, although certainly a wealthy woman. The coffin and its lid were made from a hollowed-out oak trunk, a burial style typical of the Iron Age Wielbark culture (1st-4th centuries A.D.). Only traces of the original log coffins are found in these burials, making the Princess a unique survivor from the Roman Iron Age in Poland. The burial has been extensively studied since its discovery. Today about 30 bones, including her skull, survive, blackened from centuries spent in her log coffin. Osteological analysis found she was between 25 and 30 years old when she died and petite at about 145 cm (4’9″) tall. Despite her young age, she suffered from osteoarthritis in the lower spine, suggesting she performed hard manual labor. The question of the dating of the burial has been debated in the scholarship for decades. A 2018 radiocarbon analysis returned an approximate date range of 160 B.C. to 50 A.D., which is significantly earlier than the date suggested by the artifacts in her grave, ca. 110-160 A.D. Researchers in that investigation hypothesized that the discrepancy may have been caused by a mistake in the C14 measurements that can sometimes occur when the deceased at a diet rich in fish. Stable isotope analysis of her teeth found no trace of Baltic fish, just a variety of animal proteins that could have included freshwater fish. To better understand the dating discrepancies, a dendrochronological analysis was conducted in 2024. The results revealed the oak tree from which her coffin was fashioned had been felled around 120 AD (±7–8 years). This indicates that the archaeological typological dating was closer in accuracy than the radiocarbon dating. The researchers hypothesize that diet or environmental factors, including the reservoir effect, the hard-water effect, or both, may have influenced the radiocarbon dates. The reservoir effect caused by organisms consuming fish or water food sources which have lower C14 levels than the atmosphere. It can result in false aging, making the material seem older than it is. The hard water effect — consumption of organisms that live in hard water causing artificially aged C14 results — could have had a similar impact. However, this possible explanation for the radiocarbon dates is contradicted by the research team’s strontium isotope analysis results. They found her likely place of origin was Öland, Sweden, but there is no reservoir effect documented in archaeological remains of the area. The results of the study have been published in the journal Archaeometry, available here to subscribers or pay-for-play.

President Donald Trump faulted investigators Thursday for publicly discussing the use of an FBI device intended to detect Bluetooth signals from missing Arizona woman Nancy Guthrie's pacemaker, as authorities said they were sifting through thousands of tips.

Today, Feb. 19, Alysa Liu, American figure skater, stood on an Olympic podium and received a gold medal. Her achievement is truly the American dream, and even more so as her father came to America seeking…

The United Kingdom has refused a request from U.S. President Donald Trump to allow American forces to use British Royal Air Force (RAF) bases as launch points for potential military operations against Iran, escalating tensions between Washington and London just as concerns over Tehran’s nuclear program intensify. According to a report in the New York […]

Few individuals have had an impact on the childhoods of millions and the imaginations of people of all ages like Jim Henson. From Sesame Street to The Muppet Show to The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, Gen Xers grew up with Henson's magic being a familiar and comforting presence. And to this day, over three decades after his death, the characters he created are still household names.For those of us who were raised on Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, Kermit, and Miss Piggy, Henson's creatures feel as real as any living, breathing performer from our childhoods. But it's not just because we were kids when we were introduced to them. Even adults who met the Muppets found themselves transported into Henson's imaginary world, and after seeing interviews of the puppeteer with his creatures, it's easy to see why. Watch: Henson didn't even pretend to not be controlling Kermit. He didn't bother with ventriloquism. And yet, Kermit feels truly alive and separate from the person animating him. It almost feels surreal. Or perhaps just...real. Henson's characters even convinced film crew membersBoth guests and crew members alike found themselves pulled into Henson's world, even while fully understanding that the puppets were being controlled by people. The crew would sometimes move the boom mic to a puppet instead of the puppeteer. Directors would sometimes give stage directions directly to the Muppet instead of the human animating it. Dick Cavett, who interviewed Henson with his Muppets, said, “No matter how much you know about this, it’s completely convincing.”Even when a Muppet would explain the fact that the person was speaking to a puppet, it still seemed like a sentient being. Case in point:(This may be the one time you see Henson swear, but in context, it's brilliantly wholesome.) @guygilchrist My old boss’s last public performance as Rowlf.

You’re standing in line at the grocery store and you see someone cute. You’d like to strike up a conversation without it being awkward...but that feels kinda nerve-wracking, right? Or maybe you’re standing around at a party and see someone you’d like to get to know, and want to approach them in a way that doesn’t feel uncomfortable. That probably feels a little scary, too.The good news is that with a few easy tricks, you can improve your communication skills and feel confident approaching anyone.According to years of psychological research, several principles can help make striking up conversations with strangers easier. The great thing is that they all work best when approached in a casual, effortless way.1. Comment on the environmentLet’s say you’re at a party in someone’s living room. You can comment on physical objects: “Gee, this guy sure has a lot of books.” Or maybe you’re at a party where everyone brought food: “The food smells great. What are you grabbing first?” You can also comment on people’s behavior: “Is it me, or is everyone really well dressed tonight?”This works because of the Joint Attention Effect, which says that when two people pay attention to the same thing at the same time, they create a common point of reference. This shared focus can immediately make people feel closer, even in social situations.2. Make a playful commentPeople will usually respond when you make a playful or unexpected comment, as long as it isn’t threatening. For example, if the person you want to talk to is holding a cocktail, you might joke, “That drink looks serious.” If you’re stuck in a long line: “Do you know why we’re here? I almost forgot why we’re in line—it’s been so long.” Or if you’re at a child’s birthday party and spot another parent you’d like to talk to: “Be honest, how tired of Little Caesars’ pizza are you?”This works because of the Benign Violations Theory, which suggests that when someone violates a social norm in a non-threatening way, it makes people laugh and activates bonding mechanisms. It signals to your new friend that you’re playful and friendly, and when they laugh at your joke, it shows that you share similar values.3. Ask their opinionAnother effortless way to engage someone you don’t know is to ask their opinion. For example, if you’re in the produce section at the supermarket, you might ask, “Do these peaches look good to you?” Or if you’re at a party and bring up a pop culture moment most people watched: “So, was Bad Bunny great at the Super Bowl, or is he overrated?”This works because of what’s known as Cognitive Ease: people are more likely to respond to questions that are easy to process. Asking someone for their subjective opinion is non-threatening, and it’s easy for them to come up with an answer that makes them feel comfortable. Plus, if social media has taught us anything, it’s that everyone loves to share their opinions.Next step: Pivot and ask questionsGiven that all of these strategies are psychologically designed to elicit a response, even from someone you’ve never met, you have a strong chance of sparking a conversation. The key is to widen the exchange once you get that response by asking two more questions. In fact, a Harvard University study found that one of the easiest ways to be likable is to start a conversation with a question and then follow up with two more.“We identify a robust and consistent relationship between question-asking and liking,” the study's authors wrote. “People who ask more questions, particularly follow-up questions, are better liked by their conversation partners.”These three psychological rules show that it doesn’t take a Herculean effort to coax a stranger into having a conversation. All you have to do is make an effortless invitation by tapping into the environment you share with them, make a playful joke, or ask their opinion. Then ask a few questions, listen, and there’s a good chance you’ve made a new friend.

Iconic. The post The Minnesota highway that Bob Dylan fixated on: “I always felt like I’d started on it” first appeared on Far Out Magazine.