Wati was just eight years old when, on the day after Christmas 2004, the massive Indian Ocean tsunami swept her away from her mother and two sisters in Ujong Baroh, Aceh, on the island of Sumatra. Everyone assumed she was dead.
I have a cup on my desk filled with approximately two dozen pens, which at any given time yields a total of maybe one working writing instrument whenever I need it — usually a dull pencil or crayon. That's just my crappy luck. So you'll forgive me if I experience just a twinge of envy when relaying the tale of the 76-year-old woman from England who checked herself into a gastroenterologist's office complaining of diarrhea, only to learn from an CT scan that she had been carrying around a pen inside her for approximately 25 years. And it still wrote.
For your daily dose of internet uplift, we bring you the amazing story of Regan — a friendly Yellow Lab who happened to notice a bag lying on the side of an Iowa highway, and proceeded to drag it all the way home. Regan plopped his gruesome delivery — a Meow Mix bag covered in blood and guts with something moving around inside — on his master's doorstep, and whined until they reluctantly opened it.
Three months ago, new images of a skeletal Somali baby named Minhaj Gedi Farah shocked the world. When taken by the International Rescue Committee from Dadaab, the world's largest refugee camp and a severe famine zone, to a safer and better-equipped camp in neighboring Kenya, the seven-month-old weighed just 7 pounds. Minhaj's condition was so severe, he instantly became "the face of famine." Minhaj was given three blood transfusions and put on an intensive feeding regimen with Plumpynut, a fortified peanut paste, and now weighs a healthy 18 pounds and is crawling. Look at those chubby cheeks!
On October 4th, a stray Beagle mix in an overcrowded animal shelter in Florence, Ala., was loaded into a gas chamber with 18 other dogs marked for death. 21-year-old Cody Berry, the worker assigned this awful task, locked the door, turned a key and pressed a button that releases carbon monoxide into the chamber. He returned later, The Star-Ledger reports, and heard something moving inside the chamber.
The NY Times has a follow-up on the 33 rescued Chilean miners, most of whom are unable to find jobs and find themselves poorer than a year ago, when their 69-day ordeal began. The sponsored trips to Israel, the U.K. and Disney World have all but dried up. What's left is a group of men suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder.
From Pravda, the story of a Moscow woman who was stabbed in the heart by her husband, but whose silicone breast implants absorbed the blade, preventing her from dying. Fake tits save lives.
The Great East Coast Rumbler of 2011 has, for the most part, produced a lot of bad news. Not terrible news, mind you — just mildly inconvenient, bummer-type news. Cracked monuments. Missed golf putts. Random stabbings. Belching orangutans. That kind of thing. But what's this? Not just a story of earthquake uplift — but a full-fledged miracle. The earthquake gave a deaf man his hearing back!
Twelve-year-old Dale Ostrander was swimming in the Pacific Ocean in Washington with his church youth group on Friday when he was dragged underwater by a riptide. He was submerged for 20 minutes before rescue workers found him. Now he's just, you know, totally fine.
Praise Frosty! That's the name of the 73-year-old man who had a priceless portrait of Jesus Christ sitting in the closet of his Tennessee motor home.
Colorado native Don Taylor, who describes himself as "a nonreligious individual," was stopped dead in his tracks when he stumbled upon this divine apparition on his daily routine. Yes, a creeping vine on a telephone pole had taken on the unmistakable form of a crucified Jesus Christ. Local authorities warn potential pilgrimage-makers not to climb the pole to kiss or embrace Telephone Pole Jesus, however, lest they want to receive a 765,000-volt message of peace and love from their Leafy Savior. [7News, photo via Don Taylor's Facebook]
Hooray! A black bear whose head was stuck inside a plastic jug for three long weeks was found roaming around the foothills of the Tennessee Smoky Mountains. Despite being down to half its normal weight, the bear is doing just fine.
How are your baby-catching skills? Probably not as good as those of Wu Juping, a 32-year-old Chinese woman who apparently caught ("bare-handed," according to state news agency Xinhua) a two-year-old girl who'd fallen from a tenth-floor apartment.
Can you guess who has been spotted in Lenoir County, North Carolina? That's right, it's Jesus again, in his familiar "on the crucifix" pose. (Get a new pose already, Jesus!) On toast? No, in kudzu! He is everywhere.
Nine days after the earthquake and tsunami devastated northern Japan, a 16-year-old boy and his 80-year-old grandmother were pulled alive from the rubble of their home in Ishinomaki City.
