Today marks two unofficial holidays that are right up the Nice News alley: the International Day of Peace and World Gratitude Day. We think these commemorations go pretty hand in hand — maintaining a state of gratitude is certainly peace-promoting. To celebrate, revisit our article on different ways to express and increase thankfulness.
We’ll cut right to the chase so you can book your ticket stat: A recent study suggests traveling may help halt premature aging.Of course, getting older is a privilege, and there’s no magic potion or rewind button that will keep us young forever (yet). But lead study author Fangli Hu explained that “while it can’t be stopped, it can be slowed down” — and exploring the world may help with that. Analyzing tourism via the theory of entropy, defined as “the general trend of the universe toward death and disorder,” researchers from Australia’s Edith Cowan University found that leisurely travel can help alleviate chronic stress, release tension and fatigue in the muscles and joints, and encourage the overall healthy functioning of the body’s self-defense system. “Tourism isn’t just about leisure and recreation. It could also contribute to people’s physical and mental health,” Hu said in a statement, adding: “Put simply, the self-defense system becomes more resilient.” Inspired to go somewhere ASAP? Us too — consider one of these leafy autumn escapes.
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A New Solution to Save Trees? Giving Fallen Leaves a Second Life
Releaf Paper/ Instagram
The fall equinox is tomorrow — cue the cozy movies, pumpkin spice everything, and the onset of leaves sprinkling the streets. For a Ukrainian startup called Releaf Paper, though, deciduous trees mark more than just a new season, as it’s working to turn dead city leaves into new paper products. Although dead leaves serve myriad purposes in supporting biodiversity, like helping to fertilize soil, it’s different in asphalt-laden cities, where piles might get raked up and put in a landfill or burned. So Releaf works with metros around Europe to collect fallen leaves and then extract cellulose fiber, a key ingredient of paper, to make everything frombags and boxes to these cute notebooks. This way, the company is recycling a plentiful resource and preventing healthy trees from being cut down to make paper. “Really, it’s a good solution because we are keeping the balance,” Releaf’s founder Valentyn Frechka told Euronews, adding, “It’s like a win-win model.”
Tech
Teen Coder Is Building First-of-Its-Kind American Sign Language App — Exclusive
Courtesy of Dhanush Eashwar
Talking with 17-year-old Dhanush Eashwar is a surefire way to feel confident about the future, as Nice News happily learned during a recent telephone interview with the inspiring computer science wiz. Eashwar is one of the 2024 winners of Apple’s Swift Student Challenge, which tasks young creators with developing apps that solve real-world problems. His submission, Finger Dance, is geared toward facilitating better communication between the Deaf and hearing communities. Using machine learning and augmented reality, it recognizes users’ hand poses and classifies them as American Sign Language letters, helping beginners learn ASL. “That’s the thing I love so much about computer science — it’s not a theoretical thing,” Eashwar shares. “It’s a very hands-on, practical, problem-solving system that you can use to help others.” The winning program was created specifically for the challenge and isn’t in app stores. But the high school senior is hard at work on an even more ambitious project he says will be available to download in the future: an app that translates ASL hand signs to English in real-time — “like a Google Translate for visual languages,” he explains.
In Other News
Researchers found that3D mammograms are more effective than 2D scans at detecting early-stage breast cancer and reducing false positives.
Sawyer McCarthy, a 13-year-old who was born blind, went viral for his moving rendition of the national anthem at a Columbia Fireflies baseball game in South Carolina earlier this year. When asked how he imagines people feel when they hear him sing, he had a simple yet profound response: “Joyful.”
Photo of the Day
The Tolly/Instagram
In England, pubs are more than just a spot to grab a pint or bite to eat — there’s an entire culture and history surrounding the watering holes. And the pub pictured here, The Tollemache Arms in Harrington, Northamptonshire, is the best in all of Britain, according to the 2024 Great British Pub Awards. Check out a map with the other winners to bookmark for your next trip to the U.K.
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