By all logic, Howard Snitzer should have died on March 4, 2011. On that day, he collapsed on the sidewalk outside of Don’s Foods grocery store, suffering a massive heart attack. However, thanks to over 20 strangers performing CPR on him for 96 minutes, Howard survived.
Howard lived in Goodhue, Minnesota, a small Midwestern town that has a population of less than 1,000 people and barely has any traffic lights. Even if Howard was in a bustling, heavily-populated city, 94% of people who suffer sudden cardiac arrest die before they make it to the hospital. However, the quick action of the few neighbors around him saved his life.
Howard Snitzer poses for a photo surrounded by the folks who helped saved his life.Photo credit: Mayo Clinic
A grocery clerk and a customer saw Howard collapse outside of the store and immediately called 911. Two mechanics who ran the car shop from across the street were volunteer first responders trained in CPR. They pulled Howard into the store and used a defibrillator while performing CPR. Paramedic crews from three different towns responded to the call, moving Howard to the Goodhue firehouse, all the while taking turns performing CPR.
"We just lined up and when one guy had enough, the next guy jumped in," Roy Lodermeier, one of the mechanics, told ABC News. "That's how it went."
"Usually, there was someone on the sidelines saying, 'Hey, you want me to take over? You need a break?’" said Candace Koehn, an off-duty corrections officer who was one of the first to help with CPR duties.
In the end, a line of over 20 people took turns, rotating in and out, to keep Howard’s blood pumping through CPR for over an hour until a helicopter from the Mayo Clinic arrived to fly Howard to the nearest hospital for treatment. Typically, paramedics cease CPR after 45 minutes if the victim doesn’t have a pulse, however Howard was showing other vital signs that encouraged the Mayo Clinic workers to continue CPR and fight for his life along with him. After one last massive dose of antiarrhythmic drugs and a shock from a defibrillator, Howard’s heart restarted after nearly two hours of resuscitation.
People who live in smaller communities know that due to their limited resources and access to them, they’re on their own. It can feel isolating at times. However, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t help. In fact, the community is the only thing that can be counted on. Yet these people weren’t family or friends of Howard. Most of them didn’t even know each other either. They were just a group of people that came together under one common goal: Let’s save this man.
What can be learned from small communities like Goodhue can be replicated to larger ones, too. The 1995 Kobe Earthquake in Japan saw over one million person-days of volunteer activity, a measure of the number of people times the hours they contributed. The 2025 Los Angeles Wildfires in the Pacific Palisades and Eaton communities saw strangers chipping in to help the elderly and incapacitated evacuate their homes, feed volunteer rescue crews, and even save horses.
Whether it’s in rural communities like Goodhue or sprawling metropolitan areas like Los Angeles, the common human instinct is to come together to help your neighbor. Whether that neighbor is literally next door or a person you’ve never met.
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In an innovative study, researchers have determined that ancient Egyptian mummies actually smell nice.
If I asked 100 strangers to predict the odors of mummified bodies, I would expect adjectives like "disgusting," "rotten," and "putrid." I definitely wouldn’t expect "woody," "spicy," and "sweet"—three positive descriptors used by scientists who recently examined the scents of nine ancient Egyptianmummies.
The fascinating experiment, conducted by a team from UCL and the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, is beneficial on multiple fronts. By analyzing the chemical signatures of various aromas, researchers can assess potential degradation without disturbance, helping museums preserve the mummies. Another bonus: being able to recreate the smell on a chemical level.
One of the scientists, Dr. Cecilia Bembibre, told BBC Radio 4’s Today program, "We want to share the experience we had smelling the mummified bodies, so we're reconstructing the smell to be presented in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo."
Given the overall pleasing scents, ancient Egyptians appear to have done an excellent job in their complex mummification process. "To the ancient Egyptians, mummification was an important mortuary practice aimed at preserving the body and soul for the afterlife through a detailed ritual of embalming of the deceased using oils, waxes and balms," Dr. Ali Abdelhalim, director of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, reportedly said in a press release, echoing the abstract of the researchers’ study, published in Journal of the American Chemical Society.
"In films and books, terrible things happen to those who smell mummified bodies," Dr. Bembibre told the BBC. "We were surprised at the pleasantness of them."
But how exactly does one smell mummies without opening a sarcophagus and causing damage? The creative solution was inserting a small tube, allowing them to measure the odor without disturbing the physical material. It’s the first study of its kind, said UCL scientist and the paper’s lead author, Matija Strlič, in the press release: “The smell of mummified bodies has for years attracted significant interest from experts and the general public, but no combined chemical and perceptual scientific study has been conducted until now."
In a video interview at Euronews, Strlič elaborated on their process, admitting they were initially worried about finding "notes or hints of decaying bodies."
"We were specifically worried that there might be indications of microbial degradation or microbiological degradation," he said. "But that was not the case." Strlič also noted encountering some "floral" notes, which "probably indicates that some of the mummification materials are plant-based," like resins from pine trees or juniper.
Even thousands of years later, ancient Egyptian culture continues to stir the imaginations of both scientists and the general public. In recent years, for example, archeologists have discovered a 4,281-foot secret tunnel beneath an Egyptian temple and a 3,000-year-old fort linked to a powerful pharaoh. Plus, in an experiment that unintentionally sparked a million memes, researchers in the U.K. used 3D-printing technology to reconstruct the vocal tract of Nesyamun, an ancient Egyptian priest, and produce a single sound. He was a worthy subject for the study, given that, per coffin inscriptions, his dying wish was to speak in the afterlife.
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View of Cuevas del Drach, in Porto Cristo, Manacor, Mallorca, Spain.
View of Cuevas del Drach, in Porto Cristo, Manacor, Mallorca, Spain.
Imagine standing at the entrance of a dark, mysterious cave, its passages twisting deep underground. While the thought of sliding into the unknown might spook most, for thrill-seekers, it's just another day of exploration. The @ActionAdventureTwins, a duo of cave explorers on YouTube, captured this eerie experience by dropping a GoPro into one of the deepest pits in the US. The video, now a viral hit, has left many viewers with chills.
The video, posted by James and Edward, the @ActionAdventureTwins, has racked up 362,000 views and nearly a thousand comments. It also features guests Nate and Ben, identical twins from Pennsylvania who run their own adventure channel, @DeepFreedom.
“We took a GoPro down into the deepest pit in the U.S, and are the first people to drop it down to the bottom of this cave,” the team claimed in the caption but it should be noted that the cave has been explored and mapped by several speleologists for decades before this team. The spot in question here is the Fantastic Pit in Ellison's Cave, located in Walker County on Pigeon Mountain in the Appalachian Plateaus of Northwest Georgia. It is the deepest unobstructed underground pit in the country at 586 feet. Ellison's Cave is 12 miles long and 1,063 feet deep, making it the 12th deepest cave in the United States.
Representative Image Source: Pexels | francesco ungaro
At the start of the footage, one of the twins explains, "We're gonna rappel down like, 128 feet, and we're gonna see the deepest cave in America, and we're gonna drop a GoPro down it." The duo stand at the rocky mouth of the pit, smeared with soil, tangled vines, thick bushes, and dried leaf mold.
The explorers drop the GoPro camera down the opening, sending it deep into the dark belly of the pit. The first drop is about 125 feet down. Then the GoPro is dropped down another pit with a depth of about 586 feet. The footage first depicts scenery of flying dust motes with the sounds of dripping water. The rope attached to the camera descends, cascading between the jagged rocky structures and craggy walls.
In a moment, the team sees a waterfall. “That’s cool,” they exclaim. As the camera goes deeper into the pit, the audio becomes muffled. The camera rotates in circular motion revealing the precipitous cave walls with monstrous accumulation of limestone formations and fractured gypsum rocks. The camera then flashes the bedrock of the cave mounded with stones and pebbles. At this time, the GoPro is 714 feet below the Earth's surface.
Finally, they pull the rope upwards from the black abyss. While pulling it back, they almost seem to lose the camera as it gets entangled in the axle of the drill. One of the twins says at the end of the footage, “I don’t know what this footage looks like but I am just surprised we got the GoPro back.”
The footage of the shadowy chasm gave eerie vibes to several people. “I’m not going to lie, when it got to the bottom I was anxious for a second. I saw one of those white rocks and was like... omg is that a ghost,” commented @bombud1. @trilfiger448 added, “The muffled descending sound was terrifying! And the spinning...I was just waiting for something to jump-scare me.”
@waya420 said, “Honestly surprised, the bottom wasn't full of water. It must drain out somewhere even deeper. It would be fun to explore it with a drone if you could.”
If this wasn’t enough scary an experience, the pair of cavers twins descended the pit a second time in November 2023, this time going all the way down themselves. They spent 12 hours inside this cave, and narrated their experience in the caption, “We can't believe we finally managed to drop down the pit after planning this for a long time. We will be back to this cave to see where it goes down there!”
Correction: The article originally stated that the Ellison's Cave was the deepest pit in America but it is the deepest unobstructed pit in the country. The same has been updated. The error is regretted.
From Stonehenge to the Easter Island statues, scientists continue to be baffled by ancient structures whose origins remain to be a mystery. In a recent discovery about 12.4 miles east of Dijon, France, near the gravel pits of the verdant Ouche valley, relics of ancient life dating back millennia have been unearthed, reported IFL Science.
Representative Image Source: Plant growing in sand (Getty Images)
Archaeologists from the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap) excavated three areas in the plain and discovered these artifacts and historic structures scattered across an area of approximately 15 acres. These relics revealed occupations between the Neolithic Age and the early Iron Age, as Inrap stated in a press release. The oldest occupation was revealed through a monument consisting of three nested enclosures. There was an 8-meter (26-foot) long "horseshoe" enclosure attached to a circular enclosure 11 meters (36 feet) in diameter and another open enclosure interlocked with the central enclosure. Archaeologists said that the presence of gravel in two enclosures hinted at the existence of a palisade. The team also took stratigraphic sections of the monument, analyzing the layers deposited into it, and suggested that the three enclosures were from the same timeframe.
Representative Image Source: Naracoorte Caves, South Australia. An archeologist brushes soil from fossils at an excavation site.(Getty Images)
“This type of monument seems unprecedented and currently no comparison has been established,” researchers wrote in the press release. "The dating still remains uncertain, however, the only artifacts discovered in the ditches correspond to cut flints which would suggest a chrono-cultural attribution to the Neolithic period." The team further announced that a radiocarbon analysis of the monument would be carried out to assess its chronology in a more elaborate manner.
The team also came across several objects tucked just under the topsoil that suggested that they belonged to the “Bell Beaker period.” The Bell Beaker culture was named after the inverted bell beaker that was used by people for drinking during the European Bronze Age, particularly around 2800 BC. Objects found during the excavation also included seven flint arrowheads, two archer's bracers, a flint lighter, and a copper alloy dagger. They also observed traces of iron oxide and pyrite on an armband, indicating that they were used to light fires.
“Analyses of the composition of the copper alloy of the dagger should make it possible to establish its origin and provide us with information on commercial exchanges at that time,” the team wrote, and added, “The palynological and carpological analyses of the clayey layers at the bottom of these structures provide a lot of information on the natural environment and the landscape of the valley in the first half of the second millennium BC.”
In another excavation, the team found “a necropolis of five circular enclosures” estimated to belong to the period between 1500 BC and 1300 BC. It included four open enclosures and one closed enclosure. The largest open enclosure, featuring a diameter of 24 meters, comprised of remnants of a burial and a funeral pyre. However, most of the burials or unburned bones weren’t preserved because of the acidity of the soil. Scrambled inside the ditch of this enclosure, they also stumbled upon five copper alloy pins and a necklace of forty amber beads that helped them date the necropolis.
Representative Image Source: Woman's hands using a brush to clean up a piece of ancient pottery on an archaeological site (Getty Images)
The last occupation that they discovered was estimated to date back to the first Iron Age, something they proposed after dating the corresponding items found there. Following these excavations, the archaeologists wrote in the press release, “Combined with paleo-environmental studies, they will provide a great deal of information on spatial occupation that will make it possible to propose a scenario for the evolution of this territory over the ages.”
This article originally appeared last year.
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It's 2:00 AM. Why you can't sleep doesn't even matter. You simply can't. These days, it's less about infomercials and more about social media scrolling, but either way, you still can't escape those relentless, bombarding ads. And sometimes, you just can't resist clicking that "Buy Now" button, no matter how hard you try. But fear not. There are times when, in the sober light of day, that package arrives and turns out to be the BEST THING YOU OWN.
Parker in a "Snuggie(tm) for Dogs" | Fuzzy Gerdes | Flickrwww.flickr.com
Let's start with one I can personally attest to: The Snuggie. Yes, many of us were caught off guard with this one. 3:00 AM on a sleepless winter night, and a lady popped up on TV wearing a blanket WITH SLEEVES? Obviously, this was a must-buy. And boy, do they hold up. Many agree, even those who initially received one as a joke. Said one user, "I got a Snuggie in a work Secret Santa/gift exchange thing, and I'm not going to lie, it's beige and ugly, but man, is it ever the best thing."
Another concurred, as did their cat: "People who hate on Snuggies have never owned one. Those things are amazing. Mine was sage green, and my cats stole it from me. They liked to crawl into the sleeves."
One person argued, "Why not just get a nice, fluffy bathrobe?" and they were put in their place. "Try putting a bathrobe, or any other garment with sleeves on it, shirt, or jacket, or whatever, on backwards, and you'll have your answer. Plus, bathrobes are designed to end above your feet. They don't double as a blanket. And my cats can't fit in the sleeves." (Starting to think that person's cat has access to Reddit.)
One person swears by the Wubble Bubble Ball, which is described on their website with this slogan: "The Amazing Wubble Bubble Ball: looks like a bubble, but plays like a ball." While a few people disagree and say the "ball" pops too easily, a Redditor shared, "I got my little sister one of those Wubble Bubble Balls, and it's amazingly fun. Definitely worth the twenty bucks."
I suppose if that malfunctions, could still be a giant distraction for a cat?
Ruby's Diner Cruise at the Beach / Redondo Beach | We'll be ...www.flickr.com
The first response was less than a stellar review: "The GD 'ShamWow.' You'll say 'wow' every time. As in, 'wow, it almost cleaned that spill' or 'wow, I should have just used a paper towel.'"
But they were firmly called out by more than one Reddit user. One earnestly said, "Believe it or not, they're actually great at getting up large amounts of water. We had flooding, and they absorbed a crazy amount of water."
Another had a creative, and possibly even more exciting, use for the item: "I dunno. I like them. We sewed my puppy a jacket out of ShamWows so she would dry faster after a bath in winter."
One person bravely opened up and admitted that, in a very weak, late-night moment, they caved and got… well, nearly everything.
"One morning I woke up a few hours before work.... couldn't go back to bed. I ended up buying the following:
Steak knife set (huge set): Worked out okay. Got several sets for 'ordering within the next 15 minutes.' Gave them away as gifts. Was pleased with everything.
Ronco food dehydrator: Love it. Make some sweet beef jerky with this thing. Always been happy. Banana chips are good too.
ShamWow: I don't even know if I used them, but I'm sure they're sweet.
Slap Chop: Vince is awesome, so I bought it. I actually really enjoy this.
That's all I can think of for now. I spent probably $300, and I regret nothing."
From a balanced diet to regular exercise, many of us are dedicated to habits that might extend our lifespan. While stories of people living past 100 continue to inspire curiosity, scientists now believe they may have pinpointed the upper limit of human life without medical intervention. According to a report by UNILAD, statisticians at Tilburg University and Rotterdam's Erasmus University have delved into this very question.
Smiling senior man wearing beret sitting in armchair . (Representative image source: Westend61 for Getty Images)
Their study analyzed the lifespans of over 75,000 people who passed away in the 30 years leading up to 2017. By examining the age at death among this extensive group, researchers sought to estimate how long humans might live by following a healthy lifestyle alone. They concluded that while many people can reach their 90s through good habits, the maximum age achievable under ideal conditions caps around 115 years.
It was also discovered that women live a slightly longer life than men since a woman's maximum lifespan can reach up to 115.7 years while the same was estimated to be 114.1 years for men. "On average, people live longer, but the very oldest among us have not gotten older over the last thirty years. There is certainly some kind of a wall here. Of course, the average life expectancy has increased. Nevertheless, the maximum ceiling itself hasn't changed," Professor John Einmahl, one of three scientists who was associated with the study, told AFP in an interview.
Smiling senior woman looking at husband while dancing in ballroom. (Representative image source: Thomas Barwick for Getty Images)
Even though the research suggests that it is highly unlikely for a human being to live beyond 115 years, Professor Einmahl revealed that there are certain instances when people can surpass the maximum lifespan as well. The Guinness Book of World Records has named a French lady named Jeanne Louise Calment as the oldest person to have ever lived as per documentation available so far. Calment was born on 21 February 1875 and passed away on 4 August 1997 at the age of 122 years and 164 days. She not only witnessed the Eiffel Tower being built but she was born even before Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone.
Some believe that her secret to longevity was her lifestyle which did not require her to work hard to provide for her family. She married a wealthy distant cousin and used to swim, play tennis, cycle, and skate which helped her live a healthy life. Calment outlived her husband, daughter and her grandson. She was healthy throughout her lifetime and even started fencing at the age of 85. Her diet included food rich in olive oil and she used it for her skincare too. Even though Calment smoked for the longest time till she was 115 years old and had a glass of wine every once in a while, it did not affect her health. Calment also became a recording artist at 120 and her voice was featured on a four-track album titled "Time Mistress."
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person holding white ceramic bowl with yellow food
Small gestures often spark the kind of chemistry that deepens relationships, serving as building blocks for lasting love. Mac-and-cheese soup might not seem like a symbol of romance, but for a Reddit user known as u/his_stargazer, this humble dish marks the beginning of a love story that’s lasted a lifetime. Sharing her story in the r/wholesome group, she explained how a bowl of mac-and-cheese soup first made her fall for her high school sweetheart—now her husband.
Man at Home in the Kitchen Preparing Vegetables in the Frying Pan (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | HMVart)
Her post, titled “Something I’ve never told my husband,” quickly went viral, racking up 9,700 upvotes in a single day. She described a day back in high school when she visited his house and mentioned she was hungry. Eager to help, he ran to the kitchen to whip up some mac-and-cheese, but accidentally added too much milk, resulting in a soupy mixture he thought was a disaster. She reassured him, calling it the “best thing” she’d ever tasted, and even confessed her love. “The way he looked at me after that will never leave my mind,” she wrote, capturing a moment that remains as warm and comforting as that first bowl of mac-and-cheese soup.
Adorable couple enjoys cooking together in their well-lit, modern kitchen, playfully sharing bites of food (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Natalia Lebedinskaia)
To this day, her husband proudly tells everyone how he made her fall in love with him with his “mac-and-cheese soup.” The truth, however, is that, even though the soup tasted “okay,” she fell in love with him because “he is the most generous and amazing person” she has ever known. She added, “Now every time he makes me a bowl of mac and cheese soup, he has the biggest smile and I get to fall in love with this man all over again.”
People in the comment section were left swooning over the cutesy love story, and sharing their personal stories of how and when they fell in love. u/motormouth08 recalled the moment when she knew that she wanted to marry a guy. It was a pre-cellphone era and she was utterly sick one day. She had a sore throat and hadn’t eaten much for days. But then, when she felt better, she called her boyfriend and told her that she could afford to eat some pudding. Since calls were not so prominent during those days, he returned with two gigantic cans full of chocolate and tapioca, to make sure that she had the pudding she wanted to eat. They got married a year later. u/his_stargazer responded to the story with the comment, “The feeling of being cared for is indescribable!”
This woman, who is head-over-heels in love with her husband, says, that now, the mac-and-cheese soup has become such a beautiful relationship booster for them that he would make it for her even in her afterlife. In addition to mac-and-cheese, the beautiful couple has other little things that add an eternal spark to their relationship. Sharing the “best memory with her husband,” the woman said in r/love that when times are hard and she’s having nightmares, her husband always steps up to comfort her. “He pulls me in close and I lay my head on his chest, I love the way his hair tickles my nose. He holds me tight and tells me stories. He makes up the most random stories about characters, the weird adventures they go on, and how they fall in love every single time. He always knows how to make me smile and make me feel safe,” she wrote.
Comment by u/zenarian-369 appreciating the couple (Image Source: Reddit)
Meanwhile, people in the comments also shared other recipes that gave momentum to their love stories, including mashed potatoes, meatloaf soup, fettuccine pasta, grilled corn, spaghetti, and more.
If you’ve ever babysat, you know that parents—especially first-timers—can leave you with some incredibly detailed instructions. From how to put the baby to sleep to exactly what to feed them, these lists can feel like reading a novel of child-rearing advice.
Pexels | Photo by Andrea Piacquadio
But one parent took a different approach. Instead of the usual exhaustive checklist, they left their babysitter with a hilariously unexpected list that turned all the typical rules on their head. It was either comedy gold… or the mark of the world’s most "chill" parent.
The babysitter sent the list to her boyfriend, a popular YouTuber named Leek, and he posted it to social media.
In the letter, the chill parent tells the sitter to let the kid watch TV, eat sugar, and avoid a creepy neighbor named David.
1. I encourage the kids to watch as much TV as possible, so they leave me the hell alone. Feel free to do the same. 2. Don’t waste your valuable time cooking or providing healthy snacks. Just give them the pizza and snacks I leave. 3. They still breastfeed on demand. Just download a video on youtube. It’s not hard or I wouldn’t not do it. 4. Do not take any kittens/candy/ puppies from David. Or take a ride in his van. 5. If any of my neighbors come to the door, treat them like Jehovah’s Witness’s. Don’t lend them any eggs/milk/cigarettes. they know where the store is. And-no-, you don't know want to babysit for them. 6. Let the kids have as much sugar as they want, as long as they will go away. They take pills to sleep anyway. 7. If you bring any boys over just make sure they have an uncle/dad/brother/friend that I can call later. 8. Don’t answer the house phone unless you feel like paying bills. 9. If you look through my drawers, please throw away any overdue bills and gum wrappers. 10. Do not believe ANYTHING the kids tell you.
Editor's note: This article was originally published on December 13, 2018. It has since been updated.
A mummy in the British Museum
Representative Image Source: Pexels | francesco ungaro
Representative Image Source: Pexels | parfait fongang
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Image Source: YouTube | 
Representative Image Source: Plant growing in sand (Getty Images)
Representative Image Source: Naracoorte Caves, South Australia. An archeologist brushes soil from fossils at an excavation site.(Getty Images)
Representative Image Source: Italy, Campania, Pompei . Pompei archaeological site, amphora and pottery details (Getty Images)
Representative Image Source: Woman's hands using a brush to clean up a piece of ancient pottery on an archaeological site (Getty Images)
Parker in a "Snuggie(tm) for Dogs" | Fuzzy Gerdes | Flickr
File:Grandpop Bubles (11) (48199762011).jpg - Wikimedia Commons
Ruby's Diner Cruise at the Beach / Redondo Beach | We'll be ...
Smiling senior man wearing beret sitting in armchair . (Representative image source: Westend61 for Getty Images)
Smiling senior woman looking at husband while dancing in ballroom. (Representative image source: Thomas Barwick for Getty Images)
Man at Home in the Kitchen Preparing Vegetables in the Frying Pan (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | HMVart)
Adorable couple enjoys cooking together in their well-lit, modern kitchen, playfully sharing bites of food (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Natalia Lebedinskaia)
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