A zebra trek, burger facts and a garden of love

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A zebra trek, burger facts and a garden of love

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March 5, 2022

I was in Disney World last week, which means I got to spend time on my very favorite ride, Spaceship Earth. For those who aren't familiar, it's inside the big silver ball at Disney's EPCOT Park, and you lurch about from animatronic scene to animatronic scene as Dame Judi Dench narrates a brief history of human communication. It's the best. It's also full of wide-eyed optimism about the future, which can be hard to stomach as we see so much suffering and violence across the world. But perhaps the times when such a message is most difficult to believe -- that the future can be what we make it, that we are at our best when connected and working together -- are the times that it is most important to hear. At the end of the ride, Dame Judi says "all of us can have a say about the kind of world we want to live in." It's hard work keeping that truth alive, but as both passengers and crew on our "grand and miraculous spaceship," it's our duty to steer toward a future worth being optimistic about.

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Our favorites this week

Get going with some of our most popular good news stories of the week

Heroes across borders
As war in Ukraine rages on, CNN Heroes are answering the call for help. Zane Buzby, founder of the Survivor Mitzvah Project and a 2014 CNN Hero, has raced to aid Holocaust survivors caught in the crisis. Her organization has been a lifeline for more than 2,500 survivors across Eastern Europe, providing them with humanitarian aide and support. Since war broke out, the Survivor Mitzvah Project's translators and volunteers have focused their efforts, making visits, phone calls and communicating through letters to stay in touch with the roughly 350 survivors they support in the country. Such companionship, Buzby says, is especially important during this time of upheaval and confusion. Along the western Ukrainian border, star chef and humanitarian José Andrés is providing meals through his organization, World Central Kitchen. He's also pledged funds from his $100 million Jeff Bezos Courage and Civility Award. "We must come together as a force for good!" Andrés says.

Image credit: KSDK

A garden of love
A group of elementary school students found a thoughtful way to comfort their creative art teacher who is mourning the war in Ukraine. Arina McAllister is a Ukrainian native, and says her heart is broken witnessing what's happening around her family and friends, and to the country she loves. The idea was cooked up by a cafeteria lady at Pevely Elementary, who suggested McAllister's students surprise her with a colorful display of flowers along the school's hallways. "A lot of our students don't know what's going on but they know their teacher, their favorite teacher, was in need of extra love this week," Principal Katie Dunlap said. When McAllister came into school Monday, she was greeted with dozens of colored-in blooms, many of them sunflowers -- a symbol of Ukraine. "I never expected to grow a garden of love," McAllister said. "I think every single sunflower represents love and support and I have hope." Read more from CNN affiliate KSDK.

Image credit: Courtesy Jessica Martin

Words of kids-dom
Across the country, a different beloved art teacher and a different group of creative kids are at the center of another project for positivity. Students at West Side Elementary School in Healdsburg, California, have recorded a series of bilingual "pep talks" to help anyone who needs a little encouragement (and frankly, who doesn't?). Dubbed the "Peptoc Hotline," the public art project was concocted by Jessica Martin, a local artist who doubles as the art teacher for the small school. "The adults among us have been holding everything up for so long, it's amazing to see what comfort children can bring," she told CNN. "I was moved by the incredible collection of advice and encouragement they gleaned, and how easily and distinctly they were able to communicate it." In less than a week, the project has gone viral, receiving between 300 and 500 calls an hour, and up to as many as 5,000 calls a day. The advice is refreshingly kid-like: Get some ice cream. Think of groundhogs. Punch a pillow and cry. As a professional Good News Teller, I endorse all of these methods.

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Raise a glass to...

Image credit: Getty Images

All of the athletes competing in this year's Paralympic Games. Despite the cloud of war, the Paralympics are currently underway in Beijing, featuring 78 events across six Para sports: alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, para ice hockey, snowboarding and wheelchair curling. Some athletes to watch include Oksana Masters (above), a 10-time Paralympic medalist across the Summer and Winter Games who has competed in rowing, cycling, cross-country skiing and biathlon, and Dan Cnossen, a former Navy SEAL who claimed six medals in biathlon and cross-country skiing four years ago.

A bright idea

Steve Wozniak may be one of the fathers of modern technology, but his latest project is a little more out there -- literally. Wozniak will serve as CEO of a new venture, called Privateer, which will take aim at space junk. The company's mission is to develop better tracking of objects in space, and to use this data to help avert disastrous collisions. Aiding him in this mission is Moriba Jah, a PhD and orbital mechanics professor who has dedicated years of effort to raising awareness about the ever-growing threat posed by the proliferation of debris and garbage in outer space. Space junk could bring down satellites, snarl space travel and create other dangerous situations. The big goal is to build a space traffic-type database to help navigate these extraterrestrial obstacles.

You gotta see this

New Dr. Seuss is dropping soon! Dr. Seuss Enterprises, with Random House Children's Books, will publish a line of books for readers ages 4 to 8 that build on Dr. Seuss' work, but they'll be helmed by an "inclusive community of authors and illustrators," according the Seuss Enterprises. The books will be a part of the new Seuss Studios and are inspired by Seuss' unpublished illustrations, like the big-eared rabbit above or a print-worthy little doodle labeled "assorted humming birds." Last year, on Seuss' birthday, Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced that it would no longer publish six books by the author that "portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong," including offensive depictions of Black, Indigenous and Asian characters.

Wanna get away?

Image credit: Mark Everleigh

Botswana's Nxai Pan National Park is a jewel of southern Africa, with clusters of millennia-old baobob trees and the planet's biggest expanse of salt pans bordering the forbidding Kalahari Desert. It's also the site of the world's longest annual mammal migration, during which abut 20,000 zebras cross the pans in a 620-mile trek from north to south and back again in search of fresh grazing lands. This journey wasn't even documented until about 10 years ago, and scientists were stunned when they realized the migration's length and conditions. Travel writer and photographer Mark Eveleigh was on site to document the remarkable spectacle. He says that just as he glimpsed the first zebra, rain began to fall. "The timing was uncanny -- almost as if they'd been summoned by this first spattering of life-giving moisture," he says.

Who knew?

Have you ever wondered why Wendy's burgers are square? Their marketing line may be that they don't cut corners, but there's a bit more to it than that. According to the company's official history, founder Dave Thomas shaped his patties into squares so the corners would hang outside of the bun, showing the customer the quality of meat. John Li, vice president of culinary innovation at the Wendy's Company, told CNN there's an even more practical reason: "We can fit more square hamburgers on a single grill than round ones." Sound logic!

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Shameless animal video

There's always time for cute animal videos. That time is now.

I really need to stop getting all of my adorable animal video ideas from TikTok, but the sheer number of baby tortoises involved here was irresistible. Send me cute animal vids! (Click here to view)