Captain America Chris Evans Helps Bonded Shelter Dogs Get Adopted

0:03 Hi there, I'm Johnny Mac with five good news stories. In the middle of September, a whale watch boat off Massachusetts spotted something in Cape Cod Bay. It was an 18-foot whale towing a buoy through the water. Fishing gear had lodged around the whale's head with line passing through its mouth and running down toward its tail. Oh, how horrible. The whale was alive. It was swimming, but it was dragging a lot of rope and hardware and had no way to remove it itself. They called the Center for Coastal Studies Marine Animal Entanglement Response Team. They showed up with a Coast Guard. Two hours later, with a whale moving in open water, they got close enough to use a hook-shaped knife to cut the sectional line around its head.

0:45 It took 50 tries. In England, the National Trust purchased a coastal golf course called Sandilands in 2020 and began the work of turning it back into something else. They created a wetland spanning roughly 45 football fields, no pesticides, no public water. They moved earth and let the sea do what coastal water does when you stop fighting it. The plan was for seabirds to eventually return. The birds didn't wait for the plan to finish. Before they were done, some oyster catchers had arrived and began nesting and breeding at the site. Then lapwings, terns, blovers, and little ring blovers followed. Katie is an area ranger and said even before the project was officially complete, nature began to return.

1:26 Nice job by Alexander. He's a 17-year-old high school student in Pennsylvania. His grandmother, who lives in China, had lost her sight. Alexander went to visit her and saw what blindness meant for her daily life. She had no independence, changed every ordinary thing. He came home and started thinking, what if there's a way to give my grandmother her independence back? He built IRIS, I-R-I-S. You know how to spell IRIS, but it stands for something. It's a pair of glasses that is wearable AI that creates a three-dimensional map of the wearer's environment and uses vibrations to guide them around obstacles. Go left, go right, the path of least resistance. He describes it as a virtual guide dog. The materials cost $ 170. In June, First Lady Melania Trump presented him with the Presidential AI Challenge National Champion Award at a White House ceremony. He said, my experience at the White House was truly amazing. I'm trying to process it.

2:18 Great job there. Back in 1964, someone broke into the Prophet Elias Sanctuary in Crete and took things that had been there for thousands of years, including some bronze helmets, belly guards. These were objects that had been buried with the dead in the Argolis-Corinthia region. The objects wound up traveling the world and eventually showed up at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. They stayed there for decades until investigators found them. In September, New York authorities identified 15 ancient Greek artifacts at the Met spanning 5,000 years of history. The Manhattan DA, Antiques Trafficking Unit, seized the collection. Greek's Minister of Culture accepted the items at a ceremonial handover in Manhattan. She noted that some of these were illegally trafficked abroad and are now returning home.

3:05 Among the items, a marble bust of a Roman emperor, a terracotta jug, bronze and gold bracelets, and marble figures dating back to around 2700 BCE. All right, there were two dogs. They were friends. Greg is a short-haired chihuahua. Carly, a shaggy golden retriever. They were both up for adoption from the Animal Rescue League of Boston, but they're a bonded pair. That means they go together or they don't go at all. Actor Chris Evans came in to spend time with them. He played games with them. He talked about his own dog, a boxer mix named Dodger, and he made the case for the two of them. He said they're a bonded pair, which means they have to be adopted together. A couple of sweethearts, and I hope someone out there gives them their forever home. The appeal worked immediately. A couple adopted both dogs and created an Instagram account at Life with Greg and Callie. Now, this was all part of the Dream Date series that has 200 episodes. Scarlett Johansson has done it. Matt Damon, Simon Cowell.

3:57 The format is simple. Celebrity plus shelter dog, cameras, people watching at home, and then adopting dogs. I think that is a fantastic use of celebrity. And those are your five good news stories for today.