Dec. 28, 2025

Good News - Pig who lived in a car gets sanctuary

Show Notes
Transcript

Judi Mack shares five uplifting stories: Caritas converts a Popemobile into a pediatric clinic for children in Gaza; AI technology aids in coral reef restoration on the Great Barrier Reef; a civil election in Virginia ends with a beloved teacher conceding to his former student; a homeless man in Portland reunites with his family and finds safety for his pet pig at a sanctuary; MIT engineers develop a faster method for extracting drinking water from air using ultrasonic waves.

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Calaruga Shark Media. Hi there, I'm Juddie Mack with five

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good news stories. Caritas, the global Catholic charity, has transformed

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one of Pope Francis's former popemobiles into a mobile medical

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clinic for children in Gaza. That's an idea that the

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late Pope personally approved. The vehicle, originally a Mitsubishi pickup

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converted into a popemobile for Francis' twenty fourteen visit to Bethlehem,

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has been refitted by Caritas Sweeten to function as a

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pediatric clinic capable of treating up to two hundred children

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a day. One of the cardinals said that the converted

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vehicle stands as a symbol that the world has not

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forgotten the children of Gaza. Meanwhile, at the Australian Institute

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of Marine Science, artificial intelligence is being leveraged to help

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restore coral reefs after recent bleaching events following the autumn

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spawning season on the Great Barrier Reef. Scientists or looking

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to give the corals a helping hand by dropping coral

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large down onto degraded reef segments, but in an effort

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that would be near impossible to achieve with humans, making

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the decisions. A robotic assistant called the Deployment Guidance System

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DGS scans the seafloor and determines the best place for

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the coral to spawn before dropping small ceramic coral analogs

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down within three feet of the targeted area. Coral seating

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has become an urgently targeted, science based practice around the world,

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with the last twenty years seeing marine scientists finally figure

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out how to time spawning events, capture coral larvae, and

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breathe them in aquarium tanks. The ceramic analogs are designed

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to offer protection to juvenile coral while they grow to adulthood.

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Doctor Ben says the technology is not about machines replacing humans,

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it's about humans working with machines. A recent election in

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Virginia had not only a surprise result, but people were

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surprised at how civil everybody was. Cameron is nineteen. He

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decided to run against the incumbent Conservative for seat on

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the county Board of Supervisors. But here's the catch. He

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had a campaign against his beloved, ice cool Civics teacher

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mister Bell, who was currently holding the seat. Cameron called

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mister Bell's favorite teacher. Mister Bell described Cameron as a

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wonderful young man and in a refreshing political twist, mister

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Bell often defended his opponent's age on the campaign trail,

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rather than going to easy attack. He said, yes, he's young,

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but he's really invested in trying to make a difference.

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The race was neck and neck until the end. Cameron

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won by ten votes. Mister Bell conceded and said he

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would have been formidable against any opponent against whom he

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would have run. A man in Portland became homeless after

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a series of personal tragedies. He's been reunited with his family. Meanwhile,

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his two hundred and fifty pound pet pig has found

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safety at Oregon's largest farm animal sanctuary. Tony lost his

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job after burst appendix and then lost his wife. He

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wound up living out of his car with his dog

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and Roscoe, the pig that his wife had adopted three

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years earlier. The community identified Tony as somebody needing help.

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Within day, the sanctuary agreed to take the pig. Executive

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director Gwen personally transported Roscoe the pig and witnessed an

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emotional farewell between James and the pig. Rosco the pig

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is now settling into sanctuary life. Living with one hundred

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and thirty other pigs, Roscoe will have access to open

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forest areas, mudwallows, and seasonal acorns. When James gets back

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on his feet, they plan to arrange a reunion. Mit

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engineers have developed a faster way to extract drinking water

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from aer harvesting materials, using ultrasonic waves instead of heat

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you see. Traditional atmospheric water harvesting systems rely on the

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sun to evaporate water that could take hours or even days.

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The new method uses a high, frequently ultrasonic device that

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vibrates the material and shakes the water molecules free within minutes.

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Lead researcher Sevet Lana says the breakthrough salms one of

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the biggest bottlenecks in atmospheric water harvesting, recovering water quickly

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enough for real world use. And those are your five

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good news stories for today. You have an awesome day.