Dec. 9, 2025

Race Your Pumpkin While Dressed Like Top Gun

Show Notes
Transcript

The script presents five uplifting news stories: a British woman rescues a stray cat in Abu Dhabi, the North Atlantic right whale population sees a small increase, a new implant helps restore vision in patients with age-related macular degeneration, American ranchers use virtual fencing for cattle, and the 2025 West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta entertains with participants paddling hollowed-out pumpkins in elaborate costumes.

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Kalaroka Shark Media. Hey there, shunning back with five good

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news stories. In Dubai, a British woman has gone above

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and beyond to save a stray cat that had been

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living for two years in a derelict bathroom. The cat

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is going to move to her new home in the UK.

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Chicu is a hobbyist animal rescuer and got a message

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from a stranger who spotted a frightened cat hiding and

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an abandoned building in Abu Dhabi. Chicu got in her

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car drove ninety minutes from Dubai to find the cat.

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Chicu says she's such a gentle cat who has endured

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such hardship. It broke my heart when I first saw her.

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Workers at the site said the cat had lived there

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for years, sheltering under sheets of metal in the crumbling bathroom.

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For three weeks, Chicu made the long drive every night

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after work, bringing food, sitting with the cat, slowly earning

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the cat's trust until she was able to coax her

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out and take her to a vet. The cat is

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now named Terara Nova, meaning a new Star. Chiculo tells

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us she looked completely lost and fearful. We thought she

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had probably been a patent had been abandoned. She was

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scared and alone. I couldn't walk away. On the paper

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work clears Terra Nova will live in England. That's really cool.

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Good news if you are a North Atlantic right whale.

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After years of decline, researchers say, you guys are bouncing back.

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The population is up two percent, not a lot, but

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it's better than down. They believe there are now around

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three hundred and eighty four whales. That's seven percent up

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since twenty twenty. Heather Pettis works at the New England

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Aquarium and said it's always a great feeling when we

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can share positive news about this critically endangered species. This

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slight increase leaves us cautiously optimistic about the future of

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the North American right whales. There's new hope for people

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losing their sight. A tiny implant is helping restore central

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vision to those with age related muscular degeneration, the condition

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long considered untreatable. Here's how it works. An implant is

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placed behind the retina and paired with augmented reality glasses

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that of a tiny video camera. The camera captures images

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and converts them into signals. And sends them to the brain,

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essentially recreating what the eye can no longer do. After

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one year, eighty percent of patients regained enough vision to

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read again. Wow, that's really awesome. American ranchers are trying

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something new. Instead of miles and miles of wire fences,

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they're turning to virtual fencing systems. You know those like

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do you have one of those invisible offenses for your dogs?

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Imagine that except for cows. The cowswuare collars, which uses

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GPS to keep the cattle grazing where they're supposed to

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without the cost and hassle of fixing fences. Amy works

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for the Nature Conservacy's Little Sue Project and says the

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cows catch on so fast they hear the tone. They

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don't even stop grazing, They just change direction and go

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a different way. So it's really really easy on them,

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and it's easy on the former two. Nick is a

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rancher in South Dakota and says the system is ninety

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five percent effective, but any rancher could tell you physical

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fence isn't one hundred percent either. Sounds like it was

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a lot of fun at the twenty twenty five West

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Coast giant pumpkin rig he gotta. Heidi Marx coordinates the

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event and told The Washington Post it's kind of a

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ridiculous idea, which is why it's so popular. What do

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you do? You hollow out a pumpkin and you paddle

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it across a lake while wearing an elaborate costume. Of course,

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Heidi says, how often do you say they've watched people

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in costumes paddling thousand pound pumpkins on a lake. Parker

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dressed up as the very Hunger caterpillar. It was his

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first time of the race. He said, I was just

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chatting with my family in the car, like breinstorming things

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to do, and my dad thought up the idea of

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a caterpillar eating its way up out of the pumpkin.

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I thought that's fun and I went with it. It's a

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quarter mile race, multiple heats, one for growers, one for

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event sponsors, one for local officials, and two for the public.

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Gary won his heat. He was dressed as Buddy the

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Elf and he's been working on this. His growing process

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presses pumpkin plants against boards, so the resulting pumpkins have

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a more narrow kayak like shape. Boy he's putting work

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into this. However, this year he had to borrow pumpkin

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from a friend as his own plants fell victim to

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a fungal infection. Yes, she could have used a regular

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pumpkin anyway. Other heat winners included racers dressed as Ted Lasso,

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a top gun pilot, and a pickle. And those are

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your fine good news stories for today. I have a

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good one.