Good Morning! 🌞 

Make sure to watch the video we feature in today’s “yearly school interview article”. It’s so sweet & heartwarming.

Health Sciences

Healing Horses

In Tennessee, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is seeing positive results with equine therapy, a well-established rehabilitation method.

The Department recently shared success stories from the Center for Equine Recovery (CERV) at Middle Tennessee State University. The program connects veterans from the Tennessee Valley VA with horses, helping them understand equine behavior and, in turn, learn more about themselves.

Horses are highly sensitive to their handlers' emotions, requiring a state of calm to work with them safely. This has proven beneficial for veterans, as one organizer described horses as “big bio-feedback machines.” Joanne Parchetta, a participant in the program, shared how working with horses has helped her overcome challenges related to chronic illness and disability. “This class showed me I can still achieve and dream,” she said.

CERV’s program helps veterans process their emotions by reflecting them through the horses. This feedback allows them to better understand and work through their behaviors. It is the only program of its kind in the nation, though more are likely needed. Veterans, especially those from older generations, face a higher risk of suicide than the general public.

Culture

Dad’s Yearly School Interview Goes Viral

A dad who interviewed his daughter every year on the first day of school has now shared the final video as she starts her last year of high school before heading to college. Ray Petelin began this tradition with his daughter Elizabeth in 2012, when she was five and waiting for the bus to kindergarten. Each year, he asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up, watching her answers shift from doctor to teacher, magician to waitress, and heart surgeon to physical therapist.

Now, after their 13th and final interview, the 47-year-old TV meteorologist shared the video compilation. "I put it together late at night so no one would see me bawling," Ray admitted. The video, posted on Facebook and Twitter/X, has gained over 50 million views, leading to TV interviews on major networks, including his own station, KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh. Many parents have called Ray "Dad of the Year," and his tradition has inspired others to do the same with their kids.

Innovation

Banana Peels into Textiles and Renewable Fuels

Off-grid communities in rural Pakistan may soon have reliable electricity through a new project converting banana industry waste into energy.

Pakistan generates 80 million metric tons of agricultural waste annually from banana farming. Northumbria University, along with partners in the UK and Pakistan, is working on a system to transform this waste into textile fibers and renewable energy. The first step involves converting banana waste into fibers, and the second uses byproducts to produce clean energy.

This project will reduce the environmental impact of Pakistan's textile industry while providing cleaner electricity to 50% of the rural population currently dependent on fossil fuels. The process could be applied globally, turning various forms of agricultural waste into renewable energy.

The project, titled “Improving access to sustainable energy in rural Pakistan using food and fiber agro-waste as a renewable fuel (SAFER),” received $330,000 through Innovate UK’s Energy Catalyst program. The goal is to create market-focused energy technologies that improve energy access in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Dr. Jibran Khaliq from Northumbria University, a materials scientist focusing on waste-to-energy conversion, stated that Pakistan's textile industry has significant environmental impacts. He noted that the National Textile University in Faisalabad has developed a method to turn banana agro-waste into textile fibers, but lack of electricity in rural Sindh has hindered its scalability.

The team aims to develop waste-to-energy technology over the next year, benefiting the textile sector and local communities by improving soil fertility and food production through biofertilizers. Pakistan's banana industry could potentially generate over 57,000 million cubic meters of syngas and 30 million tonnes of nitrogen-rich biofertilizer.

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Mind Stretchers

⁉️ 

Paul's height is six feet, he's an assistant at a butcher's shop, and wears size 9 shoes. What does he weigh?

Answers to yesterday’s Mind Stretchers:
I am neither a guest or a trespasser be, to this place I belong, it belongs also to me. - My house 🏠️ 

Linda Runatz got the correct answer first!

Be the first to send us the correct answer for today’s mind stretcher for a shout-out with the answer tomorrow. Just send us the answer and your name to [email protected] or reply to the email.

If you have any uplifting stories and experience you might want to share, send those over to [email protected] for the chance to be featured.