Upworthiest 12/12 (branded)

December 12, 2023

It's been around 20,000 years since dogs were first domesticated to live alongside humans as companions and helpers. But dogs' ability to detect specific medical problems and alert people to them has only been purposefully honed in the past 100 years or so.

Thanks to social media, the incredible abilities of trained dogs to do life-saving work is becoming more visible. People who use medical alert dogs to recognize signs that humans might miss have been sharing what it looks like when their dogs are doing their job, and it's quite remarkable to witness.

In a video that's been viewed 2 million times on Instagram, one family shared what happened when their English lab, Spy, sensed something wrong with his family member who has type 1 diabetes. The young girl was asleep, and her parents had just done a pump change and given her insulin an hour before, so they had no reason to think anything might be wrong.

As the great Peanuts creator Charles Schultz once wrote, “In life, it’s not where you go. It’s who you go there with.” To the seasoned traveler, nothing is more true.

A vacation where everything goes wrong can be a joy when you go through the coaches with the right people and trips that were supposed to be spectacular can be ruined by the wrong company.

In a viral post with over 1.8 million views, TikToker Ben Keenan further explored this topic by calling out the types of people that you should “absolutely not go on a trip with.” Keenan is a travel influencer with over 135,000 followers on TikTik and the blogger behind the “I've Been Traveling” Substack.

Here’s his list of people you want to avoid taking on your next vacation.

This holiday season, charity: water invites you to be a part of something big: The life-changing transformation of 200 communities worldwide.

A community is so much more than a place on a map. A community is people: teachers and farmers and little sisters and big dreamers. Without clean water, cycles of poverty, illness, and limited opportunities persist. But with it? Communities — and all the people within them — begin to thrive.

Access to clean water means families are healthier, no longer burdened by costly trips to local clinics. Kids get to spend more time in school, investing in their education and dreams for the future. Women can start businesses. Grandparents can rest easy. Entire communities grow stronger.

It all starts with the gift of clean water — which you can provide to one person for just $40, or a whole family for $240. 100% of your gift will fund community-owned water projects.

Join us in making a world of difference by giving clean water here.

Every family has its own traditions and ways of doing things around the holidays, from cooking specific foods to engaging in specific cultural rituals to how the myth of Santa gets handled. In general, it's wise to live and let live when it comes to such things, but one mom is making a strong case for rethinking what gifts Santa brings kids for Christmas in the larger context of community.

Mary Katherine Backstrom has been posting a public service announcement of sorts every year for the past decade, asking people to be mindful about other families' economic realities and how a family's Santa gifts can impact other people's children. Her message makes perfect sense, but it's something people who have never struggled financially might never consider.