👋 Welcome back to Smileworthy!

This week: the world’s oldest living animal made headlines everywhere - but not for the reason you’d think. He’s 193, and the internet owes him an apology.

Plus:

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It’s not all doom and gloom out there. Here’s some positive news items from publications around the world.

🇺🇸 Oklahoma, USA
A 3-Year-Old Saw an Old Man Eating Alone at McDonald's. He Grabbed His Food and Sat Down
Huddy asked his mom where the man's kids were. She explained they'd probably grown up. That answer didn't sit right with him – so he walked over, asked to join, and climbed into the booth. The video has over a million views on TikTok. Turns out the man was a friend of Huddy's late great-grandfather. (Read more 👉 Sunny Skyz)

🇺🇸 Pennsylvania, USA
A Dog Stolen From a Backyard 10 Years Ago Just Came Home
Forty-Cal was snatched from a Philadelphia yard a decade ago. His family searched for days. Days became weeks. Weeks became years. They moved counties – but they never stopped updating his microchip. Last weekend, a shelter scanned a senior stray and the contact details still worked. Ten years later, Forty-Cal is sleeping at home again. (Read more 👉 Happily)

🇺🇸 New Mexico, USA
A Half-Blind, 12-Year-Old Dog Fought a Bear to Protect Her Family
Honey picked up the scent of something on the Martinez family's property overnight – and went straight for it. By morning, she was found badly injured with claw marks from her face to her neck. But the bear was gone, and every animal on the ranch was safe. Her family calls her "the bear slayer." For the record, she's still terrified of the vacuum cleaner, though. (Read more 👉 Sunny Skyz)

🇨🇦 Vancouver, Canada
'Teddy Bear Doctor' Will Fix Your Childhood
When Ruth Hasman retired, she decided to spend her new found leisure time a little differently: performing hundreds of stuffed animal surgeries – reattaching limbs, performing "fur grafts," sourcing donor material from thrift shops, even fixing voice boxes. Her favourite part of it all is hearing the stories people bring in with their battered bears. She's currently training an apprentice for when her fingers slow down, but she's not done yet. (Read more 👉 Good News Network)

🌍 Worldwide
Solar Is Officially Winning the Energy Race
Here's a stat to sit with: solar panel costs have dropped roughly 90% in the last decade. That has helped it become the cheapest form of electricity in history. Global capacity could hit 9,000 GW by 2030, and in the EU in particular, solar already generates more power than gas and coal combined. (Read more 👉 DW)

🇸🇪 Sweden
The Nordic Nation Is Ditching Screens in Schools and Going Back to Books
Sweden went all-in on digital classrooms, as did many nations. Tablets for toddlers, laptops in every classroom. But when educators noticed reading scores tanking, attention spans shrinking, and kids unable to function without a screen in front of them they decided to act. The government did something radical – they spent $83 million on physical textbooks, banned phones from classrooms, and put pencils back in kids' hands. (Read more 👉 Ars Technica)

Feel good stories from Happilynews.com guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

In 1997, a bartender named Erika Boyero was working on a cruise ship somewhere off the coast of Norway. Bored one evening, she scribbled a few notes, stuffed them into empty bottles, and tossed them overboard. Then she forgot all about it.

Four years later and 10,000 miles away, a woman named Diane Charles was walking along a beach in Stanley, Tasmania when she spotted something rolling in the surf – a bottle, crusted in barnacles, with a note inside.

The message was in Spanish, and Diane didn't speak the language. But she wasn't giving up. With a borrowed dictionary and a lot of patience, she and her brother pieced together the words: "Life has taught me all is possible. I wish you good fortune wherever you are."

And tucked beneath the message – a name, an address in Colombia, and a fax number.

Diane fired off a speculative fax. And Erika's father picked it up. "Hey, you received a fax from Australia," he told her. She was stunned. She didn't know anyone in Australia, but then it clicked – the bottles.

So what started with a barnacle-covered bottle became a 25-year friendship. Incredibly, the two women stayed in touch across continents, swapping life updates – the birth of children, Erika's move to Germany – the sorts of ordinary milestones that slowly build a lasting bond.

Then recently, while traveling through Kuala Lumpur, Erika called Diane with an idea: she wanted to fly to Tasmania so they could finally meet face to face.

When Erika walked through the airport terminal, the two hugged like long-lost friends. The next morning, they walked the same beach where it all began – and visited the museum where Erika's original note is now on display.

Source: ABC Australia

A unique, sometimes quirky, but always eye-catching photo feature each week.

Earlier this week, news outlets around the world – including the BBC and USA Today – reported that Jonathan, the world's oldest living land animal, had died. Social media mourned and tributes poured in from around the world. There was just one problem: it was an April Fools' hoax, posted by a fake account on X.

Jonathan is very much alive - and still going strong at one-hundred-and-ninety-three-years-old(!).

The Seychelles giant tortoise has lived on the grounds of Plantation House in St Helena since 1882 – when he arrived as a fully grown adult, already estimated to be around 50. He was hatched circa 1832. That means he's been on this planet since before the light bulb, the telephone, the car, powered flight, and both World Wars. He's outlived eight British monarchs and 31 governors of the island.

At 193, he's blind from cataracts, can't smell, and has a crumbling beak – but he still eats well, basks in the sun daily, and apparently maintains a healthy libido (Ed: good for you Jonathan!). His face appears on St Helena's five pence coin. He's had birthday cakes made entirely from his favourite foods. And this week, he outlived the internet's attempt to kill him off. Quite a life.

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Do You Have Email Apnea?

Here's something you're probably doing right now without realizing it – holding your breath while reading this. It's called email apnea, a term coined by tech wellness expert Linda Stone, and it's the unconscious habit of holding your breath or breathing shallowly while staring at a screen.

It happens because your nervous system shifts into a subtle state of alert every time you open your inbox or scroll a work feed. Over time, that shallow breathing spikes cortisol, increases tension, and leaves you exhausted by 5pm even when you haven't left your desk.

The fix is surprisingly simple. Before you open your inbox, take one slow inhale through the nose and a steady exhale out the mouth. Throughout the day, check in – are you actually breathing? Sit up straight, step away from the screen for 30 seconds, and let your body reset.

A Tesco in Orkney meant to order 380kg of bananas. Instead, they ordered 380 wholesale boxes – roughly 38,000 bananas. That's almost double the island's entire population. High winds cancelled the ferries, so they couldn't send them back. But some good did come from the mishap - most were distributed to community groups and schools across the area for free. (Source: BBC)

A jiffy is an actual unit of time. In physics, it's 1/100th of a second – so when someone says "I'll be there in a jiffy," they're making a promise they almost certainly can't keep.

1748 The ruins of Pompeii are rediscovered by Spaniard Roque Joaquín de Alcubierre

1870 The 15th Amendment to the US Constitution is adopted, guaranteeing the right to vote regardless of race

1889 Eiffel Tower officially opens for dignitaries and an award ceremony in Paris, France; designed by Gustave Eiffel and built for the Exposition Universelle, at 300 meters high, it holds the record for the tallest man-made structure for 41 years

1967 Jimi Hendrix first burns his guitar (and his fingers) at Finsbury Park Astoria theatre in London; the guitar is sold at auction for nearly $500K, the building is currently a church

1948 "Big Bang" theory proposed in scientific journal "Physical Review" by American cosmologists Ralph Alpher, Hans Bethe, and George Gamow

1975 Microsoft is founded as a partnership between Bill Gates and Paul Allen to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800

1976 Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs found Apple Computer in the garage of Jobs' parents' house in Cupertino, California

2001 The Netherlands becomes the first country in the world to make same-sex marriage legal

What comes next in this sequence?

Answer at the bottom of the newsletter.

Barbara is 78 years old. And yet there she is – leaping off the edge of a 500-foot cliff in Moab, Utah, on the longest rope swing in the US. The video is everything. Watch it here. 👇

*Studies show that watching heartwarming videos can boost your mood. So sit back and start your weekend positively - doctors orders!

🧠 Brain Teaser Answer

N, T.

Nine, ten!