The week's good news: May 2, 2019

1. Deaf man develops form of sign language to communicate with his deaf dog

Nick Abbott knew he would have an instant connection with Emerson. Abbott is deaf, and so is Emerson, a black lab mix who was saved from a Florida shelter by a Maine animal rescue. Just moments after arriving at the rescue, Emerson walked straight to Abbott, and sat at his feet. "You could tell he kind of picked me," Abbott told ABC News. Emerson now knows a whole list of commands, thanks to his owner's special training: Abbott uses visual commands, and came up with his own type of sign language. With a wave of Abbott's hand or the tug of his ear, Emerson sits or barks, and has various other skills. "The bond that we have is awesome," Abbott said. "We understand each other very well."

Good Morning America ABC News

2. Adventurer spends 3 years visiting all 419 National Park Service sites

Desert landscapes, war memorials, volcanic craters — if it's a National Park Service site, Mikah Meyer has seen it within the last three years. On April 29, 2016, Meyer set out to visit all 419 National Park Service sites. He was inspired by his father, who died before he could do much traveling. Meyer visited his last site — the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. — on Monday, but the last three years were a non-stop adventure. While he flew to some destinations, like the War in the Pacific National Historic Park in Guam, he also drove 75,000 miles in a van for other parts of the journey. The 33-year-old is believed to be the first person to have gone to every National Park Service site in a single trip, and has inspired others to go on similar treks. "I really got to know the American story," he told The Washington Post.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The Washington Post

3. London Marathon uses edible seaweed pouches to curb plastic bottle use

At the London Marathon on Sunday, runners had the chance to try a new, edible pouch made from seaweed extracts and filled with a sports drink to quench their thirst. Organizers wanted to do something about the amount of plastic that is left at the end of the marathon, and decided to try the Ooho capsules, created by the London-based startup Skipping Rocks Lab. Their edible capsules are made from the "building blocks of seaweed," co-founder Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez told CNN. "We remove all the green stuff and the smelly stuff." The resulting pouch — which is cheaper to produce than plastic — is tasteless, and can hold a variety of liquids. The casing is edible, but also biodegradable; while it takes 450 years for a plastic bottle to decompose, the Ooho pods do so in just six weeks. Organizers said the pods replaced 200,000 bottles.

The Independent CNN

4. 17 students at the same Ohio high school aced the ACT

Having just one student get a perfect score on the ACT standardized college admission test is an accomplishment for any school, but Walnut Hills High in Cincinnati has that beat — 17 times over. The ACT has four sections — English, math, reading, and science — with possible scores ranging from one to 36. At Walnut Hills High School this year, 17 students received perfect scores of 36, and about two dozen additional students almost reached the top, with scores of 35. In 2018, only 0.2 percent of all students who took the test received a perfect score, with the average national score being 20.8. Principal John Chambers told WLWT the students took different versions of the test during separate times, and they should be commended for their high scores. "It's all the students," he said. "It's their work and their work ethic, and I would give credit to their teachers because their teachers prepare them extremely well."

WLWT

5. Maine becomes the first state to ban Styrofoam

Maine is leading the war on Styrofoam after Gov. Janet Mills (D) signed a bill on Tuesday banning the material from businesses. The law will prohibit restaurants, caterers, coffee shops, and grocery stores from using to-go Styrofoam containers, effective Jan. 1, 2021. Maine's law also applies to plastic beverage stirrers, and violators could face a $100 fine. The banned material, which cannot be recycled, has come under scrutiny for its potential to damage the environment.

USA Today