“It’s amazing to watch [my patients] all grow up, but to have one come back in your life, on a day you really need it — that’s really incredible,” Dr. Michael Shannon — here with Chris Trokey and other emergency workers — says of being rescued from a car crash by a grown-up preemie he saved long ago. MORE

Support Memories Pizza When asked by local press the hypothetical question of whether or not they’d prefer to have their family owned business, Memories Pizza, cater a gay wedding, the owner said no citing their own religious beliefs as the reason.

Rather than allowing this family to simply have their opinion, which they were asked to give, outraged people grabbed the torches and began a campaign to destroy this small business in small town Indiana. MORE

The drought in California is getting a lot worse.  As you read this, snowpack levels in the Sierra Nevada mountains are the lowest that have ever been recorded.  That means that there won’t be much water for California farmers and California cities once again this year.  To make up the difference in recent years, water has been pumped out of the ground like crazy.  In fact, California has been losing more than 12 million acre-feet of groundwater a year since 2011, and wells all over the state are going dry.  Once the groundwater is all gone, what are people going to do? MORE

There are few things more beautiful – or terrifying – than the menacing flash of lightning bolts within a volcanic ash cloud. MORE

Pizza-loving Pope Francis has been told to cut down and exercise more, reports said Thursday as the pontiff made the latest in a string of allusions to feeling weary.

The 78-year-old pontiff is visibly chubbier these days than he was when he lived in Argentina and was known for a frugal lifestyle and walking as much as he could. MORE

On May 13, 2014, the French foreign minister publicly said THREE TIMES, “We have 500 days to avoid climate chaos.” In his first announcement, he said, “The planet also means very concretely OUR VERY SURVIVAL. We are, all of you know it, on the edge of a climatic ABYSS. In face, we have 500 days to avoid climate chaos.” MORE

In ”The Inferno,” Dante tells of his imagined journey into hell, his entry into a ”kingdom of eternal night” where he hears the voices of the damned rise ”in a bestial moan” and sees sinners stung by wasps, burnt by falling fire and frozen in a sheet of ice.

For 700 years the poem has provided vivid inspiration to painters and preachers, who have kept alive a popular vision of perdition as a physical place of fire and brimstone, extraordinary torments and monsters. Many artists added their own ideas, such as Hieronymus Bosch, who in the 15th century painted a highly original vision of hell, a tableau of violence and excruciating tortures. MORE

The Philippines issued warnings of possible landslides and storm surges, with typhoon Maysak set to strike eastern coastal areas, where many resorts are located, over the Easter weekend. Maysak, initially a top-rated category 5 typhoon, has weakened to category 4 as it lost strength over the water. MORE

“An alleged supporter of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) welcomed President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan by chanting “Welcome, O Messenger of God,” a phrase commonly used to refer to the Prophet Muhammad, in the latest in a series of similar remarks attributing divine qualities to Erdoğan.” MORE

This winter hasn’t been all that dry. But it’s been hot. Most regions of Oregon received normal or near-normal precipitation this winter. Normally, that would set the state up for a summer of healthy streamflows and fully stocked reservoirs. However, warm weather during the winter months meant most of that precipitation fell as rain. Mountains that normally would be piled high with snow remained bare. MORE

An Israeli committee has approved controversial plans for eventual construction of 2,200 Palestinian homes in occupied east Jerusalem, a spokeswoman said Wednesday, in the largest such project since 1967. NGO Ir Amim described the plan to develop the Arab Al-Sawahra neighbourhood as the largest…MORE