Ryan Donais, a construction manager from Toronto, started building tiny homes on wheels in July to address the city’s growing homelessness crisis, spurred on after his brother became homeless due to a long struggle with addiction.
Concerned about the rise of tent cities, Donais spent 100 hours developing a prototype and two months completing his first unit. Each home, made from fiberglass-reinforced plastic, includes basic amenities: a bed, desk, sink, and camping toilet.
His project, Tiny Tiny Homes, is now an official nonprofit, and he’s working on a second unit. The homes are insulated, weatherproof, solar-powered, and designed to offer temporary shelter with storage space for personal items. Donais stresses that these homes aren’t meant to be permanent solutions but a step toward permanent housing.
Donais is raising funds through GoFundMe to scale up production, with each unit costing about $5,000 to build. He’s also seeking material donations and a larger workspace to continue the project.
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.
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.
Two weeks ago, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a warning about a massive geomagnetic solar storm that began on August 11.
Within hours, a breathtaking aurora lit up the sky, captured by two photographers—one a pilot on a passenger plane and the other an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Timelapse of the moon setting into streams of red and green aurora followed by a sunrise lighting up Soyuz with a light blue.
The aurora have been amazing the past few days. Great timing for trying out a new lens that recently arrived on Cygnus.
A series of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) produced a spectacular light show lasting over 48 hours, visible across North America and possibly reaching as far south as Alabama and Northern California.
NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick, orbiting on the ISS, shared incredible images of the aurora online, gaining thousands of fans.
Matthew Dominick – X
Meanwhile, Scott Bateman, a pilot flying an Airbus A350-1000 on a long-haul international flight, had a front-row view of the spectacle from within Earth’s atmosphere. Bateman described the scenes as he flew across the globe: “It was spectacular! It started as we passed Chicago at 39,000 feet and lasted until dawn over Ireland, when it turned purple. I have never seen the aurora borealis so vivid with reds and purples.”
Scott Bateman from the cockpit of an Airbus – cropped
Bateman captured these stunning images using his iPhone 15 without any editing or filters, offering an unaltered view of the aurora from his cockpit.
Red and green Northern Lights by pilot Scott Bateman at 39k feet – cropped
Auroras result from disturbances in the magnetosphere caused by solar flares and winds. These dynamic light displays can appear as curtains, rays, spirals, or flickering patterns across the sky.
Purple Northern Lights over Ireland by Scott Bateman – cropped
Quantum computers may still be years away from being powerful enough to perform useful tasks, but it’s becoming increasingly likely that fully functional, error-corrected quantum computers will be operational within the next five to 10 years.
Quantum computers are advanced machines that leverage the principles of quantum mechanics, using quantum bits (qubits) that can exist in multiple states simultaneously, allowing them to process complex computations far more efficiently than classical computers. This capability enables quantum computers to solve certain problems, such as factoring large numbers or simulating molecular structures, exponentially faster than traditional computers.
This will be a major breakthrough for scientists tackling complex problems in chemistry and material science. However, it also poses a significant threat to current encryption methods, such as the RSA algorithm, which currently secures sensitive internet communications like online banking. While traditional computers would take decades to crack RSA encryption, quantum computers could potentially break it with ease.
This looming threat has driven the development of post-quantum cryptography algorithms. On Tuesday, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published the first set of standards for these algorithms: ML-KEM (formerly CRYSTALS-Kyber), ML-DSA (previously CRYSTALS-Dilithium), and SLH-DSA (initially submitted as SPHINCS+). For many companies, this signals that now is the time to begin implementing these new cryptographic standards.
The question of when quantum computers will be capable of breaking RSA encryption is still open to debate, but it’s increasingly accepted that this could happen between the end of this decade and 2035. Gil, a cybersecurity expert, emphasizes that businesses should start considering the implications of a world where RSA encryption is no longer secure. He warns that a patient adversary could start collecting encrypted data now, with the intention of decrypting it in the future once quantum computers become powerful enough.
Despite the urgency of the situation, Gil notes that few businesses—and perhaps even fewer government institutions—fully understand the gravity of the problem, let alone are taking steps to address it. He describes the awareness and action level as being in its infancy.
One reason for the lack of action, Gil suggests, is the absence of established standards until now, making the new NIST standards particularly significant. Additionally, the long-standing belief that quantum computing was perpetually “five years away” has led to skepticism and a tendency to delay action.
Gil acknowledges that many CISOs are aware of the threat, but they often lack the urgency to act, partly due to uncertainty about which solutions to implement and the overwhelming task of migrating from current cryptographic protocols to new ones. He warns that this transition could take decades and will be a massive challenge for institutions and society as a whole.
If you want to learn more about the subject, check out this video that dissects the issue further.
