5
Zookeepers Stay Behind In Disaster Zones To Keep The Animals Alive
Good zookeepers don't load up the minivan and buzz off to safer climes when calamity strikes. They use their training and no small amount of improvised ingenuity to help their animal friends weather the storm. That can mean cramming a flock of flamingos into a public restroom, sleeping on a cot right alongside an animal, or letting predators crash on their own couches.
Zookeepers aren't only looking out for the animals; they're looking out for us too. Just look at what happened during the 2015 floods in Tbilisi, Georgia, which caused hundreds of zoo animals to break free from their cages. One white tiger fucking ate somebody. The end result was further catastrophe. Police had to gun down dozens of exotic species in the aftermath. More experienced zookeepers from Prague were shipped in to dig all the dead animals out of the mud.
So three cheers for our brave boys and girls in beige, sparing us all from having to witness a koala take a headshot from a SWAT sniper.
4
A Former Japanese Politician Is A One-Man Disaster Relief Team
Because Mother Nature and her son Godzilla clearly don't think Japan should have any buildings, the country is constantly beset by earthquakes. One of the worst instances occurred in 1995, when the city of Kobe was turned into a pile of debris ... which then caught on fire. Seeing the devastation, Tokyo city councilman Seiji Yoshimura, a rising star in the Japanese government, was inspired to toss tradition in the trash and actually help some people for a change.
Yoshimura loaded up his truck with two enormous cauldrons, drove straight to Kobe, and started cooking meals for victims. And when he wasn't filling empty stomachs, he spent his time assisting with search and rescue efforts. And when that was done, he picked up a hammer and started rebuilding homes.
Takehiko Kambayashi/The Christian Science Monitor"I don't know, the superhero pose kinda just happened."