Featured Story

What Happens if You Start Choking When You're Alone? How to Give Yourself the Heimlich

Indiana resident Patricia Webster was eating a sandwich in her car last May when something suddenly became lodged in the back of her throat, she told NBC affiliate WDTN. Realizing she was choking with no one around to help, she exited her vehicle and began attempting the Heimlich maneuver on herself, leaning over the trunk for added pressure. It took several attempts, but eventually the culprit — an avocado pit — came out.
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If a similar situation happened to you, would you know what steps to take? The idea of choking alone obviously isn't fun to imagine, but being unprepared when an emergency actually occurs can make an already scary situation worse. If you've learned the correct response ahead of time, you can focus on taking action rather than racking your brain for the right move, Lynn White, director of workplace programs at the American Red Cross, explained to Nice News.
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We spoke to White about what to do if you start choking when you're by yourself — and how to help prevent it from happening to begin with. Click below for step-by-step instructions.

Together With Dollar Flight Club

Today's Travel Hack, Courtesy of Dollar Flight Club

Imagine if you could save up to 90% on every flight in 2026 for you, your friends, and your family. Well, you can: In an exclusive deal, Nice News readers can try Dollar Flight Club for just $1 (normally $99) when you sign up in the next 24 hours.
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Members have recently booked round-trip deals to Europe for as low as $273 and Hawaii from $161 (yes, really). All you have to do is sit back and relax — Dollar Flight Club will alert you when it finds domestic or international flight deals to your bucket-list destinations departing from airports near you. Join over 3 million travelers who will never overpay for a flight again.

Tech

Teen Reimagines Emergency Shelter Through the Art of Origami

When 14-year-old origami enthusiast Miles Wu saw headlines about 2024's Hurricane Helene and the wildfires in Southern California last year, a compelling idea started to unfold in his mind. "I thought maybe these origami patterns, which are strong and collapsible, could be used as emergency shelters in these natural disasters — kind of like a tent," the New York City teen recently told Smithsonian Magazine.
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This thought set Wu off on a lengthy project testing different folds and patterns to find shapes that were strong enough to withstand elements in emergencies while still being compact, affordable, and easily deployable. He focused on the Miura-ori pattern, and after 108 trials in his family's living room using heavy books and weights to test the paper's strength, he created a design that can hold more than 10,000 times its own weight.
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"I was really shocked by how much [weight] these simple pieces of paper could hold," Wu said. As were the judges for the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge, hosted by Society for Science. In the fall, Wu earned the top prize of $25,000 in the prestigious STEM competition for his rigorous and thoughtful design.
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"I just think it's just really wonderful to take the centuries-old art form of origami and use that in our everyday engineering," said Maya Ajmera, president and CEO of Society for Science. Looking ahead, Wu plans to develop an actual emergency shelter prototype and explore how origami could be useful in other scenarios as well. See photos of his design.​

Culture

Happy Lunar New Year — And Welcome to the Year of the Fire Horse

If you haven't quite gotten around to your New Year's resolutions yet, consider looking at the Lunar New Year, which began Tuesday, as a fresh start. Guided by the cycles of the moon, the Lunar New Year is a major holiday celebrated by Asian communities all over the world and an opportunity to look ahead with optimism.
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"Just as Christmas is a highlight of the year for many Western people, so is the Spring Festival, or Lunar New Year, to the Chinese all over the world," Jianguo Chen, an associate professor of Chinese at the University of Delaware, previously told Good Housekeeping.
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​The occasion marks the transition to spring and is typically observed with family reunions, festive foods, temple visits, lots of red, and other traditions meant to welcome in good vibes and sweep away bad luck. (We mean sweeping metaphorically, as cleaning on the first day of the Lunar New Year risks getting rid of any accumulated good luck — all cleaning should happen before the holiday.)
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​This is the Year of the Fire Horse, running from Feb. 17 to Feb. 5, 2027 on the Gregorian calendar. In the Chinese zodiac, the horse is associated with confidence, intelligence, and independence, while fire is thought to amplify qualities like passion, charisma, and ambition. Learn what the Year of the Fire Horse is expected to bring and check your Chinese zodiac.​

Humanity

This Dad Was Voted UK's Best Wedding Photographer

Hiring a photographer to memorialize one of the most important days of your life is often nerve-racking, but couples who contract Olly Knight can rest assured that he'll capture the celebration beautifully. The father of two from Kent, England, was named the U.K.'s best wedding photographer at the 2026 Wedding Industry Awards, and his favorite shots showcase the special moments that make these events so meaningful.
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This was Knight's fifth time submitting his photos for consideration — he was a runner-up for three years in a row. The annual awards comprise 29 wedding vendor categories, and actual wedding clients are involved in the selection process: Entrants request votes from their couples, and those who receive them move on to be evaluated by the judging panel. This year's winners were honored at a ceremony in Liverpool late last month.
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​Take a look at Knight's favorite submissions.​

Deep Dives

1. ​A photo essay chronicling an age-old winter tradition of the tight-knit Amish community in Hiram, Maine
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2. The revolutionary Easy-Bake Oven was introduced in 1963 — and the toy is still selling out​
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3. Shoes on or off? Experts weigh in on whether you should ask guests to remove their footwear

What to Read

​Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Save Lives​

Daisy Fancourt, a professor of psychobiology and epidemiology at University College London, has spent 15 years studying the relationship between the arts and human health. In Art Cure, she details the positive impacts activities like dance, crafting, music, and even magic tricks have on our well-being, arguing that the arts are the overlooked "fifth pillar of health," along with diet, exercise, sleep, and nature. The book helps readers change the way they interact with the arts, equipping them with the tools to achieve their individual health goals.

Press Play

​Paul McCartney: Man on the Run​

"I'll never write another note of music ever," Paul McCartney worried when the Beatles broke up in 1970. That was, of course, not the case — but setting out on your own after being part of the biggest band on the planet is no doubt a daunting endeavor. With archival footage, unreleased music, and interviews with Mick Jagger, Sean Ono Lennon, and more, Man on the Run takes viewers on a trip back through time as McCartney releases his first solo album (featuring the hit "Maybe I'm Amazed") and goes on to form Wings. The documentary starts streaming on Prime Video this Friday.

This Week in History

Woody Guthrie Writes "This Land Is Your Land"

February 23, 1940

Folk hero Woody Guthrie wrote over 3,000 songs, famously inspiring artists like Bob Dylan (whose first meeting with Guthrie was depicted in A Complete Unknown). But the Oklahoma native's most famous tune is arguably "This Land Is Your Land," which is both a patriotic ode and a populist call for social justice.
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Guthrie composed the song in New York in reaction to Irving Berlin's then-ubiquitous "God Bless America," which he believed glossed over the unequal distribution of wealth that Guthrie had observed and experienced firsthand growing up poor. "This Land Is Your Land" went on to become a protest song and an anthem for the Civil Rights Movement, and its humanist message continues to carry weight today. Listen to Guthrie play the song here — and watch Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger perform it at the Lincoln Memorial in 2009.

Hume Body Pod: Stop Guessing When It Comes to Your Health

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Crossword Club + Nice News

Today's Puzzle
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​Across

10. Not wild, as an animal

17. "OK, no more jokes from me"

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​Down

1. Works really hard

5. Musical whose title animals make the "Jellicle choice"

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Quote of the Day

"The truth is powerful and will prevail."

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– SOJOURNER TRUTH