Classical music can be comforting, even to elephants.

English classical pianist Paul Barton performs classical piece on the piano for the gentle giants at the ElephantsWorld sanctuary in Kanchanaburi, Thailand.

From CBS News:

It all started when he and his wife first discovered the sanctuary, Elephants World, online, Barton explains in a video. "We liked the sound of the place being a retirement center for old, injured and handicapped former logging and trekking elephants," Barton said. "So we paid them a visit. I wondered if these old rescue elephants might like to listen to some slow classical music."

Barton asked the employees at Elephants World if he could bring his piano and serenade the elephants some time, and they said yes. The first time Barton played his piano at Elephants World, a blind elephant that was eating his breakfast stopped in his tracks when he heard Beethoven for the first time.

"[He] was often in pain, and I like to think maybe the soothing the music gave him some comfort in the darkness," Barton said in the video.

The clip above is of Barton playing "Clair de Lune" by Debussy for an 80-year old blind female elephant named Ampan.

More video clips below:

"Meowntain" climbing, you say?

When Wojtek Jabczynski reached the top of 8,212-ft tall Rysy mountain in Poland, he was surprised to find a tabby cat just hangin' round, casually licking its paws.

From OddityCentral:

Jabczynski said that the cat didn’t appear to be concerned about the cold or afraid of humans and even approached him as he took out his lunch from the backpack, but apparently his cheese roll wasn’t to appealing.

The mountain climber was clever enough to take photos and video of the cat, because, who'd believe his story otherwise?

(Photo: Wojtek Jabczynski/Facebook)

When Cynthia and Robert Peterson discovered that Finn, their six-year-old lab has cancer, they wanted to make sure that the last few weeks of his life were his best. So they made him a bucket list!

So far, they've taken Finn on a hot air balloon ride, taken him swimming in the ocean, went apple picking, and even gave him a steak dinner.

"We know he's dying, but we are trying to make him happy," Cynthia said to the BBC, "We will look back on this and think we made his final days the best we could. We're making the most of what we've got."

Visit Finn's Instagram to see the latest things he's checked off his bucket list.

Millions of school children use the iconic Dixon Ticonderoga No. 2 pencil every day, and the company has fiercely sought protection from the US government to preserve it as a domestic industry:

In 2000, lawmakers passed the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act, which allowed American companies to collect some of the duties paid by importers of their competitors’ products. Dixon repeatedly made claims, saying it was a domestic manufacturer, and the government sent the company payments over 10 years totalling almost US$5 million, according to US Customs and Border Protection records.

But where are all those pencils actually made?

The company says that, worldwide, it makes nearly 500 million pencils each year, but it would not release any details about its US production. It denied a request to tour the facility. Photographs of the Macon distribution centre, posted by employees on Facebook, offer only a limited view of its operations, showing a number of cardboard boxes marked, “Made in China.”

Damian Paletta explains the intricacies of making something as simple as a No.2 pencil in this intriguing article over at South China Morning Post.

(Photo: Scaredpoet/wikipedia)

Veterinarian Ana Silva noticed that the street cats of Monchique, Portugal, love to sleep in abandoned, broken washing machines. So she arranged a few to painted by students from a local school and left out to serve as colorful "luxury" shelter for street cats!

Photo: (CMJornal/video capture)

It looks like a shard of Kryptonite, but it's actually a massive emerald discovered at Kagem, the world's largest emerald mine in Zambia.

The Inkalamu emerald was named in honor of the wildlife conservation group that Gemfields, the mine's co-owner, collaborates with. It was discovered by geologist Debapriya Rakshit and miner Richard Kapeta.

Gorgeous!

(Photo: Gemfields)

When her 11-month-old Oscar wouldn't stop crying one morning, mom Tara O'Byrne was surprised to see the reason: baby Oscar had grown a fang tooth overnight!

"I went in to him around 7am. I usually give him a soother and he goes back asleep for an hour, but he kept crying," she told the Irish Mirror, "So I took him out and changed him but when I went to feed him, I found the tooth in his mouth. It had grown overnight."

Doctors couldn't figure out what it was, so she brought the baby to a dentist, who removed it. It'll be a keepsake to present to him when he's older, O'Byrne said.

(Photo: Facebook/Tara O'Byrne)

This is brilliant! Harry Potter fan annamarie_bro wrote: "Lmao. Just to clarify, he cried for about 3 seconds while we got this photo. We had our Halloween party right around his bedtime so he was very grumpy that he wasn’t in bed and started crying. So we snapped a pic and put him to bed."

Singer Marcelito Pomoy, who won the Philippines 'Pilipinas Got Talent' contest in 2012, sure can sing. In fact, he can sing a duet in both male and female voices, all by himself!

Pomoy recently hit the international stage when he appeared on Ellen Degeneres' show.

Frustrated when his colleague kept on telling him the ending of books, a scientist in a remote outpost in Antarctica resorted to violence:

Sergey Savitsky, 55, and Oleg Beloguzov, 52, were avid readers to pass the lonely hours during four harsh years together. But Savitsky became angry after Beloguzov kept telling him the endings, it is alleged. The victim is now in intensive care after being flown from Russia’s Bellingshausen research station on King George Island to Chile with a knife injury to his heart.

Savitsky is now under arrest under what is believed to be the first attempted murder in Antarctica.

(Photo: social media/east2west news)

Whatever you do, don't tell him any jokes ... oh, what the heck: "What do you call a three-humped camel?"

Photo snapped at the Clairemont DMV in Southern California - via BagelTiger

This is wonderful: artist Aaron Zenz has invited kids to send him drawings that he would then turn into fully rendered art pieces done in color pencil - in the same style that he uses when illustrating children's picture books.

Zenz collected his favorites for ArtPrize 2018 in the Grand Rapids Children's Museum in Michigan.

Take a look at more of Zenz's whimsical interpretation of what the kids submitted:

What do you see in this optical illusion picture? A crow or a cat?

Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy of @LizandMollie graphed how adulthood feels in one pie-chart. I think they nailed it!

Vancouver Police Department Canine Unit has just released their 2019 charity calendar, and the pics are stunning!

“The calendar was started in 2009 by retired Vancouver Police Sergeant Mike Anfield in honour of his wife, VPD Constable Candy Anfield who lost her battle with breast cancer in 2004,” Social Media Liaison officer for the Vancouver Police Department, Anne-Marie Clark told Bored Panda. “Proceeds from the sale of the calendars go towards the B.C. Cancer Foundation and B.C. Children’s Hospital Foundation.”

“The police dogs all followed their handlers instructions during the photo shoots and were good dogs,” Anne-Marie Clark added. “You can see their personalities showing through in the pics. PSD Brando really is as cool as he looks with his sunglasses on. PSD Bailey loves a quick break in a local coffee shop. PSD Jack takes his job seriously and is always determined to get to the truth when it comes to interviewing suspects!”

See more pics below: