158 Giant Endangered Tortoises Released on Galápagos Island Where They’d Been Extinct for 180 Years

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Feb 20, 2026

Floreana giant tortoises released – © Galápagos Conservancy

For the first time in over 180 years, a giant tortoise population is once again walking the landscapes of Floreana Island—launching the largest restoration effort ever undertaken on the Galápagos islands.

158 juvenile giant tortoises of Floreana lineage were released his week into their ancestral habitat, marking a historic milestone for the archipelago.

Driven to extinction in the mid-1800s, the Floreana giant tortoise (Chelonoidis niger niger) had been absent from the island for generations. Its return signals the beginning of a new phase of rewilding under the Floreana Ecological Restoration Project.

“The Project represents one of the greatest challenges undertaken by the Galápagos National Park,” said Lorena Sánchez, the park’s director.

“After years of sustained, science-based work—requiring rigorous studies and patience—the return of the giant tortoises reflects a long-term restoration vision focused on restoring the ecological functionality of Floreana’s ecosystems.”

The Floreana community of approximately 160 residents has been deeply involved in achieving this milestone, from participating in planning workshops to supporting long-term ecological monitoring.

Releasing a Floreana giant tortoise © Galapagos Conservancy

Community engagement has already contributed to notable conservation successes, including the rediscovery of the Galápagos Rail, a rare bird that had not been recorded on the island since Charles Darwin’s first visit to Galápagos.

“For generations, Floreana existed without its giant tortoises,” said Verónica Mora, the community’s representative. “Their return shows what is possible when a community leads and many partners come together with a shared purpose. Our livelihoods, from tourism to agriculture and fishing, depend on the health of this island.”

Bringing back a lost lineage

The tortoises released this week are the result of decades of genetic scientific research led by the Galápagos National Park Directorate.

Genetic studies conducted in the early 2000s revealed that some tortoises living on Wolf Volcano, to the North of Isabela Island, carried ancestry from Floreana—the last living descendants of a lineage long believed to be lost—likely due to historical whaling practices that involved offloading animals before long sea voyages.

Through a carefully managed breeding program, these individuals were raised to form a population that is genetically as close as possible to the original Floreana giant tortoise.

“By identifying tortoises on Wolf Volcano with Floreana ancestry and breeding their descendants, we are returning this species to its island in a form that closely reflects the original lineage—laying a critical scientific foundation for the restoration of Floreana’s ecosystems and the future reintroduction of additional native species,” said Hugo Mogollón, President of Galápagos Conservancy.

Giant tortoise (Chelonoidis niger) Courtesy of Floreana Breeding Center © Galápagos Conservancy

From species return comes ecosystem recovery

As keystone species, tortoises help maintain open habitats, promote native plant growth, and create conditions that allow entire ecosystems to function. Their absence on Floreana altered ecological processes for nearly two centuries. Their return is expected to help restore those processes naturally and drive natural regeneration processes that support a wide range of native plants and animals.

MORE GALAPAGOS GOOD NEWS:
• Baby Galápagos Pink Iguanas Seen for the First Time Ever—So Much Hope For Scientists
• Philadelphia Zoo’s 100-Year-old Galapagos Tortoises Hatch 4 Babies–to Help Ensure the Species’ Survival

“Habitats are the foundation for biodiversity—the home that allows species to move, live, and evolve naturally over time,” said Rakan Zahawi, Director of the Charles Darwin Foundation.

“Giant tortoises are a critical part of this system. By dispersing seeds, shaping vegetation, creating micro-habitats such as their well-known wallows, and influencing how landscapes regenerate, they help rebuild ecological processes that many other species depend on.”

Now, project partners will continue to evaluate conditions for the next phase of rewilding, which includes iconic species such as the Floreana Mockingbird, Floreana racer snake, Vegetarian Finch, and the Little Vermilion Flycatcher.

The return of the tortoises is also expected to strengthen Floreana’s land–sea connections.

The Galapagos rail – credit: Carlos Espinosa

By dispersing seeds and opening habitats, tortoises help improve nesting and feeding conditions for birds, including species slated for future reintroduction. Healthy seabird populations, in turn, contribute nutrients that support surrounding marine ecosystems, including coral reefs and fisheries.

A global example providing hope for the future

Reaching this moment has taken more than 15 years of dedicated work—and once fully restored, Floreana will stand as the largest ecological restoration project ever undertaken in the Galápagos, a global example of how restoring nature can go hand in hand with strengthening local livelihoods.

MORE ICONIC ISLAND NEWS:
• We Finally Rid An Island of 300,000 Rats – Now Everything is Blooming
• 15 Giant Tortoises Returned to Their Galapagos Home After Saving Their Species With 1,900 Babies

The Floreana Ecological Restoration Project is led by Ecuador’s Ministry of Environment and Mines through the Galápagos National Park Directorate (GNPD), and executed by the Charles Darwin Foundation, and Island Conservation, and Fundación Jocotoco, with support from the Galápagos Conservancy on the giant tortoise reintroduction.

“This decade of collaborative work now yields a result that couldn’t be possible without all of the partners working together. We restore islands so native species and human communities can thrive together,” said Dr. Penny Becker, CEO of Island Conservation.

“Seeing tortoises walk freely on Floreana once again after more than 180 years shows what’s possible when local partners, global experts, and the community share a vision for recovery.”

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‘Astonishing” New Scimitar-Shaped Crested Dinosaur Discovered in Sahara Desert: ‘You might uncover a lost world’

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Feb 20, 2026

Newly discovered scimitar-crested dinosaur was — Spinosaurus mirabilis dinosaur Illustration by Dani Navarro for University of Chicago and Professor Paul Sereno with fossil–SWNS

Spinosaurus mirabilis dinosaur Illustration by Dani Navarro for University of Chicago (and) Professor Paul Sereno with fossil – SWNS

Scientists called “astonishing” the first indisputable evidence of a new species of Spinosaurus found in over a century—uncovered in a remote area of the Sahara Desert.

The newly discovered scimitar-crested dinosaur was described as a “hell heron” that fed on fish despite living hundreds of miles from the sea.

Paleontologists say it appears to have been a wading predator of fish like its close relatives, but its habitat was more than 600 miles inland from the Tethys Sea in present day Niger.

Study leader Professor Paul Sereno said the new species called Spinosaurus mirabilis, lived 95 million years ago as a shallow water predator alongside long-necked dinosaurs.

It was similar in size and skeletal form to Spinosaurus aegyptiacus—but was crowned with a unique scimitar-shaped bony crest.

Prof. Sereno said the discovery of the crest was so large and unexpected that the team didn’t initially recognize it for what it was when they plucked it and some jaw fragments from the desert surface.

Returning with a larger team, they found two additional crests, and realized the novelty of the new species they had unearthed.

“This find was so sudden and amazing, it was really emotional for our team,” said Sereno, a professor of organismal biology and anatomy at the University of Chicago, who led the 20-person team.

They believe that the crest was brightly colored, curving toward the sky as a blade-shaped beacon, and sheathed in keratin. It may have been used for visual display rather than locomotion or hunting.

Illustration of Spinosaurus mirabilis dinosaur by Dani Navarro for University of Chicago-SWNS

“I’ll forever cherish the moment in camp when we crowded around a laptop to look at the new species for the first time, after one member of our team generated 3D digital models of the bones we found to assemble the skull—on solar power in the middle of the Sahara.

“That’s when the significance of the discovery really registered.”

The fossil find, described in the journal Science, may represent a ‘third phase’ of evolution of the massive, fish-eating dinosaurs, according to the research team.

Previously, spinosaurid bones and teeth had only been found principally in coastal deposits not far from the shoreline, leading some experts to believe that the fish-eating theropods may have been fully aquatic, pursuing prey underwater.

But the new fossil area in Niger documents animals that were living inland, up to 620 miles from the nearest marine shoreline.

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• Giant New Dinosaur Species Named Loki-ceratops for Horns That Look Like the Norse God
• Newly Unveiled T-Rex Relative Was Sitting in Museum Drawer for 50 Years and ‘Rewrites’ Family Tree

The researchers say that the “striking” interdigitating upper and lower tooth rows made a deadly trap for slippery fish.

“I envision this dinosaur as a kind of ‘hell heron’ that that had no problem wading on its sturdy legs into two meters of water, but probably spent most of its time stalking shallower traps for the many large fish of the day,” Sereno explained.

Their proximity to partial skeletons of long-necked dinosaurs—all buried in river sediments—suggest they lived in a forested inland habitat dissected by rivers, according to the research team.

What inspired him to go to the desert in the first place–and fall in love with it

The journey that culminated in the new discovery started with a single sentence in a monograph from the 1950s: a French geologist mentioned finding a single saber-shaped fossilized tooth resembling those of the giant predator Carcharodontosaurus found in Egypt’s Western Desert at the turn of the last century.

“No one had been back to that tooth site in over 70 years,” he says.

“It was an adventure. A year and a half wandering into the sand seas to search for this locale and then find an even more remote fossil area with a new species.”

Spanish paleontologist Dan Vidal hovers over a collection of fossils, including the crest and jaw pieces of a new scimitar-crested Spinosaurus species – SWNS

The team ended up meeting a local Tuareg man who led them on his motorbike deep into the center of the Sahara, where he had seen huge fossil bones.

After nearly a full day of travel, they reached the site—where the team found teeth and jaw bones of the new species of Spinosaurus.

“There’s nowhere else like the Sahara. If you can brave the elements and are willing to go after the unknown, you might just uncover a lost world.

“Now all of the young scholars who joined me are co-authors on the report gracing the cover of Science.”

The dinosaur fossil will now be showcased in the Museum of the River, in Niger’s capital of Niamey, a zero-energy institute that Prof. Sereno founded.

“The local people we work with are my lifelong friends now, including the man who led us to Jenguebi and the astonishing spinosaur.

“They understand the importance of what we’re doing together, for science and for their country.”

MORE DINO DYNAMOS:
• Family Discovers 8 Huge Dinosaur Footprints While Walking on Eroded Beach (Photos)
• Dinosaur With Rows of Bristles On its Head Like a Toothbrush Has Been Discovered–LOOK

Back in Chicago, his team cleaned and then CT scanned the teeth and bones, assembling a digital rendering of the skull for the research report.

Using the rendering, Prof. Sereno worked with paleo-artist Dani Navarro in Madrid to create an action scene involving a reconstruction of the new species towering over a coelacanth carcass.

Navarro then created a detailed 3D physical model of S. mirabilis by adding flesh over a skeletal reconstruction. The team also prepared a replica of the newly discovered skull and a touchable, colorful model of the scimitar crest.

Both replicas will be added to Sereno’s dinosaur exhibit at the Chicago Children’s Museum on on March 1, where youngsters will be among the first to get up close and personal with the latest dinosaur find.

“Letting kids feel the excitement of new discoveries – that’s key to ensuring the next generation of scientists who will discover many more things about our precious planet worth preserving.”

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Mountain Rescue Script Flipped as Hiker Saves Lost Dog Instead of a Dog Saving Hiker

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Andy Corbley

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Feb 20, 2026

In what was noted to be a bit of a reversal of traditional roles, a dog was rescued by mountaineers after spending a frigid night in a hollow below a mountaintop.

Five dogs and four hikers were approaching the summit of Fionn Bheinn in the Scottish Highlands near Achnasheen recently, when their dogs fell through a “cornice,” a term for a large buildup of snow on the edge of a cliff face or overhanging ledge.

The hikers rescued four of the imperiled pooches, but Aggie, a 5-year-old spaniel, could not be found. She had fallen into a hollow below the summit.

The next morning, Dundonnell Mountain Rescue Team assembled along with Aggie’s owner and a local deer stalker to find her.

It didn’t take them long once they arrived at the point where she fell through the cornice. A rescuer was lowered with a rope down into the hollow where Aggie, no worse for wear after a cold night 3,000 feet up, was dead happy to see someone.

Team leader Iain Nesbitt said “the incident highlighted the risks posed by cornices,” wrote the BBC.

“The ledges of snow form in strong winds and overhang the edges of steep slopes and can be difficult to spot.”

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Watch Thai Cops Literally Go ‘Undercover’ Dancing as a Lion to Nab Suspect at Lunar New Year Fest

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Andy Corbley

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Feb 20, 2026

From Thailand comes a story that’s pure Hollywood: police going undercover as festival lion dancers to nab a suspected art thief.

Dressed as the rump and head of a large Asian lion costume during Lunar New Year festivities, the police sprang upon the suspect and took him into custody, phone cameras mercifully recorded.

Bangkok police received a call earlier in February about a home burglary with a loss of “numerous Buddhist objects and two 12-inch Buddha statues,” the Straits Times reports, estimating the items as worth $81,000, or 2 million Thai bat.

Evidence collected indicated that the suspect made numerous attempts to break into the house before succeeding. Police had few leads, but obviously enough evidence to recognize him in person.

After weeks of keeping watch around the house and neighborhood for the man they believed to be the suspect, officers hatched a plan for the Lunar New Year. They’d dress up as traditional lion dancers and join in the festivities at a local Buddhist temple.

They danced into the night, eventually spotting their target. Approaching under the folds of the lion suit, they got close enough to tackle the man, who as it turns out was a 33-year-old previous offender of theft and drug-related offenses.

WATCH the video below…

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“Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.” – Winston Churchill

Quote of the Day

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Feb 20, 2026

Quote of the Day: “Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.” – Winston Churchill

Photo by: Gerald Berliner

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Good News in History, February 20

This Day In History

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Feb 20, 2026

Silene stenophylla - credit Maria Khoreva, via iNaturalist, CC 4.0. BY

14 years ago today, a team of Russian botanists successfully regenerated 36 specimens of Silene stenophylla from frozen samples of the plant’s fruit buried in the Russian permafrost between 40 and 60,000 years ago by squirrels. Surpassing the previous record for regeneration by more than 10 times, placental cells extracted from the frozen fruit were radiocarbon dated to 29,800 years BCE. READ what the plant looked like after it was grown… (2012)

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A ‘Planet Parade’ is Now in Alignment for Viewing Our Solar System This Week

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Andy Corbley

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Feb 19, 2026

A collage of planets to scale - credit, CactiStaccingCrane CC 4.0. BY-SA via Wiki

Next Saturday, the 28th of February, stargazers will have the chance to spot Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune all clustered together in the sky.

Called a planetary alignment, they occur when the planets, which orbit atop the same horizonal line—called the ecliptic plane—happen to pass by the same point in the sky at once.

The more planets that pass together, the more one can be assured that it’s a rare event. However, in a funny coincidence, it was also February 27th of last year that all 7 other planets appeared in a rough line.

This won’t happen again until 2040, but planetary parades aren’t that uncommon. Each planet that lines up makes the event less likely.

Four planets—Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn—will be visible to the naked eye. Uranus and Neptune, being much farther away, will require binoculars or a telescope.

Mercury, Venus, Saturn, and Neptune will appear very close together in a somewhat straight line, while Uranus will be about 40 degrees to the viewer’s left, and Jupiter about 90 degrees.

Keen observers with equipment can see all the planets in the sky even now, but on the 28th they will appear to us to be the closest together. The best place to look will be to the West, wherever you are in the world, about 30 minutes after local sunset. They won’t be very high in the sky, but you should look well above the horizon.

If you find Venus—bright with a red glow— mercury is quite close, up and to the right. Saturn is up and to the left, with the faintest of them all, Neptune, sitting virtually on top of the ringed world.

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Loyal Dog Who Lived by Owner’s Grave Inspires New Law Allowing Pets a Place in Family Plots

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Andy Corbley

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Feb 19, 2026

The state of São Paolo in Brazil recently passed a law in honor of a famous loyal dog that will allow residents to have their pets buried in family cemetery plots.

Bob, nicknamed Bob Gravedigger, was an orange dog who spent 10 years living next to the grave of his owner after attending his funeral at Taboão da Serra cemetery.

Brazilian media reported that even after several attempts by the deceased’s next of kin to take Bob home, he would find a way to slip out of his house and return to the resting place of his master.

Bob Gravedigger eventually become a fixture of the cemetery, getting his own green doghouse from which he would emerge to comfort mourners on funeral days.

“People who were saddened by burying their loved ones would manage a smile when the little dog, who was crazy about balls, tried to play,” said a local animal rights charity PATRE, in a statement.

Bob died in 2021 after being hit by a car, and inspired by the story of his truly undying loyalty, the São Paolo state legislature passed the so-called “Bob Coveiro [Gravedigger] Law last Wednesday. It provides for family cats and dogs to be buried alongside their owners in family plots, provided sanitary conditions are met.

BRAZILIANS LOVE ANIMALS:

“Anyone who has lost a pet knows: it’s not just an animal. It’s a family,” wrote representative Eduardo Nóbrega, one of the law’s authors, on social media. “And this law recognizes this bond, bringing more respect at the moment of farewell. Love does not end at goodbye.”

As well as being the largest and most populous country in South America, Brazil has the world’s third-largest pet population, with almost 160 million owned animals according to national statistics.

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Mystery of Armenia’s Giant 6,000-Year-old ‘Dragon Stones’ is Finally Solved

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Andy Corbley

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Feb 19, 2026

Dragon stones of Armenia – Credit Armen Manukov left and Sonashen right CC BY-SA 3 — Dragon stones of Armenia – Credits: Armen Manukov (left) and Sonashen (right) CC BY-SA 3.0

Dragon stones of Armenia – Credits: Armen Manukov (left) and Sonashen (right) CC BY-SA 3.0

For the first time in the country’s history, a detailed analysis of Armenia’s “dragon stones” has been conducted with the hope of solving the mystery of these large Neolithic monuments.

Raised between 4200 and 4000 BCE, in concert roughly with the megaliths of Stonehenge, Armenia’s vishaps, meaning dragons, weigh between 3 and 8 tons, and stretch across a highland region bearing either the carved imagery of a fish or a stretched cowhide.

Dozens have been found and identified, and their ubiquity along with their seeming randomness have defeated previous attempts to define their role in ancient Armenian society.

A new survey and analysis conducted by the Yerevan State University Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography has cracked the code somewhat, even if it involved being stumped once or twice along the way.

Concentrated among the mountainous regions in the Caucasian country’s western reaches, 43 sit among the Geghema Mountains, 36 are found on the slopes of Mount Aragats, and 17 among the Vardenis Mountains. Others have been found beyond this north-south axis, but the vishap builders seemed to primarily work in these areas.

These standing stones present a mystery when considering their elevation.

“[L]arger vishaps would necessitate greater processing time, especially in regions where the duration of the snow-free period decreases with increasing altitude,” wrote the authors.

“Therefore, it might be expected that, at higher elevations, smaller vishaps would be found, assuming that their size and location were not of particular significance to their constructors. However, the results of our analysis contradicted this hypothesis.”

Indeed, even considering the extraordinary labor that would come from building at every additional meter above sea level, there was no correlation between size of the megalith and position with regards to altitude. There were stones higher than 9 feet tall and weighing in excess of 7 tons that were located 9,000 feet up the mountains, where among other challenges such as a paucity of food and shelter, the ground is covered with snow from October to May.

Piscis type vishap – credit Vishap Project, A. Bobobkhyan

The research team’s working hypothesis is that the stones are likely tied to an ancient water cult, “as vishaps are predominantly located near springs as well as are represented by fish forms.”

ARMENIA NEWS: Nobel-Worthy Prime Minister Attempts to End Century of Ethnic Hatred for Armenians

Additionally, the cow-hide designed stele are more routinely clustered in valleys at lower altitudes where they mark out what may have been ancient irrigation channels, and where pastured livestock may have grazed. Classical and medieval-era settlements, including churches and remote fortresses are located along these same irrigation paths, suggesting the ample snowmelt would have sustained communities for thousands of years after the time of the vishap builders.

In any study of ancient monuments, the most compelling question is always why expend the substantial amounts of labor, and the resources necessary to sustain it, in pursuit of raising the monument.

MORE ANCIENT ARCHAEOLOGY: Archaeologists Uncover 5,500-year-old ‘Ritual Landscape’ in Jordan

Though the effort may have been excessive, the stones, carved and standing, would embody the cultural and spiritual beliefs of the people who carved them as well as their spirit of cooperation and teamwork. Other such projects in other countries have been theorized as acting as anchors of a community—proof that the landscape was theirs.

Incidentally, the ancient vishap builders weren’t the only ones who saw in the standing stones a marker of place and purpose. Future civilizations, including the Urartians, contemporaries of the Babylonians and Assyrians, and early Christian communities, both carved their own marks into the vishaps, the former with their Cuneiform alphabet, the latter with their cross.

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Thrift Shop Buried Under ‘Rags’ Gets Helping Hand from Designer Who Wants to Reduce Landfill Waste

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Andy Corbley

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Feb 19, 2026

Victoria Ford - credit Derien House Childrens Hospice — Victoria Ford - credit Derian House Childrens Hospice

Victoria Ford – credit Derian House Childrens Hospice

An English thrift shop that found itself buried under mountains of old donated clothes has gotten a helping hand from a talented designer.

Recent fashion and design graduate Victoria Ford approached the shop and offered to transform some of its unwanted rags into bespoke pieces for sale at premium prices.

The thrift shop proceeds benefit Derian House Children’s Hospice in Chorley, but rather than generating revenue to pay for the hospital’s expenses, the shop had mostly become a dropping off point for unwanted clothes which piled up in “eyewatering amounts” and sat unsorted in huge sacks in the shop’s warehouse.

Most would have probably ended up in a landfill if it weren’t for Ford’s belief in second-chance fashion and an eye for quality.

“Rather than letting things go to waste, I wanted to help Derian House to give their unsellable clothing a new life, and to turn them into something others can enjoy,” Ford told the BBC.

Mick Croskery from the Derian House shop said Victoria’s collection was attracting a new crowd to the shop.

Victoria’s collection – credit Derien House Childrens Hospice

Running on “super tight margins” and “inundated with rags” too worn down, or with holes, stains, or burns, to sell on, Croskery said “it is that kind of stuff that Victoria has repurposed for us that we couldn’t sell.”

They used to pay 70 cents per bag of donated clothes, but the shop was receiving so many “rags” that they eventually lowered that all the way to 15 cents.

MORE STORIES LIKE THIS:

Ford has had to get creative to make use of the excess, but she’s been doing just that since she was 10, she said, finding items in similar thrift shops and transforming them with her sewing machine as a child. She’s redesigned dozens of items, and even made a handbag out of an inflatable mattress.

Derian House Children’s Hospice cares for more than 400 babies and toddlers, children, young people and their families, and costs more than £6 million, or about $7.8 million to run annually.

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“The past cannot be cured.” – Queen Elizabeth I

Quote of the Day

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Feb 19, 2026

Quote of the Day: “The past cannot be cured.” – Queen Elizabeth I

Photo by: Joseph Pearson

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Good News in History, February 19

This Day In History

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Feb 19, 2026

40 years ago today, the Soviet Union launched the space station Mir, and with it, a new phase in space exploration. Mir, which means both peace and world in Russian, would provide the home base for a permanently manned international complex orbiting the Earth– and was occupied for 10 years of its 15 in orbit. READ more… (1986)

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Ancient Blocks From the Lighthouse of Alexandria Raised from the Sea to Better Understand Their Wondrous Construction

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Andy Corbley

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Feb 18, 2026

22 massive granite blocks that once formed the Great Lighthouse of the Alexandria have been hauled up from the bottom of city’s ancient harbor.

The blocks weighed dozens of tons each and consisted of upright pillars, frames, and crossbeams called lintels that once formed the entrance to the structure.

Called one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World by the Greeks of the time, a series of earthquakes in the 10th century CE and later sent the famous lighthouse crumbling into the harbor.

France’s National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and Egypt’s Center for the Studies of Alexandria (CEAlex) led a project to map and study the blocks and other remnants scattered across the seabed. Ongoing for over a decade, a landmark 2014 analysis identified some 3,000 blocks and another 5,000 stone pieces of the lighthouse scattered across a 4 acre area.

Every block that came up was thoroughly photographed, with the results channeled into a photogrammetry database where researchers could return and study each block with precise 3-dimensional detail in the lab.

With many of the blocks thusly analyzed, the CNRS team, led by Isabelle Hairy, began to hypothetically reassemble the ancient monument block by block. Sophisticated digital modeling software allowed them to test how certain blocks would fit together at the click of a mouse rather than the groan of a crane. The precise 3D-renders included things like rough and fine edges, chips, and tool marks that informed the potential placements.

Earth.com reports that when two segments seemed to fit, they could also run simulations to see what characteristics an earthquake might have had, in terms of intensity and direction, to crack and topple it.

Built when an august general under Alexander of Macedon named Ptolemy decided to make himself ruler of Egypt after the former’s empire was carved up following his death, the lighthouse guided ships into the harbor of Alexandria for centuries, and was built so soundly that it took multiple earthquakes over several hundred years to eventually destroy it.

Ibn Jubayir, a Moorish pilgrim on route to Mecca, attempted description of the lighthouse, but couldn’t wrap his head around exactly where to start.

It is most strongly built in all directions and competes with the skies in height. Description of it falls short, the eyes fail to comprehend it, and words are inadequate, so vast is the spectacle. We measured one of its four sides and found it to be more then fifty arms’ lengths. It is said that in height it is more than one hundred and fifty. Its interior is an awe-inspiring sight in its amplitude, with stairways and entrances and numerous apartments, so that he who penetrates and wanders through its passages may be lost. In short, words fail to find a conception of it.

WONDERS OF THE WORLD: Protecting The Great Wall of China From Erosion, Lichen Soil Crust Shields Monument from Weather Damage

Several of the blocks bore Egyptian imagery and iconography, even though they were carved with Hellenistic techniques, capturing the synthesis of cultures under the Ptolemaic dynasty. At the same time, however, the CNRS team believes that some of the granite monoliths came from an Old Kingdom site at Abu Rawash, which would predate the lighthouse by 2,000 years at least.

As tantalizing as it is to imagine reassembling at least part of the structure, Egyptian authorities do not permit the recovery of any blocks over 220 pounds. After so many years immersed in salt water, exposure to oxygen risks irreparable damage to the larger stones coming from salt crystals growing in size in the cracks and crevices while drying out.

MONUMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGY: This German Town Carefully Reconstructed a 5,500-Year-Old Monument Lifting 13 Tons of Stone

After photographing, the largest elements were returned to their watery beds.

The 3D model that has been constructed could, the researchers suggest, lead to novel ways of interpreting and presenting the nature of the monument to visitors. With a precise idea of how the lighthouse was built and the stones stacked, one can imagine, perhaps given another decade, a holographic projection of the structure rising above the harbor at Alexandria just as its name sake had done for more than a millennia.

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Hero Stranger Rescues Mom and 3 Kids After Car Flips into Canal Waters: ‘Nobody was around’

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Andy Corbley

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Feb 18, 2026

Car overturned in canal by accident-credit MARTIN COUNTY SHERIFFS OFFICE — Credit: MARTIN COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE

A Good Samaritan said he thanked the Good Lord that he was close at hand when a mother, driving with her kids, suffered a seizure and hurtled off the road into a canal.

What started as a calm Sunday drive turned into anything but when a glance into his review mirror left Casey Curtis shocked: a car that had been following him quickly accelerated, veered to the right, and flew off the road into the bushes.

Halting near the scene of the accident, Curtis jumped out of his car and followed the tire marks whilst calling 911.

Beyond several meters of roadside brush, he came across a Jeep flipped upside down half-submerged in water.

“I got to the car, opened up the door, and there were three kids sitting there, staring at me, helpless,” Curtis told local news at the time.

Aged 8, 2, and 4 months, they had been crying for help, and for their mother, whose head was submerged below the water.

He quickly got the kids out and onto the bank before immersing himself up to his chest in the canal water to and save the driver.

“I lifted the mom’s head up out of the water, and she wasn’t breathing,” Curtis said. “I gave her a breath, and… she started breathing again.”

First responders arrived at the site of the accident on Allapattah Road in Martin County, and rushed the family of four to the hospital. An extended family member said that the 3 children were mercifully unharmed, but that their mother, Shyenique Wilkins, remained hospitalized on a ventilator.

MORE FLORIDA MEN: Trio of Neighbors Honored for Saving the Lives of Florida Plane Crash Survivors

Wilkins’ niece set up a GoFundMe to help with the family’s medical bills. It has raised $4,100 towards a $10,000 goal.

Curtis said he thanked God he was in the right place at the right time, as there was no one else on the road that day, and anyone who’d have come after could not have seen the car beyond the tree line.

WATCH The story below from ABC’s local affiliate…

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Planting Billions of Trees Turned Barren Desert into a Carbon Sink That Lowers CO2

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Andy Corbley

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Feb 18, 2026

credit CC 3.0. — A mixed-species section of the Green Great Wall - Credit: 中国新闻网 CC 3.0. BY

A mixed-species section of the Green Great Wall – Credit: 中国新闻网 CC 3.0. BY

China’s multi-decade long, successful effort to plant a ring of trees around one of the world’s most hostile deserts has sprouted an unexpected benefit to humanity.

Along with protecting the nation’s grasslands and agriculture from the spreading sands of the dismal Taklamakan Desert, the giant ring of trees has turned previous unproductive land into a carbon sink that draws CO2 out of the atmosphere.

It’s thought, and some isolated research has indeed demonstrated, that humans can prevent the worst effects of a rise in average global temperatures by planting trees to absorb more CO2 from the atmosphere.

This strategy has limits, however, when viewed on a global scale. Atmospheric CO2 levels continue to rise, while there is a limit in the amount of land that can be turned over to forests.

One-third of our planet is covered in deserts, where vegetation is sparse or absent, and rainfall is scarce, yet despite their vast acreage they collectively hold less than one-tenth of the world’s carbon stock, or the amount of carbon that is held underground.

A study conducted by NASA and California Technical Institute (Caltech) has used satellite data to demonstrate that the “sea of death” as the Taklamakan Desert was called in antiquity, could be utilized to store carbon and reduce the greenhouse effect.

The Taklamakan Desert. Credit: NASA World Wind 1.4.

Starting in 1978, China’s Three-North Shelter Belt program aimed to plant trees along the borders of the great Taklamakan to stop sandstorms from ruining adjacent pasture and agriculture land. As the world’s single farthest point from any ocean, the Taklamakan is one of the driest and most hostile landscapes on our planet.

The massive Himalayas rise to the south and east, the Pamirs to the southwest, and a pair of mountains known as the Tian Shan and the Altai to the west, leaving landscape completely isolated from moisture.

66 billion trees have been planted by estimates since the start of the Shelter Belt program, which finished in 2024. Monikered the “Green Great Wall,” this incredible increase in greenery has raised average rainfall by several millimeters, resulting in a natural growth of foliage during the wet season that boosts photosynthesis along the tree line, leading to greater degrees of sequestration.

TRANSFORMING OUR PLANET:

“We found, for the first time, that human-led intervention can effectively enhance carbon sequestration in even the most extreme arid landscapes, demonstrating the potential to transform a desert into a carbon sink and halt desertification,” study co-author Yuk Yung, a professor of planetary science at Caltech and a senior research scientist in NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told Live Science in an email.

By precise numbers, it has reduced the average carbon content in the desert air from 416 parts per million to 413 ppm. Parts per million is used as a measurement for the greenhouse effect. Worldwide, the number is 429.3. It was 350 in before the advent of industrialization.

If more shelter belt-style tree planting efforts could be used to reclaim desert landscapes, it could open vast areas to absorbing carbon. With little to no vegetation, deserts in their natural state have precious little ability to do so.

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Manatee Stuck in Florida Storm Drain Showing Signs of Recovery After SeaWorld Rescued Him

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Andy Corbley

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Feb 18, 2026

On February 9th, SeaWorld in Orlando received a call that there was an exhausted manatee stuck in a storm drain that needed immediate help.

Arriving on scene, rescuers quickly confirmed that the juvenile male had entered a storm drain and didn’t know how to escape.

Crews had to break through concrete and dig through several feet of soil to reach a “baffle box,” the structure where he had become trapped. Authorities believe he swam into the storm drain seeking warmth during a recent cold snap.

The rescue lasted several hours before the 410-pound marine mammal was transported to SeaWorld’s rescue and rehab center for manatees. This facility rescued 56 manatees in 2025, and this young male is already the 7th this year.

After an examination, it was determined he was significantly underweight, and showed signs of skin lesions that told of a struggle against the concrete baffle box.

3 days later, SeaWorld sent word out that the unfortunate was showing signs of improvement, breathing on his own, moving independently, and showing interest in food.

The manatee when it arrived at SeaWorld’s rescue facility – credit SeaWorld Orlando, released

“Our animal care team is awaiting lab results, which will guide the care plan for this manatee and next steps,” SeaWorld Orlando told GNN in a statement. “[Our] goal is always to stabilize and rehabilitate rescued manatees so they can ultimately be returned to the wild once deemed healthy and stable by the Zoo teams.”

There are two recognized sub-species of the West Indian manatee, one is the Florida manatee, and the other the Antillean manatee.

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Good News in History, February 18

This Day In History

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Good News Network

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Feb 18, 2026

black speedskater-Shani David-cc Mingo Hagen-and-2006-McSmit-cc — (left) Mingo Hagen, and (right) in 2006 by McSmit, CC licenses

20 years ago today, American speed skater Shani Davis became the first Black athlete to win a gold medal in Winter Olympic history for an individual event, winning the men’s 1,000-meter in Italy. He also won a silver medal in the 1500-meter race. Four years later at the Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, he repeated the feat, and became the first man to win back-to-back gold medals in the 1000 meters, and repeating as the 1500-meter silver medalist, too. WATCH him win the gold… (2006)

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Mysterious ‘Hero’ Dog Leads Police Straight to Missing 3-year-old Officer Says in Body Cam Video

By

Andy Corbley

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Feb 17, 2026

Louisville Metro Police Department - credit, released

A police officer and self-described “dog guy,” hooked his own instincts up to those of a local dog to find a missing 3-year-old in Kentucky.

There was a drone and helicopter in the air and a half-dozen officers from the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department scouring the immediate location of a missing persons call on January 7th.

Reasoning that a boy that young can’t run very fast, Officer Josh Thompson and another officer who rides a beat in that area, named Story, began to canvas the street near the boy’s house.

“As I’m walking to the front [door] the craziest thing happens: there’s a dog, and he starts walking with me,” said Thompson. “And at first you don’t know about dogs, you don’t know where the dog’s from, he’s barkin,’ jerkin’ at me a little bit.”

“So I begin to knock on the house again and then I make a gesture on body cam, kinda’ funny—I guess I’m a dog guy right?—but I just said, ‘let’s go find this kid.'”

The dog immediately spun around and started trotting back in the direction Officer Thompson came from, barking periodically. He described it all in a video posted on social media by the department, and at one point said unflappably that the dog was telling him to “hurry up,” maybe showing just how much Thompson’s heart and mind had merged in the moment.

Sure enough they returned to the back of the house, and the Thompson knew that the child was there somewhere. The dog ran over to a parked car and sat down next to the back wheel, and Officer Story called out that he’d found the child in the seat of the car.

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He was locked inside with the child locks on, and they had to coach him on how to open the door. When he finally did, “he jumped out of the car, bear hugged my neck and wouldn’t let go.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a happier kid in my life.” Thompson said. “I don’t know where the dog came from, but it was a blessing from God that day.”

Indeed, neither the department nor CBS, reporting on the event, figured out whose dog it was.

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‘Mushroom Mining’ Could Be Cheap Way to Recover Rare Earth Minerals from Industrial Waste

By

Andy Corbley

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Feb 17, 2026

mushroom on a rock Brandy Vailes via Unsplash — Brandy Vailes via Unsplash

Decades of underinvestment in mining and refining across Europe and North America has landed the manufacturing sector in a problem, which a group of scientists believe can be helped by mushrooms rather than excavators.

One must have been living under a rock not to have recently read the terms “critical minerals” or “rare earth elements.” These components—nickel, to use an example of the former, and gallium from the latter—are needed in increasing amounts to build next generation technologies of all kinds, from longer-lasting batteries in electric vehicles to AI data centers and spacecraft.

Traditionally, these materials have been recovered through mining operations, but each gram that enters the supply chain will eventually become a waste product, and it is out of that waste that scientist from Austria believe mushrooms can recover enough minerals to make a sizable impact in the world economy.

For the mercifully uninitiated, rare earth elements (or rare earths for short) are actually not that rare: they’re found practically anywhere, just at very low levels. For that reason, mining them isn’t very efficient, and they’re very often collected as a byproduct from mining other minerals.

“Mycomining,” as Alexander Bismarck and Michael Jones from the University of Vienna have called it, could take advantage of fungi’s exceptional capacity to grow in contaminated areas to recover rare earths from industrial waste like mine tailings and slime dams, or even from coal ash.

“We really could do this over large areas and quite easily collect [the mushrooms] using existing agricultural machinery,” Jones told the BBC.

Below the innocent mushroom cap we see on the forest floor is a sprawling network of filaments called mycelia that actually makes up more than 95% of the fungi’s total biomass. These mycelia worm their way into every nook and cranny and remain extremely small compared to a tree’s roots which gradually widen.

That mycelia soaks up nutrients the fungi and surrounding plants need, but that’s not all they soak up. Fungi have been studied for the mycelium’s ability to absorb nuclear radiation, toxic heavy metals like lead and mercury, and rare earth elements that go into making our smartphones and other devices.

Compared to other non-mining forms of recovering rare earths, Jones and Bismarck admit that concentrations in fungi would be low, perhaps as little as one tenth that of dissolved e-waste, for example. On the other hand, the fungi don’t need the power of a flash joule heater, which you’d use to dissolve the e-waste, nor would they be grown atop e-waste, but in contaminated areas that might even be hazardous for humans to work in.

MORE MINING NEWS: Researchers Invent Way to Turn Harmful Mine Waste into Healthy Soil

BBC spoke with Jones and Bismarck about their project, which is also being investigated separately at the University of Arizona, where Professor Oona Snoeyenbos-West plans to launch a startup to source fungi already growing in contaminated areas for the purpose of bioremediation and bio-recovery of critical minerals, especially rare earths and copper.

Major mining already spends a lot of time and money on bioremediation. DRD Gold, a subsidiary of South African mining major Sibanye-Stillwater, produced around 160,000 ounces of gold during the last fiscal year entirely from retreating mine tailings through a simultaneous rehabilitation program to render both water and materials nontoxic, much of which is powered by solar panels.

Mine tailings refers to the gravel-like material left behind after ore has been stripped of the majority of gold, silver, copper or other metals through the milling, flotation and/or leaching process.

BIOREMEDIATION: Researchers Use Wastewater to Generate Electricity – While Cleaning It Up

Tailings storage facilities are expensive to build on-site, as they must contain the polluted material from contaminating the nearby environment. Companies can bring their tailings straight from the mill to DRD Gold’s locations for reclamation, saving money and ensuring they are treated soundly. DRD is just one company engaged in this practice, which is becoming more common as operators target big tailings mounds both as an environmental hazard to remove and a bounty of leftover gold, silver, and other metals from eras when metallurgical technologies were less efficient.

The future can only be positive for these strategies of mineral recovery. All the gold in the world both above and blow ground would only form a cube small than the Great Pyramid of Kufu, and eventually there will be more circulating in waste streams than is left below the Earth.

OTHER RECOVERY METHODS: Chemical Process Produces Critical Battery Metals from This Unloved Mineral with No Waste

A similar destiny may be in store for rare earths, one in which the preponderance of e-waste—predicted only to grow larger and larger over the next 25 years—becomes so unignorable that the materials already mined and used simply outnumber the quantity recoverable through traditional mining.

Will mushrooms be present in that future? No one can say for certain, but it seems likely that few if any methods will be as cheap.

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Volunteers Save 51 Dogs in Large-Scale Operation Following Arkansas Shelter Collapse

By

Andy Corbley

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Feb 17, 2026

One of 51 dogs rescued by ARC's operation in Arkansas - credit ARC, supplied

From Arkansas comes the story of a huge animal rescue operation of 51 dogs trapped in a derelict shelter.

Headquartered in nearby Nashville, Tennessee, the Animal Rescue Corps (ARC) received information about a nonprofit dog rescue in Ashdown, Arkansas, where an acrimonious divorce between the shelter’s owners left the dogs caught in the crossfire.

Much like children, the animals had unwittingly become victims of a marital conflict they had no involvement in.

Many had already been stuck in the shelter waiting for adoption for years by the time the owners’ union unraveled, including one named Yoshi who had been there a decade.

After confirming the surrender of the dogs via court order, ARC’s Field Team flew into action, conducting one of the organization’s largest rescue operations to date.

“Many of these dogs have lived here for years,” ARC Executive Director Tim Woodward, a finalist for CNN’s 2025 Hero of the Year Award, said in a statement. “Our focus now is giving them the space, care and stability they haven’t had.”

The dogs are primarily large-breed, reportedly friendly, and all have been spayed or neutered. At one time, the dogs were confined to small cages with limited daily release. ARC responders found that the dogs had been moved to outdoor kennels prior to the team’s arrival.

The condition of the kennels were described as “austere.”

MORE OF ARC’S GOOD WORK: 18 Outdoor Dogs Rescued from Winter Storm–and One Gives Birth Safe and Warm Inside Shelter

“The goal was to prevent the situation from getting worse and becoming more detrimental for the dogs,” Woodward said. “Once it became clear that no one was stepping in for them, intervention was necessary.”

All 51 dogs were safely transported without issue to ARC’s Rescue Center outside Nashville, where they will receive veterinary evaluations, enrichment and long-term care planning.

BETTER RUN SHELTERS: This Animal Shelter Closes Empty from Day After Day of Instant Adoptions: ‘It’s Been Nonstop’

ARC does not handle adoption proceedings for the dogs they rescue, but rather facilitate the animals’ transfer, when appropriate, to a series of trusted adoption partners.

“Readers considering adopting a dog can contact ARC for more information on when and perhaps where these rescued dogs will be available for adoption,” a publicist for the organization told GNN.

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