Quote of the Day: “My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.” – Dalai Lama
Photo by: Yulia Dubina (Юлія Дубина)
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
A reef that has been degraded—whether by coral bleaching or disease—can’t support the same diversity of species and has a much quieter, less rich soundscape.
But new research from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution shows that sound could potentially be a vital tool in the effort to restore coral reefs.
A healthy coral reef is noisy, full of the croaks, purrs, and grunts of various fishes and the crackling of snapping shrimp. Scientists believe that coral larvae use this symphony of sounds to help them determine where they should live and grow.
So, replaying healthy reef sounds can encourage new life in damaged or degraded reefs.
In a paper published last week in Royal Society Open Science, the Woods Hole researchers showed that broadcasting the soundscape of a healthy reef caused coral larvae to settle at significantly higher rates—up to seven times more often.
“What we’re showing is that you can actively induce coral settlement by playing sounds,” said Nadège Aoki, a doctoral candidate at WHOI and first author on the paper.
“You can go to a reef that is degraded in some way and add in the sounds of biological activity from a healthy reef, potentially helping this really important step in the coral life cycle.”
Corals are immobile as adults, so the larval stage is their only opportunity to select a good habitat. They swim or drift with the currents, seeking the right conditions to settle out of the water column and affix themselves to the seabed. Previous research has shown that chemical and light cues can influence that decision, but Aoki and her colleagues demonstrate that the soundscape also plays a major role in where corals settle.
CHECK OUT: Full Recovery for Coral Reef Within 4 Years – The Speed of Restoration They Saw was ‘Incredible’
The researchers ran the same experiment twice in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2022. They collected larvae from Porites astreoides, a hardy species commonly known as mustard hill coral thanks to its lumpy shape and yellow color and distributed them in cups at three reefs along the southern coast of St. John. One of those reefs, Tektite, is relatively healthy. The other two, Cocoloba and Salt Pond, are more degraded with sparse coral cover and fewer fish.
At Salt Pond, Aoki and her colleagues installed an underwater speaker system and placed cups of larvae at distances of one, five, 10, and 30 meters from the speakers. They broadcast healthy reef sounds – recorded at Tektite in 2013 – for three nights. They set up similar installations at the other two reefs but didn’t play any sounds.
When they collected the cups, the researchers found that significantly more coral larvae had settled in the cups at Salt Pond than the other two reefs. On average, coral larvae settled at rates 1.7 times (and up to 7x) higher with the enriched sound environment.
The highest settlement rates were at five meters from the speakers, but even the cups placed 30 meters away had more larvae settling to the bottom than at Cocoloba and Tektite.
CORAL POSITIVE: See All GNN’s Inspiring Articles About Reefs
“The fact that settlement is consistently decreasing with distance from the speaker, when all else is kept constant, is particularly important because it shows that these changes are due to the added sound and not other factors,” said Aran Mooney, a marine biologist at WHOI and lead author on the paper.
“This gives us a new tool in the toolbox for potentially rebuilding a reef.”
Adding the audio is a process that would be relatively simple to implement, too.
“Replicating an acoustic environment is actually quite easy compared to replicating the reef chemical and microbial cues which also play a role in where corals choose to settle,” said Amy Apprill, a microbial ecologist at WHOI and a co-author on the paper.
LOOK: Spectacular Coral Event This Year Spawns Hope –And Billions of Babies For Great Barrier Reef
“It appears to be one of the most scalable tools that can be applied to rebuild reefs, so we’re really excited about that potential.”
BLAST THE GOOD NEWS to Reef Lovers By Sharing on Social Media…
In a heartwarming video, a 67-year-old actor from Cyprus became determined to use his CPR expertise to save a tiny, helpless sparrow.
The avian creature was found unconsciousness following an “unfortunate pool mishap”.
In the background of the video, you can hear a chorus of teasing and snickering, with voices urging him to dispose of the seemingly lifeless bird—but Costakis Constantinou remained undeterred.
“Nobody thought this was possible or even worth trying, however, he stayed focus and patiently continued,” his son Rolandos told GNN.
With unwavering determination, he persistently, applied his life-saving skills until, against all odds, the sparrow gradually regained consciousness, fluttering back to life.
“I can say with confidence that he was very, very happy, relieved, and satisfied when the little sparrow open its eyes and flied away.”
When Rolandos rewatched the video again (see below), he got emotional and telephoned his dad to tell him how proud he was.
“In the past he saved two people from heart attack by applying CPR. For some reason my father is at the right place the right time.”
WATCH: Woman Defrosts Frozen Kitten Nursing it Back to Health Using a Hairdryer
“I wanted to surprise him by sending over his video,” said Rolandos in an email. “I’m so proud of him.”
Watch the moment his patience was rewarded…
SEND SOME SUNSHINE to Your Friends and Relatives By Sharing on Social Media…
A mom started leading hair care workshops teaching dads how to manage their daughters’ hair, training more hands to help in the mornings before school.
Sarah Eaton had been organizing lessons showing moms how to do elaborate plaits and braids when she got the idea because many of the women said their male partners should learn the skills too.
Now, the 38-year-old runs hour-long Dad & Me workshops at her local community center where they learn how to do the basics, like detangle long hair, tie it back in ponytails, and style it into simple braids, bunches, and buns for ballet class.
The hairstylist from West Lothian, Scotland, reports that all the fathers comment on how much more confident it has made them feel.
“The look of admiration on their face after each session is amazing.”
Sarah started her small workshop business, Bonnie Braids, after trying to dress up her two daughters for Halloween in 2022. She bought them both red synthetic wigs which she planned to braid but was surprised to find how hard it was to do.
After chatting with other moms in her town of Armadale, she learned that many of them wanted to know how to do Dutch and French braids.
“It went really well, and then a few moms started telling me how their husbands wanted to learn how to do it, so I decided to set one up for them.”
Sarah has run three sessions for dads so far, and says they are only getting more and more popular.
One of the activities in the workshop which draws the most laughs is when the dads are learning how to do the high bun. (See the video below…)
“We get the kids to stand up and the dads hold the hair up high while the girls spin around. The kids are so happy because dad can do a bun for their ballet.”
SENIORS NEED THIS TOO: Elderly Man Gets Lessons on Hair and Make-Up to Help His Struggling Wife
Sarah runs the workshops on an “ad hoc basis” with a maximum of eight dads per session, and says it overwrites the myth that doing hair is a female job.
“It just goes to show how valuable it is to break down stigmas,” she said.
“Dads should feel just as able to do their daughters hair in the morning before school.”
SHARE THE IDEA for Other Moms and Communities on Social Media…
A new poll showed the ‘luck of the Irish’ may be a real thing—with residents of Ireland reporting a greater prevalence of good fortune.
The survey revealed that those living on the Emerald Isle may actually experience more luck—tallying an average of 40 fortunate moments every year, nearly 10 percent more than people in the rest of the UK.
Irish folks are also more likely to describe themselves as lucky, with nearly half (49%) believing they’re blessed, compared to 40 percent elsewhere.
The poll also found 66% of UK adults believe they are due a bit of good luck in their lives.
Overall, one in four (25%) admitted they don’t truly know the meaning of luck—and think it’s too hard to define.
A spokesperson for Lottoland.co.uk, which commissioned the lucky-in-life quiz to celebrate its Irish Lotto draw this St Patrick’s Day, admitted that luck is ‘a strange concept.’
“Most people question whether it really exists (but) some people certainly seem luckier than others—something our lotto winners would attest to.”
Respondents in the survey were asked if they considered anything to be their lucky charm—whether it was wearing lucky socks or finding a four-leaf clover.
To increase their chances of good fortune, 23% of UK adults say they’ve embraced a lucky charm, but a full 38% of Irish respondents have.
Lucky numbers, special bracelets, and coins are popular on both sides of the Irish sea—but, interestingly, the Celtic people were actually less likely to opt for a four-leaf clover.
A quarter of respondents consider good health something to be thankful for, as it can often be decided by luck.
On the other side of the coin, a belief in bad luck is held by Irish adults at a 17% higher rate than people from the UK (67% compared to 50%).
Furthermore, 57 percent of those polled from the Republic of Ireland have experienced beginner’s luck—doing something well on their first try—compared to only 36 percent of people in England, Wales, Scotland, according to the Onepoll data.
“The question is, do you have to be born in Ireland to enjoy that luck, or can you simply move to Dublin or Galway, and enjoy a boost to your fortunes,” quipped the Lottoland spokesperson.
TOP 10 LUCKY CHARMS IN IRELAND:
1. Lucky number
2. Bracelet
3. Coins
4. Ring
5. Four leaf clover
6. Ladybugs
7. Socks
8. Horseshoe
9. Rainbow
10. Underwear
Do you feel lucky? Tell us in the comments or on social media…
Quote of the Day: “May you have all the happiness that life can hold—and at the end of your rainbows may you find a pot of gold.” – An old Irish blessing (Happy St. Patrick’s Day!)
Photo by: Jeff Hart, CC license
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
It’s not fortune or fame Americans want to be remembered for—it’s their creativity, according to a new poll.
The survey of 2,000 adults in the U.S. revealed that at the end of their lives, 31% would rather leave their mark through creativity, than through wealth (14%) or humanitarian efforts (10%).
That’s likely to come true, too, because fully 79% of respondents consider themselves creative, with only 5% saying they don’t.
Nearly three-quarters (72%) admitted they wished they engaged in creative activities more often.
In fact, some of those surveyed say they alleviate or combat stress through creative writing (14%), painting (12%) and drawing or doodling (10%).
The top three motivators for people to get more creative are:
– sharing with the world (27%)
– bonding with friends and family (24%)
– wanting to relax or relieving stress (22%)
Regardless of how respondents categorized themselves, 77% admitted they’d be more likely to explore their creativity if they were more confident in their abilities.
Conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Sharpie and Paper Mate, the survey also explored all of the ways Americans are basking in their creativity and found that many are thinking outside the box.
OPTIMISTIC POLL: 82% of U.S. Adults Are Hopeful About Their Own Future and Their Community’s Future
“It’s inspiring to see just how many Americans consider themselves creative, though it’s clear that there is more creativity to be unleashed,” said Gina Lazaro, the Vice President of Brand Management for the companies.
In addition to three-quarters of those polled lacking creative confidence, 44% said they are looking for encouragement from people they care about. 43% want or need more practice, and 36% need more products to help them be more creative.
“With the right tools in-hand Americans can overcome some of those barriers to creativity and improve their wellbeing.”
BEST HOBBIES FOR SENIORS: Adults Over 70 Swear by These Activities to Keep Them Younger Than Their Age – ‘Stereotypes No Longer Apply’
Almost one in five of all respondents engage in creative activities daily (18%), while another 37% do so weekly.
“Whether it’s simple activities like doodling on the margins of a paper or adding color to your calendar, creative confidence can be built in small ways on an everyday basis,” concluded Lazaro.
Identical quadruplets who beat all the odds just even being born are now turning 18, and are about to be apart from their sisters for the first time.
Doctors told their parents that they were more likely to win the lottery than see all four babies survive, but 18 years later Ellie, Jessica, Georgie, and Holly are now happy and healthy, reaching adulthood.
The girls have asked for a celebration night out for dinner with mom and dad—Julie and Jose—in Bedfordshire, England. And afterward, they’re all going to a concert together.
“They haven’t really asked for much,” said Julie. “We’re going to celebrate the day as a family. We’re very close.”
“They will then go off into the adult world and do their own thing.
“I think they will miss each other but they will enjoy the freedom.
In 2005, Julie and Jose learned from an 11-week scan that they were having quads, and they were monochorionic babies who were dependent on a shared placenta.
“Initially, the sonographer said it was unlikely that they would survive. We were traumatized.
“Over the weekend we did some research and accepted it. We felt like we were given a gift.”
When Julie reached 23 weeks on March 23, Ellie, Georgina, Jessica and Holly were born just minutes apart, weighing 2lb 8oz, 2lb 7oz, 2lbs and 1lbs 9oz respectively—before being rushed to the NICU for eight weeks.
The day Julie and Jose were allowed to bring the siblings home was the ‘best day of their life’.
They “thrived” and each branched out with different personalities.
CHECK OUT: 12-yo Leap Year Quadruplets Celebrate ‘Third Birthday’–Brothers Are All Unique But 3 Are Triplets
Ellie, Georgina, Jessica and Holly will be celebrating their 18th birthday on March 23, 2024.
“Them turning 18 makes us really proud,” says Julie. “You don’t often get to look back at what you have done over the years.
“It is only when someone points it out, we are like ‘oh my gosh, what we have done is amazing’.”
“They will always have each other.”
SHARE the Sweet Sisters on Social Media…
An incredible new project has scanned thousands of creatures to advance scientific research and provide colorful images to the world.
Natural history museums have entered a new stage of scientific discovery and accessibility with the completion of openVertebrate (oVert), a five-year collaborative project among 18 institutions to create 3D reconstructions of vertebrate specimens and make them freely available online.
Now, researchers have published a summary of the project in the journal BioScience reviewing the specimens they’ve scanned to date, offering a glimpse of how the data might be used to ask new questions and spur the development of innovative technology.
“When people first collected these specimens, they had no idea what the future would hold for them,” said Edward Stanley, co-principal investigator of the oVert project and associate scientist at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Such museums got their start in the 16th century as cabinets of curiosity, in which a few wealthy individuals amassed rare and exotic specimens, which they kept mostly to themselves. Since then, museums have become a resource for the public to learn about biodiversity.
But, the majority of museum collections remain behind closed doors—accessible only to scientists who must either travel to see them or ask that a small number of specimens be mailed on loan—and oVert wants to change that.
“Now we have scientists, teachers, students and artists around the world using these data remotely,” said David Blackburn, lead principal investigator of the oVert project and curator of herpetology at the Florida Museum.
Beginning in 2017, the oVert team members took CT scans of more than 13,000 specimens, with vertebrate species across the tree of life, including over half the genera of all amphibians, reptiles, fishes, and mammals.
CT scanners use high-energy X-rays to peer past an organism’s exterior and view the dense bone structure beneath. Some specimens were also stained with a contrast-enhancing solution for visualizing soft tissues, like skin, muscle, and other organs.
The models give an intimate look at internal portions of a specimen that could previously only be observed through destructive dissection and tissue sampling.
“You want to protect specimens, but you also want to have people use them,” Blackburn said. “oVert is a way of reducing the wear and tear on samples while also increasing access, and it’s the next logical step in the mission of museum collections.”
Skeletons too large to fit into a CT scanner, like a humpback whale, were painstakingly taken apart so that 3D models of each individual bone could be scanned and reassembled.
“These are not things you put in boxes and loan,” Blackburn pointed out.
A set of iconic Galapagos tortoises at the California Academy of Sciences were each photographed in a 360-degree rotation. Photographing their undersides was problematic, as their curved shells made it impossible to keep them upright. After a few trial-and-error runs, they settled on placing the specimens on top of inflatable swimming tubes.
Scientists have already used data from the project to gain astonishing insights into the natural world. Watch the incredible video below, and learn more at the bottom…
SCIENCE BREAKTHROUGH: Tasmanian Tiger RNA Recovered from Preserved Specimen in Groundbreaking World First
In 2023, Edward Stanley was conducting routine CT scans of spiny mice and was surprised to find their tails were covered with an internal coat of bony plates, called osteoderms. Before this discovery, armadillos were considered to be the only living mammals with these structures.
“All kinds of things jump out at you when you’re when you’re scanning,” Stanley said. “I study osteoderms, and through kismet or fate, I happened to be the one scanning those particular specimens on that particular day and noticed something strange about their tails on the X-ray.
“That happens all the time. We’ve found all sorts of strange, unexpected things.”
And the list goes on, full of insights and ideas that would have been impossible or impractical before the project’s outset. “Now that we’ve been working on this for so long, we have a broad scaffold that allows us to take a broader view of evolutionary questions,” Stanley said.
LOOK: Woman Finds Foot-long Mastodon Tooth From Ice Age on a California Beach
Funded in part by the National Science Foundation, the value of the oVert project extends beyond science.
Artists have used the 3D models to create realistic animal replicas, photographs of oVert specimens have been displayed as museum exhibits, and specimens have been incorporated into virtual reality headsets that give users the chance to interact with and manipulate them.
CHECK OUT: A Forgotten Masterpiece Was Hanging Above a French Woman’s Hot Plate–Now, it’s Heading to the Louvre
A high school teacher in Cincinnati says it’s been a game-changer for her studies on evolution. “I teach juniors and seniors, and I absolutely love them, but they can be a tough audience,” said Jennifer Broo. “They know when things are fake, which makes them less engaged. Using the oVert models, my class has gotten so much better because I have had the opportunities to work with and expose my students to real data.”
Visit Sketchfab to view a sample of 3D interactive models. At MorphoSource you can access the full openVertebrate repository.
SEND THE GREAT RESOURCE to Creatives, Teachers, and Animal Lovers By Sharing on Social Media…
Our partner Rob Brezsny, who has a new book out, Astrology Is Real: Revelations from My Life as an Oracle, provides his weekly wisdom to enlighten our thinking and motivate our mood. Rob’s Free Will Astrology, is a syndicated weekly column appearing in over a hundred publications. He is also the author of Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How All of Creation Is Conspiring To Shower You with Blessings. (A free preview of the book is available here.)
Here is your weekly horoscope…
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY – Week of March 16, 2024
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
I will never advise you to dim the flame of your ambition or be shy about radiating your enthusiasm. For the next few weeks, though, I urge you to find ways to add sap, juice, and nectar to your fiery energy. See if you can be less like a furnace and more like a sauna; less like a rumbling volcano and more like a tropical river. Practically speaking, this might mean being blithely tender and unpredictably heartful as you emanate your dazzling glow.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
Some spiritual traditions tell us that the path to enlightenment and awakening is excruciatingly difficult. One teaching compares it to crossing a bridge that’s sharper than a sword, thinner than a hair, and hotter than fire. Ideas like these have no place in my personal philosophy. I believe enlightenment and awakening are available to anyone who conscientiously practices kindness and compassion. A seeker who consistently asks, “What is the most loving thing I can do?” will be rewarded with life-enhancing transformations. Now I invite you to do what I just did, Taurus. That is, re-evaluate a task or process that everyone (maybe even you) assumes is hard and complicated. Perform whatever tweaks are necessary to understand it as fun, natural, and engaging.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
Do you have a relative your parents never told you about? If so, you may find out about them soon. Do you have a secret you want to keep secret? If so, take extra caution to ensure it stays hidden. Is there a person you have had a covert crush on for a while? If so, they may discover your true feelings any minute now. Have you ever wondered if any secrets are being concealed from you? If so, probe gently for their revelation, and they just may leak out. Is there a lost treasure you have almost given up on finding? If so, revive your hopes.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
Cancerian poet Pablo Neruda wrote this to a lover: “I want to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees.” That sounds very romantic. What does it mean? Well, the arrival of spring brings warmer soil and air, longer hours of sunlight, and nurturing precipitation. The flowers of some cherry trees respond by blooming with explosive vigor. Some trees sprout upwards of 4,000 blossoms. Maybe Neruda was exaggerating for poetic effect, but if he truly wanted to rouse his lover to be like a burgeoning cherry tree, he’d have to deal with an overwhelming outpouring of lush beauty and rampant fertility. Could he have handled it? If I’m reading the upcoming astrological omens correctly, you Cancerians now have the power to inspire and welcome such lavishness. And yes, you can definitely handle it.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Speaking on behalf of all non-Leos, I want to express our gratitude for the experiments you have been conducting. Your willingness to dig further than ever before into the mysterious depths is exciting. Please don’t be glum just because the results are still inconclusive and you feel a bit vulnerable. I’m confident you will ultimately generate fascinating outcomes that are valuable to us as well as you. Here’s a helpful tip: Give yourself permission to be even more daring and curious. Dig even deeper.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Unexpected mixtures are desirable, though they may initially feel odd. Unplanned and unheralded alliances will be lucky wild cards if you are willing to set aside your expectations. Best of all, I believe you will be extra adept at creating new forms of synergy and symbiosis, even as you enhance existing forms. Please capitalize on these marvelous openings, dear Virgo. Are there parts of your life that have been divided, and you would like to harmonize them? Now is a good time to try. Bridge-building will be your specialty for the foreseeable future.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
Many of you Libras have a special talent for tuning into the needs and moods of other people. This potentially gives you the power to massage situations to serve the good of all. Are you using that power to its fullest? Could you do anything more to harness it? Here’s a related issue: Your talent for tuning into the needs and moods of others can give you the capacity to massage situations in service to your personal aims. Are you using that capacity to its fullest? Could you do anything more to harness it? Here’s one more variation on the theme: How adept are you at coordinating your service to the general good and your service to your personal aims? Can you do anything to enhance this skill? Now is an excellent time to try.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Psychologist Carl Jung said, “One of the most difficult tasks people can perform is the invention of good games. And this cannot be done by people out of touch with their instinctive selves.” According to my astrological assessment, you will thrive in the coming weeks when you are playing good, interesting games. If you dream them up and instigate them yourself, so much the better. And what exactly do I mean by “games”? I’m referring to any organized form of play that rouses fun, entertainment, and education. Playing should be one of your prime modes, Scorpio! As Jung notes, that will happen best if you are in close touch with your instinctual self—also known as your animal intelligence.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
Can Sagittarians ever really find a home they are utterly satisfied with? Are they ever at peace with exactly who they are and content to be exactly where they are? Some astrologers suggest these are difficult luxuries for you Centaurs to accomplish. But I think differently. In my view, it’s your birthright to create sanctuaries for yourself that incorporate so much variety and expansiveness that you can feel like an adventurous explorer without necessarily having to wander all over the earth. Now is an excellent time to work on this noble project.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
You picked Door #2 a while back. Was that the best choice? I’m not sure. Evidence is still ambiguous. As we await more conclusive information, I want you to know that Door #1 and Door #3 will soon be available for your consideration again. The fun fact is that you can try either of those doors without abandoning your activities in the area where Door #2 has led you. But it’s important to note that you can’t try *both* Door #1 and Door #3. You must choose one or the other. Proceed with care and nuance, Capricorn, but not with excessive caution. Your passwords are *daring sensitivity* and “discerning audacity.”
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
My second cousin has the same name as me and lives in Kosice, Slovakia. He’s a Slovakian-speaking chemical engineer who attended the Slovak University of Technology. Do we have anything in common besides our DNA and names? Well, we both love to tell stories. He and I are both big fans of the band Rising Appalachia. We have the same mischievous brand of humor. He has designed equipment and processes to manufacture products that use chemicals in creative ways, and I design oracles to arouse inspirations that change people’s brain chemistry. Now I invite you, Aquarius, to celebrate allies with whom you share key qualities despite being quite different. It’s a fine time to get maximum enjoyment and value from your connections with such people.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
My Piscean friend Jeff Greenwald wrote the humorous but serious book Shopping for Buddhas. It’s the story of his adventures in Nepal as he traveled in quest of a statue to serve as a potent symbol for his spiritual yearning. I’m reminded of his search as I ruminate on your near future. I suspect you would benefit from an intense search for divine inspiration—either in the form of an iconic object, a pilgrimage to a holy sanctuary, or an inner journey to the source of your truth and love.
WANT MORE? Listen to Rob’s EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES, 4-5 minute meditations on the current state of your destiny — or subscribe to his unique daily text message service at: RealAstrology.com
SHARE The Wisdom With Friends Who Are Stars in Your Life on Social Media…
Quote of the Day: “To be is to do.” – Immanuel Kant
Photo by: Diana Spatariu
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
The bean fields and mountains of North Carolina are 5 time zones and more than 5,000 miles from Hawai’i, but such differences are trifles compared to the determination of youth.
11-year-old Harrison Johnson from North Carolina has raised $81,000 to help fund history projects to tell the story of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The money was raised by collecting donations door-to-door, selling patriotic popsicles, and public speaking engagements (yes, by Harrison himself).
But what brought this spark of patriotic fervor out of this boy’s heart when he had never even seen the famous harbor on Oahu?
According to WRAL, it began in school with a history project. The particulars of the event fascinated Harrison, who began to study it recreationally, reading books and old newspaper accounts, and even speaking to survivors of the attack.
Following a visit to the Pearl Harbor National Memorial in Oahu, Harrison was motivated to start a campaign to ensure that the heroes and victims of the date which will live in infamy are never forgotten.
OTHER INSPIRED YOUTH: A 5-Year-Old’s Lemonade Stand in Seattle Raised Over $17,000 for Victims of Maui Wildfires
His fundraising campaign called “Harrison’s Heroes” is looking to raise $100,000 for Pacific Historic Parks, the Non-Profit that stewards the Pearl Harbor memorial. In particular, Harrison hopes it can produce material that expands the story of the attack to include heroic acts from men and women of color, and other underrepresented members.
“We’re so proud and we pray it makes the impact that he intends,” said Harrison’s mom.
WATCH and LISTEN to Harrison explain his motivations…
SHARE This Young Man’s Inspiring Quest To Honor The Sacrifice Of US Sailors…
Cheekily described as “reverse feline Manifest Destiny,” a GPS-collared mountain lion or cougar was recorded traveling 1,000 miles eastward from her home in Central Utah to the eastern slopes of the Rockies.
It’s an incredible journey that showcases just how at home this extirpated mammal is in America’s wilderness areas, and hints that, proper management permitting, this species could recolonize several states east of the Rocky Mountains such as Arkansas and Missouri, where it once roamed.
In 2022, at 2.5 years old, female mountain lion P66, was detected moving eastward from her base in Utah, veering a bit north, and then swimming across a reservoir on the border with Wyoming.
She kept on going until she fell as prey to another mountain lion on the eastern slopes of the Rockies more than 1,000 miles from where she began.
These sorts of wanderings are not unheard of, and in fact, one male cougar (called a Tom, short for Tomcat) made it all the way to Connecticut in 2009, having started in South Dakota.
Morgan Hinton, a Utah wildlife biologist, told Nat Geo that she opened her laptop in summertime, months after P66 began her reverse feline manifest destiny, and was understandably blown away by how far she had gone—almost out of the state entirely by then.
“Then I wanted to look at her every day,” Hinton says, since the cat’s collar pinged regular locations to a satellite every 24 hours. “Especially when she got into the Uinta Mountains of Utah. We knew: This cat is going to go somewhere. She is cruising.”
These occurrences made wildlife biologists estimate that lions would recolonize some more eastern states in the next 25 years, but apart from a few ambitious individuals like P66 with the travel bug (maybe the travel tick in this case) such expansions haven’t really materialized.
But what these voyages do show is that cougars are perfectly at home in most if not all corners of the United States.
“We need to help people understand the benefits of sharing a landscape with big cats, how they really do fortify our ecosystems,” Mark Elbroch, puma program director for Panthera, a global wild cat conservation organization, also told Nat Geo. “They support biodiversity. They make systems more resilient. And ultimately, that only makes our communities stronger and healthier.”
MORE CHARISMATIC CREATURES: Super Rare Wolverines Haven’t Been Seen For a Century in Mt. Rainier—Now They’re Back in a Family Way
Reestablishing populations of cougars isn’t actually as easy as these cruising cats make it seem. They heavily shy away from roads, and need large tracks of open country with plenty of prey species.
Deer populations in many parts of the United States could use more natural predators, which could ease the epidemic of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) that has infected deer in 31 states.
It’s believed that the burden of CWD on American cervids would be lessened if more predators were around to hunt them. Mountain lions, grizzly bears, and wolves are all extremely effective hunters of deer, elk, moose, and caribou—the species that can contract CWD.
MORE AMERICAN WILDLIFE: American Marten May Be Set for Return to Pennsylvania Forests After 100-Year Absence
However, in states east of the Rockies these, in the case of lions, extremely rare. Some areas could support, and may already be supporting, mountain lions in conjunction with high rates of CWD such as the Ozarks of Arkansas. Lions were native here but extirpated by the 1920s.
The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has been contacted on hundreds of mountain lion sightings in recent years, but only 15 have been confirmed by the organization so far. Beginning of 2016, surveys of deer in the Ozark county of Newton found that 23% of deer may have had CWD.
Reestablishing lions in these areas could be a solution, and it seems like there are at least some cats out West with paws just itching to start recolonizing.
SHARE The Incredible Journey Across The West With Your Friends…
An NGO has realized that the irreplaceable value and beauty of African wilderness might be protected if, rather than pouring billions into funding park infrastructure and rangers, the farmers of Africa are taught simple agro-forestry techniques.
Enter Trees for the Future, which on the surface seems to be just the latest in Africa’s tree-planting schemes, but which actually promises to be a direct stimulant to rural farming economies rather than a carbon-capture scheme.
According to a report in the Guardian, 41,000 hectares, an area 7 times larger than the island of Manhattan, have been turned into forest farms where native trees anchor a diverse mix of subsistence and cash crops that’s more friendly to birds and insects than mono-crop agriculture.
Rather than the dozens of tree-planting initiatives around the world (and the many in Africa), the stated goal is to create 230,000 jobs, not plant a given number of trees; though Trees for the Future believes that this amount of employment in agro-forestry will amount to something like a billion trees.
“This is a massive restoration movement using regenerative agriculture,” Vincent Mainga, the Kenya director of Trees for the Future told the Guardian. “This model is very easy to adopt. We work with the farmers for four years. After that, they can understand all the components and they can use what they learn from our technicians to produce thriving farmlands, usually with a surplus. It is self-sustaining.”
The program has pilot projects in 9 countries, and one such site in Kesouma, on the Kenyan shore of Lake Victoria, is making real progress.
17,000 smallholder farmers have allegedly been equipped with tools, training, and seedlings to begin forest farming. Forest farming isn’t anything new—it’s been used for millennia and survived on small farms even amidst the push to mechanize and commoditize agriculture in Europe and America.
Basically, a forest farm is a multi-tiered growing operation designed around the idea that forests are the most fertile ecosystems. Nut and fruit trees shade the soil to lock in moisture and provide a crop, shade-tolerant veggies and bushes are grown in between the trees, and sun-loving veggies are grown in clearings or on the margins. With this format, the farmer can go in any number of directions from introducing livestock like goats or chickens to cultivating mushrooms.
MORE WORK LIKE THIS: This Wonder Tree is a Game-Changer for Rainforest Agriculture in Honduras And Deforested Sites Worldwide
At Kesouma, the area is subdivided into units consisting of 20 landholders. One community leader is given a stipend of 3,000 Kenyan schillings to buy materials to get started, all members routinely report to workshops where they are trained and learn new techniques. Each individual has on average about 1 hectare, containing around 5,800 trees.
A traditional outer perimeter is formed with Acacia polyacantha (white thorn bush), inside of which sits the growing operation.
Some growers are getting their soil carbon-certified and earning income via carbon credits sold to big businesses to offset emissions.
In 2020, TREES introduced an additional training element to the training program to ensure farmers are able to grow their wealth along with their trees: Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) training.
MORE NEWS LIKE THIS: Kenyans Flock to Fields and Parks to Ring in 3-Day Weekend for New National Tree-Planting Holiday
VSLAs are generally made up of 15-30 people, Trees for the Future explains in a recent blog post about their work in Tanzania. They work together to save money, lend each other their savings at low-interest rates, and share the profits. 2,100 forest farmers in Tanzania are working to grow their operations under VSLA loans.
“VSLA training has improved my record keeping skills, I can now save, plan, and budget my money,” says participant Rukia Mwanja. “I have used my savings to increase my livestock, I was also able to pay my children’s school fees and I managed to start a tailoring business.”
Anyone looking to support home-grown economic progress in Africa can donate here.
SHARE This Inspiring Initiative To Develop Agro-Forestry On Social Media…
A Tennessee manufacturing town could be in for a revitalization after a shuttered iron foundry is poised to be replaced with a lithium mine, thanks to thanks to the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill that is rebuilding American highways, bridges, and manufacturing.
The large Waupaca Foundry closed its doors in the historic TN rail town of Etowah nearly two years ago, and many of the 500 or so workers that were laid off had built lives and families in the town of 3,600 people.
Worried that Etowah would soon become just another of the many rural communities devastated by the loss of America’s traditional manufacturing sector, fears have been stymied somewhat by the arrival of Tennessee Lithium, a subsidiary of Piedmont Lithium, one of the largest lithium hydroxide mining firms in the country.
Reporting on the fortune swings of Etowah and McMinn County where it’s located, Capital & Main say that, by chance, the former environment, health, and safety manager at Waupaca met his opposite number, Monique Parker, at Piedmont Lithium. Hitting it off, the two organized a meet and greet in Etowah to recruit workers for the arrival of Tennessee Lithium, one of a number of government-funded start-ups looking to try and turn coal country into the “Battery Belt.”
“It came down to multiple factors, the first being the quality of the site,” Etowah City Manager Russ Blair told Capital & Main, pointing out that since Etowah was constructed by railway companies in 1906, the industrial site where Waupaca was located has great proximity to rail lines. Etowah itself is positioned near other Battery Belt sites of importance.
Spokesmen from Piedmont Lithium say their subsidiary is looking to hire around 120 people from the local community at between $50,000 and $60,000 per annum, while investing tens of millions in the area.
MORE MANUFACTURING NEWS: Making Building Materials Out of Fast-Growing Grasses Capture More Carbon Than Trees for US Startup
“We want businesses to invest not only in our community but also in the people. That’s very important to us,” said Ferguson, the McMinn County economic development chief. “Since Piedmont’s announcement, they’ve shown that they are going to be a huge community partner.”
Paying for it all is an $800 million loan from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing loan program, which has about $40 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill to loan out at current treasury yield rates to companies looking to build light, medium, and heavy-duty vehicle manufacturing, as well as locomotive and light rail, aircraft, maritime vessels, and offshore wind support vessels.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: Lithium Discovery in Crater in Nevada Could Be Biggest Deposit Ever Found
According to Piedmont, the plan to launch Tennessee Lithium is to combine this funding with support from a strategic partner or partners.
Tennessee Lithium uses a pressure leaching process that uses steam, natural soda ash, and lime to mine lithium, which the company says gives it a more favorable environmental and safety profile than traditional methods.
SHARE This Potential Revitalization Of An Iron Town With Your Friends…
Quote of the Day: “You don’t have to continue suffering to be a poet. Adolescence is enough for anyone.” – John Ciardi
Photo by: MCC (copyrighted)
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
Clinical trials for a novel treatment for patients with glioblastoma, a deadly form of brain cancer, have shown rapid success, with some patients experiencing a dramatic decline in tumor size just days after their first treatment course.
Researchers from the Mass General Cancer Center, Massachusetts, have shared the results for the first three patients in a clinical trial of CAR-T cell therapy for glioblastoma.
CAR-T cell therapy, or CAR-T for short, won the Nobel Prize in Medicine, and works by using a patient’s own immune cells to fight cancer. It’s currently the most personalized way to treat the disease.
A patient’s cells are extracted, modified to produce proteins on their surface, and then injected back into the body to target the tumor directly. CAR-T therapies have been approved for the treatment of blood cancers but the therapy’s use for solid tumors is limited.
The trial, known as INCIPIENT, was designed to evaluate the safety of CARv3-TEAM-E T cells in patients with recurrent glioblastoma, which is the most common form of brain cancer in adults.
Combining two separate treatment strategies, CAR-T and bispecific antibodies, known as T-cell engaging antibody molecules or “TEAMs” the approach showed promise in preclinical models of glioblastoma.
Three patients were enrolled in the study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, between March 2023 and July 2023.
Patients’ T cells were collected and transformed into the new version of CAR-TEAM cells, which were then infused back into each patient. The patients tolerated the infusions well, though nearly all had fevers and altered mental status soon after infusion.
Just days after a single treatment, patients experienced dramatic reductions in their tumors, with one patient achieving near-complete tumor regression in five days after one treatment.
“The CAR-T platform has revolutionized how we think about treating patients with cancer, but solid tumors like glioblastoma have remained challenging to treat because not all cancer cells are exactly alike and cells within the tumor vary,” said assistant professor Bryan Choi from Harvard Medical School said.
OTHER GLIOBLASTOMA NEWS: Achilles Heel for Glioblastoma Discovered—a Rogue Protein that Turns Natural Defenses Off
“This is a story of bench-to-bedside therapy, with a novel cell therapy designed in the laboratories of Massachusetts General Hospital and translated for patient use within five years, to meet an urgent need.”
One of the patients, a 72-year-old man, saw a 60.7% decrease in his tumor which was sustained for six months, while a 57-year-old woman had near complete tumor regression only five days after a single infusion.
The team says their results are exciting, but that much more research is needed to fine-tune this treatment.
MORE BRAIN CANCER TREATMENTS: Belgian Boy is the First Child in the World to Have Been Cured of Brain Stem Glioma, a Brutal Cancer
“We’ve made an investment in developing the team to enable translation of our innovations in immunotherapy from our lab to the clinic, to transform care for patients with cancer,” commented Marcela Maus, director of the Cellular Immunotherapy Program at the Mass General Cancer Center.
“These results are exciting, but they are also just the beginning—they tell us that we are on the right track in pursuing a therapy that has the potential to change the outlook for this intractable disease.”
“We haven’t cured patients yet, but that is our audacious goal.”
SHARE This Breakthrough Work On Social Media With Your Friends…
The River Mersey and the Bay of Liverpool are the largest assets this famous English city possesses, and attempting to beat the British government to a net-zero economy, Liverpool City Region has entered phase 3 planning stage to build the largest tidal power plant on Earth.
Schemes to harness the predictable power of the tides in Liverpool Bay date back to 1924, and with one of the largest tidal ranges of any coastal city in the UK, government utility Mersey Tidal Power believe that they can power 1 million homes and protect the city from floodwaters, all without disturbing the local estuarine ecosystem.
Mersey Tidal Power have released precious little information on the plans thus far, but Eletrek reports that a large dam would be a barrier between the Irish Sea and a tidal basin. Underneath the dam would be large turbines and sluice gates which would open as the tide comes in, pulling water onto the turbines to generate energy.
The gates would close as the 10-meter-high tide finishes, and as the gravity of the moon begins to pull on the water four hours later, the gates would open, causing it to rush past the turbines a second time, generating more clean energy.
“I think that we have a unique opportunity to harness the power of our greatest natural assets—our river and our people—to deliver a cleaner, greener, more prosperous future for our children,” said Liverpool mayor Steve Rotherham.
Tidal power projects are few and far between in both scale and reliability, but like geothermal power, they offer an alternative to sun and wind power which can be interrupted by weather conditions.
MORE TIDAL PROJECTS: These Underwater ‘Kites’ Are Generating Tidal Electricity As They Move
The multibillion-dollar project is in Phase 3 concept development and is about to enter the formal planning stage. Mersey Tidal Power has consulted with experts at the Rance tidal power plant in France, in operation since the 1960s, as well as K Power, which runs the largest tidal plant in the world at Sihwa Lake in South Korea.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: ‘Living Breakwater’ Makes Room for Oysters and Tidal Pools In Award Winning Design off Staten Island
Concept imagery from Liverpool City Region Combined Authority shows a similar design to the installation at Rance. The top of the dam would serve as a causeway with green spaces and bike paths that would connect the city of Liverpool to the Wirral Peninsula, the way Rance is connected to St. Malo.
Liverpool City and Mersey Tidal Power are under no illusions as to the complexity and challenge of the project, but they estimate that the capacity of a River Mersey Tidal station could power 1 million homes—essentially the whole of Liverpool—for 120 years.
WATCH a promotional video that’s short on details below…
SHARE This Inspiring And Enterprising Project For The Future…
In a poll recently conducted by Pew Research, teenagers were shown to be more conscious of the positive and negative aspects of smartphone use than members of the previous generations may be giving them credit for.
The Center conducted an online survey of 1,453 U.S. teens aged 13 to 17 and parents from September 26th to October 23rd. The criteria for inclusion was that the teens had to still be in their parents’ house.
72% of the teens surveyed said they often feel ‘peaceful’ without their smartphone, while only 44% said it gives them a kind of separation anxiety.
Further wisdom emerged when the teens were asked what they think a smartphone is best used for beyond phone calls, to which small minorities said it helped improve social skills or school performance. A two thirds majority of the teens instead said the smartphone made it easier for them to keep up with hobbies and interests.
When asked if they thought they spent too much, about right, or not enough, time on their smartphone, 44% of teen girls said they spent too much time, reflecting an emerging consensus among social scientists that over-connectivity and social media use is particularly disrupting to young women. By comparison, 33% of teen boys said they spent too much time on their phone.
While two-thirds majority of teens said they don’t take actions to curb their phone use, 41% of teen girls and 32% of teen boys have taken direct steps to limit their phone use, rates which go higher when asked specifically about social media apps.
72% of teens replied that going about their day without their phone makes them feel peaceful, while 74% went as far as saying it made them feel “happy”. By comparison, just 39% of teens said without their phone they’re left feeling lonely.
The data shows that teens today are well-aware of how big a disruption the advent of smartphones have been to human society, whether they are thinking specifically about “text neck” posture, underdevelopment of social skills, overconnectivity, or the potential of mental distress and time-wasting brought about by social media use.
MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: Tobacco, E-Cigarette Use Declines Among High Schoolers, Report Shows
In fact, teens are wiser in this regard than their parents and grandparents think they are—for example, when the Pew surveyors asked parents of teens whether they found themselves distracted by their phone while talking to their teenage children, a mere 4% of adults responded that it happened often, and 27% said it happened sometimes.
But when the same question was posed to their teenage children, the frequency increased, with 8% of teens saying it happened often, and 38% saying it happened sometimes, for a total occurrence rate of 46%.
MORE RESPONSIBLE TEENS: Young People in These G7 Countries are Interested in Investing and Find Savings Accounts ‘Sexy’ – New Poll
New technologies have a way of becoming over-appreciated because of their novelty, an effect which tends to wear off over time as technologies, devices, and programs become more commonplace.
This useful and upbeat research from Pew shows that teens are learning how to moderate their smartphone usage, as well as how to identify and combat addictive use.
SHARE This Encouraging And Upbeat Research With Your Friends…
In a truly monumental discovery, scientists studying coral restoration in Indonesia found that artificially restored coral reefs can regrow as fast a naturally occurring reefs just 4 years after the initial transplantation.
With many reefs around the world believed to be threatened by stronger storms and acidic seas, the finding shows that as long as corals can survive in the water, humans can quickly rebuild reefs that are damaged.
The study was conducted at the Mars Coral Reef Restoration Program in South Sulawesi, Indonesia, one of the largest restoration projects in the world, and included an international team of marine biologists. The site was turned from a colorful reef to rubble 30 to 40 years ago from dynamite fishing.
At the project site, “reef stars” are first affixed to the seafloor. These small, recycled metal scaffolds provide a foundation for the coral larvae to glom onto and begin building their hard bodies.
“Corals constantly add calcium carbonate to the reef framework while some fishes and sea urchins erode it away, so calculating the overall carbonate budget basically tells you if the reef as a whole is growing or shrinking,” says Ines Lange of University of Exeter, UK.
“Positive reef growth is important to keep up with sea-level rise, protect coastlines from storms and erosion, and provide habitat for reef animals.”
CORALS LIVE ON IN WARMER SEAS: Some Coral Species More Resilient to Climate Than Thought By ‘Remembering’ How to Survive Previous Heat Waves
Four years after coral transplantation onto the metal reef stars net carbonate budgets have tripled and are indistinguishable from healthy control sites. The only drawback is that because branching coral is preferred for reef restoration, the overall species diversity is lower in restored reefs than natural ones.
“The speed of recovery that we saw was incredible,” said Lange. “We did not expect a full recovery of reef framework production after only four years.”
MORE CORAL NEWS: Volunteers ‘De-seaweeding’ Results in Dramatic 600% Improvement of Coral Regrowth
The carbonate budget method of calculating reef restoration has never been used before, and the team believe it offers a simple, surefire way to assess whether a reef is growing, static, or in decline.
Tim Lamont, a study co-author at the Lancaster University Environment Center, UK, said that while longer-term assessment of restored reefs is needed to fully understand its capability, the success at Mars shows that if humanity can stabilize the climate, we have the tools to undo some of the damage that climate change has wrought on coral reefs.
SHARE This Inspiring News With Your Friends Who’ve Seen Coral Up Close…
