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10,000 Bricks With Built-in Bird Homes Installed in UK Homes to Give Nest Holes to Swifts

By
Andy Corbley
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A Manthrope swift brick - Manthrope building products - a swift by sylvester alphonso from Pixabay
A Manthorpe swift brick – Manthorpe Building Products; a swift by Sylvester Alphonso from Pixabay

Tiny birds in the UK are being given free tenements from real estate development companies by installing “swift bricks” in new buildings around the country.

Over 30,000 swift bricks—essentially a normal building brick with a hollow inside—have been sold in the country, and more than 10,000 homes have been built with swift bricks incorporated into the design.

It’s bizarre the impact humanity can have on animal life. It wasn’t the sprawling British civilization that caused a 58% decline in the small migratory birds called swifts, but rather the renovation of old buildings.

In improving the energy efficiency of buildings to slow energy consumption and therefore climate change, British construction ended up sealing up all the small holes in the walls which these swifts used as nesting sites.

Now though, companies are making swift bricks which are bricks with a hole in the middle for the birds to nest in. One doesn’t need to put more than 3-4 in every wall to transform their housing project into a swift-friendly estate.

Nevertheless, some companies, like Manthorpe Building Products’ factory in Derbyshire, have already produced 20,000 swift bricks. Ibstock, another firm, has sold 7,000.

The bricks came about through brainstorming from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

MORE NEWS LIKE THIS: Bus Stops in Scotland Go Green – With Roofs Covered in Plants as a Gift For Honeybees

“The great advantage of swift bricks and boxes is that they can work just as well in inner city areas with very little green space as anywhere else,” Dr. Guy Anderson, the RSPB’s migratory birds program manager, told The Guardian. “Swifts can travel pretty long distances to find their insect food – all they need is a nest site.”

Swifts are amazing animals that spend 10 months of the year airborne. They do everything on the wing. To drink, they skim over rivers and lakes with their mouths open. They prey only on flying insects. To sleep, they close one eye and turn off one half of their brain. They fly all the way down to Africa before returning to the UK to nest.

MORE ROOM FOR NATURE: Bee Bricks That Help Thousands of Solitary Bees Are Now a Requirement for New Buildings in Brighton

At the moment there is a petition in the UK Parliament to make swift bricks mandatory for all UK buildings, something which the government feels by default is the kind of thing that should be left up to local government councils; however it did garner 104,000 signatures.

The swift bricks are similar to the “bee bricks” which were another idea of how British housing could make room for nature, and which were ruled as mandatory by Brighton and Hove council.

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“Summer is when laziness finds respectability.” – Sam Keen

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Quote of the Day: “Summer is when laziness finds respectability.” – Sam Keen

Photo by: Etienne Girardet

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Kava Plant Used for Centuries in Traditional Medicine Now Studied for PTSD Treatment

By
Andy Corbley
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Kava ceremony on Samoa - University of California Digital Libraries
Kava ceremony on Samoa – University of California Digital Libraries

In New Zealand, Pacific Island scientists have just been given a large grant to run a study trial on the use of the traditional kava preparation and kava ceremony for treating PTSD.

Believing it could help treat PTSD and other trauma in soldiers and veterans, police officers, and corrections facility staff, the two scientists want to revise the reputation of kava, which was damaged by a pharmaceutical rush into the product some years ago.

Dr. Apo Aporosa of Fijian descent on his mother’s side, and Dr. Sione Vaka from Tonga, have received $1 million from the Health Research Council to combine kava drink with the traditional ceremony of conversation.

“I’m so stoked that Health Research Council has faith in us as a team to do this critically important work,” Dr. Aporosa told the NZ Herald. “It’s likely we’re going to spend a million dollars to prove what traditional Pacific knowledge has been trying to tell Europeans for the last 200 years.”

Kava comes in many traditional names, all relating to the root of the Piper methysticum plant. Across the islands of the Pacific, the root was stirred in water and drank for its subtle euphoric, but also sedative properties. Accompanying the drink was a Talanoa or what Dr. Aporosa is referring to as “talk therapy,” but what was essentially a heart-to-heart conversation.

Their study will take two groups of people and give them both the whole kava drink plus the talanoa, referred to as “the full package” while another group will receive just the talanoa, and another group just the kavalactones—the active ingredient in the plant.

In 2009, the Cochrane Institute confirmed that kava was probably more effective than placebo for treating anxiety. At the time, pharmaceutical and supplement companies had quickly isolated kavalactones and sold them as a natural relaxant.

The irony is that in this extracted form, it was mildly toxic to the liver, whereas when consumed traditionally in the ‘Ava Ceremony’ (to use the Samoan language) or the Faikava, in Fijian, that toxicity is not present.

An informal Faikava

Like most indigenous populations, New Zealand’s Māori population suffers from higher rates of stress, trauma, and anxiety than the national average, and the Health Research Council believes that the Kava ceremony is the most sensible way to fulfill this unmet need.

MORE PLANT MEDICINES: Trying to Stop the Epidemic of Veteran Suicides, Plant Medicine Company Builds Mental Wellness Value Chain

“We do know that… talk therapy works for some PTSD cases,” Dr. Aporosa said, adding that talanoa is basically talk therapy, done while sitting on the floor rather than in chairs.

“We know that kava has relaxant properties, that kava is a natural anti-anxiety medication, so we combine those two elements in a culturally influenced space, and we’ve got something here that’s unique.”

Aporosa understands the situation better than most. Not only is he from Pacific stock, but he was a police officer who had to leave the force due to PTSD from the line of duty.

MORE INDIGENOUS NEWS: Brazil’s President Makes Good on Campaign Promise to Evict Miners from Indigenous Reserves in the Amazon

His experience traveling the world speaking with former military and police got him the Fulbright Scholarship to study the kava ceremony in Hawai’i, another island culture that uses the plant.

His hope is to show that it works significantly in the trial, and then release a free e-book about how to perform the ceremony and intervention, in order to ensure the largest number of people can access the knowledge of this traditional Pacific medicine.

SHARE This Return To Our Literal Roots With Your Friends On Social Media…

Teen Girl’s Secret Message Left in a Wall 48 Years Ago is Found: ‘I was Absolutely Shocked!’

By
Andy Corbley
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Images by Dakota Mohn (left) and Stephanie Poit (right)
Images by Dakota Mohn (left) and Stephanie Poit (right)

A 150-year-old house was being restored in a small town outside of Peoria when a construction worker found a message left in a bottle between the walls of the kitchen.

Written by a 14-year-old girl in 1975, a video of the note went viral on TikTok and created a mini interest-storm around the life of the woman, now 61.

In the town of Green Valley, a carpenter named Dakota Mohn was working in a house damaged by a fire. When he was pulling off the walls in the front living room he saw writing that said, “Note 9/29/1975” with arrows pointing to a small notch in the wood.

Inside was a message in a bottle—lost, but not at sea.

Signed by Stephanie Herron, this young woman, one of railroad lineman Earnest Herron’s five daughters, would move on to New York City where she took the name of her husband Poit, had five children of her own, and taught inner city kids.

MORE TIME CAPSULE TALES: A Sorceress’ Toolkit Has Been Discovered in the Ashes of Pompeii

“I was shocked, absolutely shocked, when I heard about the note,” Stephanie Poit told the PJ Star.

“Honestly, I forgot all about it. Life goes on, years go by… I can’t believe how much this has struck people. I’ve gotten notes from people who remember me as a kid growing up in Green Valley. It was a good place to grow up.”

It went like this: To whoever finds this:

Today is Sept. 29, 1975. My name is Stephanie Herron. I live here with my mother, father (Earnest), Becky and Valerie.

Gerald Ford is president. Mrs. Lay is our neighbor. Mom is pregnant and the baby is due any day now. As far as we know, this house was made in 1872. We are remodeling the house.

The Illinois Central Railroad is on the west side of the house. We have lived here for 8 years.

My dad works the Chicago Northwestern Railroad. Green Valley has about 650 people. I am 14, Val is 16 and Becky is 12.

I hope you have lots of happiness in this house.

Steph

PS: My mother’s name is Rose Herron. She is a registered nurse. She works at Hopedale Nursing home. She was born in Nebraska.

She is a very good mother.

Talking with the Star, Poit explains that time capsules were all the rage in 1975. She and her family moved into the house, built in 1872, which at the time sat next to a frequented railroad.

OTHER NEWS LIKE THIS: Family is Reunited by Message in Bottle Written By Their Late Son Decades Ago

Already 100 years old when they moved in, the family was constantly making additions, including enclosing a porch into a kitchen/living room where Dakota pulled the time capsule from.

Mohn, who on his Facebook wall described the note as the coolest thing he’s found, is working with the house’s new owner to build a shadow box into the wall where the note was found, and that he and the owner would leave notes of their own for another carpenter to find 40 years from now.

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Dock Worker Brings Stranded Ferry Passengers Home: ‘You’re All Staying at My House Tonight’

By
Andy Corbley
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- credit Enjoy Port Townsend
– credit Enjoy Port Townsend

When vacationers were trapped in a historic Washington town after ferries were canceled due to weather concerns, they feared they might have to sleep on the streets.

That’s when ferry terminal worker William Patterson invited all ten of them to stay at his house for the night.

It was in the early evening that 79-year-old Kip Goodwin and his wife from Hawaii had finished calling every hotel and Airbnb in the Olympic Peninsula’s Port Townsend—they were all fully booked for the summer holiday season.

Neither had they luck at the YMCA or Red Cross—even the campgrounds were unavailable. Fearfully looking at each other amid the sound of howling wind, Patterson interrupted their worrying to tell them they would all be staying with him and his wife Arianna.

Nestled among the pines on the Admiralty Inlet, Port Townsend is serviced by the United States’ largest ferry network, but the Port Townsend-to-Coupeville route, which Goodwin and the others were hoping to take after a day trip to Port Townsend and Whidbey Island, was canceled after winds picked up and the ferries had to remain tied to their moorings.

All three round trips were canceled, starting at 6:45 pm and on to 9:00 pm.

Arianna Patterson joked with the Seattle Times that her husband always threatened he’d bring a “straggler” home one day. William called and asked if they could make space for the Goodwins.

“I said, ‘We have enough space for two, no big deal,’” Arianna said. “Then he called back and said, ‘We have eight or nine other people.’ I said, oh.”

MORE BAD WEATHER TALES: Man Jumps in During Freak Storm to Rescue 4 People From Sinking Florida Houseboat

Like the Goodwins, most of the passengers were over 60 years of age, so the Pattersons were just happy they could get the visitors out of the weather. At the home, there was space on the couch and an extra bed, but pretty quickly people were on the floor, borrowing blankets that their hosts had from their time welcoming foster kids.

Early the next morning, William went out to the cafe he runs along with his work at the ferry terminal to make pastries and coffee for them all.

MORE SHELTER STORIES: McDonald’s Workers Open Their Restaurant as a 24-hour Storm Shelter During Blizzard in North East

“It was unbelievable,” said Fred Dente, 79, who lives in Langley and was visiting with his wife and their two friends from Hawaii. “It was the way humans should treat humans. In this day and age, it was exceptional.”

That morning was crisp and clear, and at 7:00 am the ferries set sail.

SHARE This Story Of American Hospitality Served Up Disaster-Style… 

McDonald’s Cashier Pays for Man After His Card Declined: ‘Never Lose Your Giving Heart’

By
Andy Corbley
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Jason Mosier / Facebook
Jason Mosier / Facebook

“I want to brag on this young man named Hayden working at McDonald’s at exit 8 on 25E near i81,” Jason Mosier wrote on Facebook last month.

Mosier had has mind set on bragging after experiencing what Hayden was prepared to do to help him out of even the most innocuous of jams.

Mosier had just tried to pay with a card, but the charge of $8,00 was declined. Before the customer even knew what was happening, Hayden had whipped out his own debit card to pay the bill, saying “I got you, don’t worry about it.”

“I said no no, just void it, please,” Mosier recounted on his Facebook page. “[Hayden] said, ‘No sir, I got it.’ The only cash I had was 4 one dollar bills, I made him take the 4 bucks and told him I would be back.”

Well, Hayden wasn’t backing down. He wanted to pay something forward, and ended up having the final word when he left a surprise for Mosier in his meal bag.

Another McDonald’s worker paying it forward was recorded at a store in Tile Hill, in the UK, where a drive-through worker named Enya who was making around $9.24 per hour paid for the meal of a customer after she heard him call his mom to ask if she wanted anything.

MORE PAYING IT FORWARD: After $9 Was Stolen From Girl’s Lemonade Stand, Community Gives Her $350 to Pay It Forward

Josh Henry was having a “depressing day” when he arrived at the McDonald’s, and said Enya’s random act of kindness cheered him up.

“I’m at a high risk of redundancy, [but] I will pay this kind act forward tomorrow for sure.”

SHARE These Kind Fast Food Employees’ Excellence With The World… 

“The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers.” – Matsuo Basho

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers.” – Matsuo Basho

Photo by: Nate Foong

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?

Farmers Markets Thriving Since Pandemic as Shoppers and Venders Form Unbreakable Ritual

By
Andy Corbley
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- Natalie Maynor
– Natalie Maynor

The number of farmers markets in the US is increasing—as are the numbers of customers and the number of states choosing to celebrate them with an official ‘Farmers Market Week’.

The cheeriest place to buy your groceries not only survived the pandemic, they are thriving—despite lockdown policies in many states labeling them as “non-essential”, forcing a shut-down, while indoor supermarkets were kept open.

Thirty years ago, there were fewer than 2,000 open farmers markets in the U.S. Today, there are more than 8,600 markets currently registered in the USDA Farmers Market Directory, per the Farmers Market Coalition.

This nonprofit advocacy organization fought on behalf of farmers during the pandemic, presenting a spirited defense using scientific and common sense arguments to keep them going when state or local governments wanted to shut them down.

In lockdown-heavy cities like Chicago, the Green City Market on Saturdays has grown from 5,000-10,000 shoppers pre-pandemic to 8,000-15,000 today.

Part of the reason, Green City Market’s organizer Taylor Choy tells the AP, is that supply chain issues which during COVID-19 increased the prices at supermarkets didn’t affect farmers markets that instead rely on local producers.

“The benefit to shopping at a farmers market is that it’s directly from the farm and so they’re not going to see the same type of supply chain issues (grocery stores have),” Choy told AP. “In fact, I’ve seen the cost of eggs at a grocery store increase, but then the price of our eggs at our market stayed the same.”

MORE GOOD FARMING NEWS: New AI-Powered Farming Robot Trundles About Inspecting 50 Acres of Crops per Day for Pests and Disease

In Colorado, the Larimer County farmers market saw a 25% increase in the number of vendors in the summer of 2020.

“Even in a global pandemic farmers market operators have worked tirelessly to innovate and come up with solutions to continue to serve their communities,” said Farmers Market Coalition’s Executive Director, Ben Feldman, that year.

FIND YOUR FARM HERE: The Nation’s Largest Farmers Market: FarmMatch Allows You to Shop Online at Local Farms in Your Area

“While farmers markets are among the safest places to buy food, the increased costs and time required to stay operational are major challenges for all markets nationwide. It is more important than ever to support our local farmers markets during this crisis.”

SHARE This Awesome Trend With Your Friends And Find A Market Near You…

New Tallest Tree in Asia–a 335-Foot Cypress Shows There’s Plenty Left in the World to Discover

By
Andy Corbley
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Peking University
Peking University

China is a big country with big buildings, big cities, big rivers, and a big population. But the nation’s penchant for big isn’t just an artificial one, nature plays along too.

If you look up “the tallest tree in Asia” on the internet, it may mention Menara, a yellow meranti tree Shorea faguetiana with a height of 330.7 feet (100.8 meters) found in Malaysia. The record, however, has now been broken.

Researchers at Peking University working in Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon Nature Reserve have recorded a Himalayan cypress Cupressus torulosa that has grown to 335 feet (102.3 meters). See the whole tree below, but it will take a few seconds to scroll all the way down.

This isn’t just the tallest tree in Asia, but the second tallest in the world behind America’s Hyperion—a coastal redwood that reaches 381 feet into the sky.

The researchers used a LiDAR drone survey to scrub away the leaves and measure the tree trunks of whole acres of forest quickly. This is how they were able to locate the giant cypress.

credit Peking University

The cluster was first found by Li Cheng from the Xizijiang Conservation Center. Then a research group led by Guo Qinghua from Peking University carried a drone and backpack LiDAR to the deep forest, according to the university.

The scientists note that there were over 20 trees nearby that were over 295 feet tall (90 meters) and even more that were at or around 278 feet (85 meters).

MORE NATURAL WONDERS: Genetic Lineage of Thousand-Year-Old Oak Trees Seed an Experimental ‘Super Forest’

They also noted how important giant trees are to forest ecosystems, because within their long-lived genetics is contained knowledge that can be passed onto offspring about how to survive pests, droughts, and storms. They also provide numerous microclimates for fungi, birds, insects, and burrowing mammals.

A stand of giant Himalayan Cypress trees – credit Peking University

The Yarlung Zangbo in Tibet isn’t called the “Grand Canyon” because China is famous for ignoring the intellectual property rights of American companies. It’s the deepest canyon found on land on Earth—measuring down 19,714 feet deep in some places.

The scientists are planning to establish a close and meticulous monitoring program to ensure the protection and long-term health of these wonderful trees.

SHARE This Story With Your Tree-Huggers On Social Media…

Beautiful Homeless Shelters Get Radical Redesign to Impact Residents

By
Andy Corbley
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Path Home Family Village - credit Aaron Leitz for Path Home
Path Home Family Village – credit Aaron Leitz for Path Home

Attempting to get a grip on the homeless epidemic, homeless shelters are making conscious choices to employ trauma-informed designs to make those who are sheltering feel calm, more autonomous, and safe.

For example, at Path Home Family Village in Portland, Oregon, natural bamboo wood roofs sit above a naturally lit area pained in seafoam green, turquoise, and grey. Windows open out onto a garden with flowers and vegetables, and there are privacy walls between beds with soft personal reading lamps.

This is all part of the trauma-informed design; one that uses science and close relations with the homeless to establish a set of best practices for shelter construction.

Path Home used to be three homeless shelters in one—founded in an abandoned warehouse and church basements.

$250,000 of pro-bono work was donated to Family Village from the influential non-profit  Design Resources for Homelessness, founded by Jill Pable, a professor at Florida State University.

Pable has consulted for other trauma-informed shelters before—in Georgia for example, and her work shows that aspects like acoustics, color, and furniture arrangement, or rooms specifically constructed for family visits can reinforce the mental states that trauma often clashes with—community, privacy, and a sense of welcome.

Other aspects, such as installing glass doors, ensuring there are enough windows to allow residents to see outside, and open spaces to ensure they don’t feel they can be snuck up on, are important for a sense of security as well.

MORE HOMELESS SHELTER INNOVATION: Tiny Home Village for Salt Lake City‘s Homeless Gets Green Light for 430 Units

“You can come home [to the shelter], you can do what you want, you don’t feel like anyone is looking at you. There’s a sense of relief, privacy, and wholeness,” Pable told The Guardian.

Last year, the shelter hosted 524 families. The average length of stay is 85 days. Recently, a previous resident asked Brandi Tuck, the executive director, if he and his partner could get married there.

That’s as good an indication as any that the principles Path Home was founded upon are working.

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A Paramedic Saved a Veteran’s Life –And 7 Years Later Saved His Daughter, Too

By
Andy Corbley
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courtesy of Kristi Hadfield

Ohio resident Molly Jones was worried about the possibility of leaving her 15-year-old daughter behind in the event of her death from autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD).

She posted an impassioned plea on Facebook asking someone to consider donating a kidney, and a Facebook friend she had never met in person quickly responded: “how do I figure out of I’m a match?”

The woman—Kristi Hadfield, had been her friend for 6 years ever since she saved her father’s life.

In rural Richie County, West Virginia, Molly’s father John Cunningham, a former marine, checked himself into an ambulance authority where Hadfield was stationed as a paramedic. John said something wasn’t right, and Hadfield figured he needed to be examined at a hospital about 45 minutes away.

But on the way there, John went into cardiac arrest. Hadfield restarted his heart with chest compression and the help of the ambulance driver. Later, Hadfield sent Cunningham a friend request on Facebook to see how he was doing—which is when Molly Jones found her, and friend requested Hadfield as well.

“We live in a very small town,” Jones told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “I wanted to know who saved my dad.”

Jones wasn’t the only person in her family to have ADPKD; her mother had it, so too did her grandmother, and her great-grandfather. Her daughter Vivi has it too.

Until January 2022, Jones had lived a healthy life with the disease, until a period when she began to suffer bad headaches and was diagnosed with stage 4, or terminal, renal failure.

MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: A Nurse and Her Boyfriend Saved a Man’s Life on Flight Home from Bahamas Vacation

“This family has just, gosh, they got a piece of my heart,” said Hadfield, 56. “I get emotionally impacted by the patients that I’ve had and this family was just incredible. My kids are grown and I have grandkids now, but I wanted her to be able to see her daughter grow. I wanted her to be able to hold her grandkids.”

The woman discovered they were both blood type A+, and as soon as Jones was on the transplant list, Hadfield began trying to donate her kidney, something she said she never imagined doing even though she had the box ticked on her driver’s license.

MORE KIDNEY DONATION NEWS: Woman Saved After Her Dog Found a Kidney Donor at the Beach: One-in-22 Million Odds

On December 27th, after weeks of difficult kidney dialysis keeping Jones alive, the transplant was a complete success. Hadfield had saved John Cunningham, and before the decade was out, saved his daughter too.

Workers at the hospital said that in all their combined years of practicing medicine, they’ve never heard or seen of such a thing. Hadfield told Anya Sostek of Post-Gazette that her grandson is 15-years-old, and already told her that if Vivi ever needs a kidney, all she has to do is call.

SHARE This Inspiring Story Of Compassioned Family Connection On Social Media…

“Where liberty dwells, there is my country.” – Benjamin Franklin (Today is America’s birthday)

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Good News Network
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Photo by Frank McKenna, CC license via Unsplash

Quote of the Day: “Where liberty dwells, there is my country.” – Benjamin Franklin  (Today is America’s birthday!)

Independence Day (the Fourth of July) is a U.S. holiday commemorating the Declaration of Independence, which was ratified on July 4, 1776, establishing the United States of America.

Photo by: Frank McKenna, CC license via Unsplash

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?

Photo by Frank McKenna, CC license via Unsplash

Man Whose Dog Ran Away While He Was in a Coma Is Reunited Thanks to Strangers on Internet

By
Andy Corbley
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Bubba and Bullet - SWNS
Bubba and Bullet – SWNS

Waking up from a coma, a man was devastated when he learned his dog had gotten lost, but his luck turned around after the help from a local dog rescue organizer.

Bubba Nulisch was hospitalized with a bacterial infection and put into an induced coma on April 18th.

After waking from his coma three weeks later he was desperate to see his four-year-old dog Bullet.

However, while still in the hospital, Bubba received a call to tell him his beloved pooch had gone missing from his home in Grand Prairie, Texas.

On the suggestion of some of the hospital nurses, he immediately took to Facebook and asked for help in lost pet groups in the hope someone had spotted Bullet in the area.

He had adopted Bullet after being forced to retire from his truck driving job for medical reasons in October 2015 and says the dog pulled him out of a “deep depression.”

As it happened, someone had seen him—43-year-old Kim Joppie who runs a dog rescue in Dallas. Bullet had made it to Joppie’s rescue center on June 4th, and after she learned who he belonged to, she stepped up to make sure he was back at Bubba’s side as fast as possible.

Neutered and microchipped, Joppie drove the dog out to Bubba and was delighted with what happened after she arrived.

“When they were reunited, I can’t describe the pure emotion that came from him,” said Kim. “They were so bonded. It was so beautiful, and I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Bubba adopted Bullet after some friends’ dog had a litter of puppies.

MORE FUR-BABY REUNIONS: Watch Soldier’s Emotional Reunion With Dog She Rescued From Iraq Seven Months Ago

“The people I was staying with at the time had a dog who had babies. One of them wouldn’t leave my side ever,” said Bubba. “I don’t know why but he started hanging out with me, so I adopted him.”

“He was my reason to keep on going. He really helped me through emotionally and brought me so much happiness and joy,” he said. “Him being gone was the hardest part of waking up.”

MORE PET PARENT NEWS: This Crew of Street Veterinarians Treat the Pets of L.A.’s Homeless Residents of Skid Row

Bubba said that he and Bullet are now back at home safely and are continuing to enjoy watching their favorite TV shows together.

“Kim is an angel. I’m so thankful to her for bringing him back to me. I’ll never forget what she’s done.”

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The Magic of Moss: The Tiny Plant Absorbs 6x More CO2 Than Other Plants, Says New Study

By
Andy Corbley
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Spongy, uniquely green, and allegedly good with directions, Earth’s ubiquitous mosses are more important to ecosystems than they appear.

Found in at least 12,000 species living everywhere from snow-capped mountains to red-hot deserts, moss is the oldest living relative of all plants, but despite its age it seem to hold the key to many of our modern challenges.

In a study published in Nature this May, mossy soils were found to contain 6 times more carbon than soils—even healthy and rich ones, where mosses were not present.

“We were gobsmacked to find that mosses were doing all these amazing things,” David Eldridge, an ecologist at the University of New South Wales told Science Report. 

Eldridge was part of a large survey that sampled mosses from 100 different sites worldwide in order to get an understanding of the impact of these little green balls and mats.

For starters, they estimated that mosses cover an area of the Earth about as big as China or Canada. Their little sprigs hold hundreds of tiny leaves, some just one cell thick, but they’re relatively simple organisms.

Mosses survive by absorbing water from the air. In dry climates, the edges crumble in and the moss appears to shrivel up and die.

“We’ve taken mosses out of a packet after 100 years, squirted them with water and watched them come to life,” said Eldrige. “Their cells don’t disintegrate like ordinary plants do.”

OTHER SUPERPLANTS: World’s Largest Seagrass Restoration Project is a Virginia Success, Planting 600 Acres That Grow to Become 9,000

What’s more, the team found that mosses are better than plants at storing nutrients like carbon, and they estimated that 6.43 billion metric tons of carbon are stored in mossy soils.

They also seem to keep a lid on plant pathogens. In soil samples where mosses were present, the pathogenic load was much less than in soils where mosses were absent.

MORE GARDENING NEWS: Gardening Could Help Reduce Cancer Risk, Boost Mental Health and Bring Communities Together

Their powers of resilience are indeed remarkable. In 1980, Mount Saint Helens erupted in the state of Washington. The eruption caused many plants in the area to die off. Mosses were some of the first plants to pop back up, preceded only by cyanobacteria like algae.

Moss can be tricky to grow and work with, but if one can harness its power, moss makes a great lawn, its thick mat of roots keeps the soil intact and moist underneath, improving the health of the earth and making for supreme weed control.

It’s a great example of how the web of life works and why respect for all living things is merited—because even small, simple, and primitive life has its role in helping an ecosystem stay healthy.

SHARE These Marvelous Moss Facts With Your Friends… 

Spain Generates 50% of its Power From Renewables in 2023, With Portugal Set to Hit 100%

By
Andy Corbley
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Serra do Socorro - CC 2.0. Vitor Oliveira
Serra do Socorro – CC 2.0. Vitor Oliveira

The Iberian Peninsula has unique opportunities for green energy, and its two nations are taking advantage of it by powering nearly their whole society on renewables.

Portugal beat a 9-year record when in March 2023, it generated 103% of its monthly energy consumption with renewable sources.

This was according to the country’s transmission system operator, REN. The country believes its electricity needs will be satisfied by 2040 only through the energies of nature. The most important aspect of any energy transition is honesty, and even though Portugal generated more renewable electricity than it consumed, that electricity wasn’t always being used to power that consumption. Fossil fuels were still being used in various places at various times.

REN also acknowledged that the forces of nature are unpredictable, and even though March generated 103% of total energy consumption, the same month last year generated 6% because of the drought.

Spain meanwhile is on track to becoming the first of Europe’s Big 5 economies to generate more than 50% of its electricity from renewable sources, according to a forecast by Rystad Energy—with almost all of it coming from solar, wind, and hydroelectric.

Spain also generates significant amounts of power from 10 nuclear power stations using nuclear fission—which is sometimes considered a fossil fuel even though it doesn’t emit CO2 like coal-fired energy options.

MORE RENEWABLES NEWS: Renewables Met 100% of the Increase in Global Electricity Need This Year in 2022

Meanwhile, further inland, the utilization of renewable energy in Germany totaled 52.3% in the first six months of 2023. This is 3.1% higher than last year.

In 2023, the number of rooftop solar systems installed was more than double that of 2022, while unlike Portugal and Spain, Germany has a flourishing bioenergy sector where they pull substantial electricity needs from organic waste.

MORE GOOD EARTH: This Park Air Tower Filters 273 Hot Air Balloons Worth of Polluted City Air per Day in India.

Already in July, the weather in Europe has been balmy compared to this period last year when the continent was roasting under drought, fire, and heatwave, allowing for excellent periods of renewable energy collection.

SHARE This Sunny News On Climate With Your Friends… 

Absolutely Epic: Watch the Release of a Wild Bison Herd onto Blackfeet Tribal Land

By
Andy Corbley
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credit Lauren Monroe jr.
credit Lauren Monroe Jr.

Last Monday, the Blackfeet Nation released 30 wild bison back onto their land, a project 9 years in the making that the tribe believes will also be a momentous occasion for scientists to study the animal in its natural state.

The bison, or Iinnii arrived from Alberta, Canada, in 2016 and were placed in a special grazing enclosure to test for disease. From there, the herd grew until they were loaded up into trailers and moved to the release site near Glacier National Park in Montana, around the perimeter of Chief Mountain, an area steeped in Blackfeet significance.

A temporary area was made for them while they shed the stress of the road journey, and then a worker opened up the gate and all 30 rushed out into the wild, a moment which Blackfeet Councilman Lauren Monroe Jr. called “absolutely epic.”

There at Chief Mountain, the bison will roam free, something which almost no bison herd in the country can do. There are massive fenced-in reserves and parks for bison—so large that the bison might never see the fences for years at a time, but the fact that they’re there changes the bison’s natural behavior.

“Bison are almost always behind a fence, even when in a large area,” said Rosalyn LaPier, a historian from the Blackfeet and the Metis. “One thing scientists don’t know is where bison want to go,” she told The Missoulian.

“They’ve always been fenced in so we have no idea, as scholars and scientists, where they want to go when they roam. Even in Yellowstone, the bison are killed or relocated when they leave the border of the park. So this will be really interesting to see what happens.”

MORE WESTERN NEWS: Colorado Wild Horse Bill Passes With Huge Majority of Politicians Supporting Laws to Protect the State’s Mustangs

For Monroe Jr. however, it was his ancestors, rather than scientists, who he was really excited for, imagining what they would think, say, and feel if they knew that land, bison, language, and culture would come back one day.

While these are the first truly wild bison to roam freely on this particular landscape, the Blackfeet’s domestic herd of bison is 700 head, from which the tribe harvests 20 individuals to ensure the food security of the lowest earners in the community.

MORE TRIBAL STORIES:  Native American Tribe in Maine Gets Back Sacred Island Taken 160 Years Ago

They recently offered the first bison trophy hunt, whereby interested parties could donate $75,000 to the tribe’s coffers in exchange for hunting a large bull, and the tribe is excited to see how the wild bison might offer further tourist opportunities.

WATCH the “absolutely epic moment” below… 

SHARE This Inspiring Story Of Tribal Flourishing With Your Friends… 

“One of the most enjoyable aspects of solitude is doing what you want when you want to do it.” – Peter McWilliams

By
Good News Network
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Credit: Tony Detroit

Quote of the Day: “One of the most enjoyable aspects of solitude is doing what you want when you want to do it.” – Peter McWilliams 

Photo by: Tony Detroit

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?

Men Are Almost as Likely as Women to Display Their Sensitive Side, Says New Poll

By
Good News Network
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Credit: christian buehner
Credit: christian buehner

Modern men are nearly as likely as women to openly display a sensitive side, according to a new survey.

The poll of 2,000 adults found that 71% of the men reported being in touch with their feelings—compared to 82% of women.

Of the respondents who called themselves sensitive, 41% outwardly show it often—or always.

One-third of those polled believes being in tune with how they feel is the sign of a good leader.

52% considered being seen as sensitive as a positive trait. But, interestingly, only 37% of men consider it ‘a compliment’ to being called sensitive, and 23% of women feel the same way.

Commissioned by Aveeno (which launched a series of videos by photographer Julia Fullerton-Batten called ‘My Sensitive Side’), the survey found 55% believe others are ‘more likable’ when they openly show their sensitive side.

More than a third reported that their emotional intelligence turned out to be an asset in a work situation in the past, according to the OnePoll results.

CHECK OUT: Improving Her Depression, Woman Tries Something New Every Day for a Year–And Vows to Keep it Up

Sensitivity may be in our nature—and may also be an evolutionary benefit.

New Jersey Dad Drives 1,000 Miles After Wife and Kids Had Flight to Disney Cancelled: ‘He’s Our Rock’

By
Good News Network
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“Don’t let his face fool you,” wrote Jill in a Facebook post to honor the generosity of her husband.
“Don’t let his face fool you,” wrote Jill in a Facebook post to honor the generosity of her husband.

A New Jersey man upended his life by jumping in to drive his family over 1000 miles when their flight was cancelled.

Nathan Montanez had just dropped his wife and two kids at the airport to begin their trip to Disney World, but United Airlines cancelled their flight to Florida—and any rebooking meant they wouldn’t get to leave on their vacation for two days.

Jill Tobin-Montanez told GNN that she had been planning this trip for months. Nathan, who works in supply chain operations had to work, so wasn’t even going on the trip. 15 minutes before departure, the flight was cancelled—and there were no ticket options for days.

“I explained to my kids that sometimes life gives you lemons—and we’d try again to get to Disney another time,” she recalled.

Suddenly Jill’s husband messaged her that he was back at the airport and they should meet him outside.

“When we got in the car, all defeated, he asked if we were ready to go. We said ‘yup,’ thinking we were going home. Then he told us to get ready for a long drive.”

“He then put the song ‘On the Road Again’ on the radio and told us he was driving us to Disney!”

Nathan proceeded to drive 17 hours straight so they wouldn’t miss a day in the Magic Kingdom.

The car pulled into Orlando a little after midnight, and he turned around just a few hours later and headed back to New Jersey so he could get to work on Tuesday—only missing one day.

CHECK OUT: Best ‘Dad Jokes’ Have Been Compiled for Father’s Day in New American Poll

“This dad is our rock!” Jill exclaimed.

“Not many people in this world would do that. And the kids absolutely appreciate what he did for them.”

“They haven’t stopped talking about him,” she wrote in an email, signing off as ‘the wife to one amazing dad!’

WATCH: Middle-Aged Dads Form Dance Team Called ‘Outta Puff Daddys’ Proving Age is Just a Number

BRAG ABOUT This Rockin’ Dad By Sharing His Kindness on Social Media…

Dog Learns the Hard Way Not to Mess With Porcupines–or Disagree With Dad on Car Ride to Vet (WATCH)

By
Good News Network
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LouietheBoxer / Rumble license
LouietheBoxer / Rumble license

Your doggie heart is going to melt after watching this cute moment inside a Midwestern fur-family.

Louie the Boxer sits calmly in the front seat listening to a stern dad giving him a parental ’talking-to’ on a weekend trip to the emergency room following an unfortunate incident with a porcupine.

While they were driving to find medical care for the dog in northern Michigan, his owner shot a charming video (see below), and later posted it on Rumble with a tongue-in-cheek first-person account:

“I did it this time! I swear it was a cat but it had these prickly things all over that got stuck in my face and dad couldn’t pull out! ☹️☹️

“It was Saturday and no vets were open so we had to drive 45 minutes to the Little Traverse Bay Humane Society Veterinary Clinic where I got to meet 2 really nice people.”

“I was sedated and they removed well over 100 quills from my face, nose, gums, tongue and all four paws…Ouch!

“Dad says he hopes I learned my lesson but I’m naughty so who knows… Btw, all my dog friends out there…stay away from the prickly cats! 🐾🐶❤️‍🩹🤪”

ALSO WATCH: The Hilarious Moment a Dog Refuses to Look at Mom While Being Scolded for Destroying a Pillow

Watch the moment below… (Note: GNN has no affiliation with any ads displayed.)

DRIVE This Boxer’s Advice to Dog Owners By Sharing on Social Media…

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