All News - Page 283 of 1718 - Good News Network
Home Blog Page 283

Your Inspiring Weekly Horoscope From Rob Brezsny: A ‘Free Will Astrology’

By
Good News Network
-

Our partner Rob Brezsny 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 May 27, 2023
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
Your meandering trek through the Unpromised Land wasn’t as demoralizing as you feared. The skirmish with the metaphorical dragon was a bit disruptive, but hey, you are still breathing and walking around—and even seem to have been energized by the weird thrill of the adventure. The only other possible downside was the new dent in your sweet dream. But I suspect that in the long run, that imperfection will inspire you to work even harder on behalf of your sweet dream—and this will be a blessing. Here’s another perk: The ordeal you endured effectively cleaned out stale old karma, freeing up space for a slew of fresh help and resources.

CANCER (June 21-July 22):
Testing time is ahead, but don’t get your nerves in an uproar with fantasy-spawned stress. For the most part, your challenges and trials will be interesting, not unsettling. There will be few if any trick questions. There will be straightforward prods to stretch your capacities and expand your understanding. Bonus! I bet you’ll get the brilliant impulse to shed the ball and chain you’ve been absent-mindedly carrying around with you.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Biologist Edward O. Wilson said that the most social animals are ants, termites, and honeybees. He used the following criteria to define that description: “altruism, instincts devoted to social life, and the tightness of the bonds that turn colonies into virtual superorganisms.” I’m going to advocate that you regard ants, termites, and honeybees as teachers and role models for you. The coming weeks will be a great time to boost your skill at socializing and networking. You will be wise to ruminate about how you could improve your life by enhancing your ability to cooperate with others. And remember to boost your altruism!

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Jack Sarfatti is an authentic but maverick physicist born under the sign of Virgo. He suggests that if we make ourselves receptive and alert, we may get help from our future selves. They are trying to communicate good ideas to us back through time. Alas, most of us don’t believe such a thing is feasible, so we aren’t attuned to the potential help. I will encourage you to transcend any natural skepticism you might have about Sarfatti’s theory. As a fun experiment, imagine that the Future You has an important transmission for you—maybe several transmissions. For best results, formulate three specific questions to pose to the Future You.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
I have five points for your consideration. 1. You are alive in your mysterious, endlessly interesting life, and you are imbued with the fantastically potent power of awareness. How could you not feel thrilled? 2. You’re on a planet that’s always surprising, and you’re in an era when so many things are changing that you can’t help being fascinated. How could you not feel thrilled? 3. You have some intriguing project to look forward to, or some challenging but engaging work you’re doing, or some mind-bending riddle you’re trying to solve. How could you not feel thrilled? 4. You’re playing the most enigmatic game in the universe, also known as your destiny on Earth, and you love ruminating on questions about what it all means. How could you not feel thrilled? 5. You never know what’s going to happen next. You’re like a hero in an epic movie that is endlessly entertaining. How could you not feel thrilled?

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
“Trust those that you have helped to help you in their turn,” advises Scorpio author Neil Gaiman. Let’s make that one of your mantras for the coming weeks. In my astrological understanding, you are due to cash in on favors you have bestowed on others. The generosity you have expressed should be streaming back your way in abundance. Be bold about welcoming the bounty. In fact, I hope you will nudge and prompt people, if necessary, to reward you for your past support and blessings.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
So many of us are starved to be listened to with full attention. So many of us yearn to be seen and heard and felt by people who are skilled at receptive empathy. How many of us? I’d say the figure is about 99.9 percent. That’s the bad news, Sagittarius. The good news is that in the coming weeks, you will have an exceptional ability to win the attention of good listeners. To boost the potential healing effects of this opportunity, here’s what I recommend: Refine and deepen your own listening skills. Express them with panache.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Because you’re a Capricorn, earthiness is probably one of your strengths. It’s your birthright to be practical and sensible and well-grounded. Now and then, however, your earthiness devolves into muddiness. You get too sober and earnest. You’re bogged down in excess pragmatism. I suspect you may be susceptible to such a state these days. What to do? It may help if you add elements of air and fire to your constitution, just to balance things out. Give yourself a secret nickname with a fiery feel, like Blaze, or a crispy briskness, like Breezy. What else could you do to rouse fresh, glowing vigor, Breezy Blaze—even a touch of wildness?

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
I love to use metaphors in my writing, but I hate to mix unrelated metaphors. I thrive on referring to poetry, sometimes even surrealistic poetry, but I try to avoid sounding like a lunatic. However, at this juncture in your hero’s journey, Aquarius, I frankly feel that the most effective way to communicate with you is to offer you mixed metaphors and surrealist poetry that border on sounding lunatic. Why? Because you seem primed to wander around on the edges of reality. I’m guessing you’ll respond best to a message that’s aligned with your unruly mood. So here goes: Get ready to surf the spiritual undertow all the way to the teeming wilderness on the other side of the cracked mirror. Ignore the provocative wasteland on your left and the intriguing chaos on your right. Stay focused on the stars in your eyes and devote yourself to wild joy.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
“The gift of patience opens when our body, heart, and mind slow enough to move in unison.” So says Piscean poet Mark Nepo. I feel confident you are about to glide into such a grand harmony, dear Pisces. Through a blend of grace and your relaxed efforts to be true to your deepest desires, your body, heart, and mind will synchronize and synergize. Patience will be just one of the gifts you will receive. Others include: a clear vision of your most beautiful future; a lucid understanding of what will be most meaningful to you in the next three years; and a profound sense of feeling at home in the world wherever you go.

ARIES (March 21-April 19):
My reading of the astrological omens inspires me to make a series of paradoxical predictions for you. Here are five scenarios I foresee as being quite possible in the coming weeks. 1. An epic journey to a sanctuary close to home. 2. A boundary that doesn’t keep people apart but brings them closer. 3. A rambunctious intervention that calms you down and helps you feel more at peace. 4. A complex process that leads to simple clarity. 5. A visit to the past that empowers you to redesign the future.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
Do you want a seed to fulfill its destiny? You must bury it in the ground. There, if it’s able to draw on water and the proper nutrients, it will break open and sprout. Its life as a seed will be over. The plant it eventually grows into will look nothing like its source. We take this process for granted, but it’s always a miracle. Now let’s invoke this story as a metaphor for what you are hopefully on the verge of, Taurus. I invite you to do all that’s helpful and necessary to ensure your seed germinates!

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

(Zodiac images by Numerologysign.com, CC license)

SHARE The Wisdom With Friends Who Are Stars in Your Life on Social Media…

“There is no influence like the influence of habit.” – Gilbert Parker

By
Good News Network
-

Quote of the Day: “There is no influence like the influence of habit.” – Gilbert Parker

Photo by: andrew dinh

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?

Creating Electricity From Moisture in the Air, Even in the Sahara Desert

By
Andy Corbley
-
The current Air-gen device can power small devices. Photo by UMass Amherst/Yao and Lovley labs.
The old Air-gen device could power small devices. Photo by UMass Amherst/Yao and Lovley labs.

A totally science-fiction device developed by scientists in Massachusetts would allow people to pull electricity out of thin air.

Back in 2020, GNN reported on an exciting experimental technology called Air-gen.

It used a protein nanowire film derived from the bacteria species Geobacter sandwiched between two electrodes that could generate electricity via the humidity absorbed within the fine pores of the film.

Now, the team from Univ. of Massachusetts Amhurst has made another breakthrough in this Air-gen technology.

“What we realized after making the Geobacter discovery is the ability to generate electricity from the air—what we then called the ‘Air-gen effect’—turns out to be generic,” explains Amhurst Professor Jun Yao.

“Literally any kind of material can harvest electricity from the air—as long as it has a certain property. It just needs to have holes smaller than 100 nm (nanometers)—or less than a thousandth of the width of a human hair.”

Graphic image of a thin film of protein nanowires generating electricity from atmospheric humidity. Photo by UMass Amherst.

These Air-gen devices could generate kilowatts of electricity that would be non-polluting, renewable, and low-cost. They could generate power even in areas with extremely low humidity such as the Sahara Desert, and have significant advantages over other forms of renewable energy including solar and wind, because unlike these, the Air-gen does not require sunlight or wind, and “it even works indoors.”

For readers curious as to how such a small setup generates power, it relies on the ‘mean free path,’ or the distance a single molecule of water travels in the air before it bumps into another.

Whatever material a manufacturer or engineer might use, provided it’s as small as Dr. Yao explains above, it should allow water molecules to pass from the upper to the lower part of the material.

MORE SCIENCE NEWS: Newly Discovered Enzyme Turns Air Into Electricity, Promising a New Clean Source of Energy

Each pore is so small the molecules would easily bump into the edge as they pass through, meaning the upper part would be bombarded with many more charge-carrying water molecules than the lower one.

It creates a charge imbalance, like that in a cloud, as the upper part increased its charge relative to the lower part. This would effectually create a battery that runs as long as there is any humidity in the air.

“You could imagine harvesters made of one kind of material for rainforest environments and another for more arid regions.”

MORE SCI-TECH: Swedish Firm to Unlock the Electricity of the Sea With Largest Wave Power Station in the World

Since humidity is ever-present the harvester would run 24/7, rain or shine, at night, and whether or not the wind blows. Because of its thinness, thousands can be stacked on top of each other so that it can efficiently be scaled up, increasing the amount of energy without increasing the footprint of the device.

Such an Air-gen device would be capable of delivering kilowatt-level power for general electrical utility usage anywhere on Earth.

SHARE This Breakthrough On A Breakthrough With Your Friends… 

Ring Lost Down Toilet 13 Years Ago is Discovered at Wastewater Treatment Facility 1,000 Feet From Her Home

By
Andy Corbley
-

A woman in Minnesota has been reunited with an anniversary ring she accidentally flushed down the toilet 13 years ago.

It was found in a sewage treatment plant just 1,000 feet from the woman’s home, in time to wear it for her 46th wedding anniversary.

Mary Strand received the ring from her husband Dave as an anniversary present after 33 years of wedlock, but while using the downstairs bathroom, the wet, perhaps soapy, perhaps incorrectly-sized ring, slipped off and spiraled down the porcelain throne into oblivion.

As it turned out, Dave ran a drain and sewage company and quickly used a camera to scour 200 feet of drain pipe to see if he could spot the ring. Alas, it seemed to have journeyed into the great brown beyond.

“I was thinking, ‘He’ll never buy me another ring,’ that’s what I was thinking,” Mary said with a huge laugh in front of reporters on Wednesday. “I felt really bad, because it was a gift.”

13 years later, John Tierney, a mechanical maintenance manager for the city of Roger’s Metropolitan Council’s nine wastewater treatment plants, was shoveling debris from one of the equipment with a few coworkers when they saw something sparkling.

After they put out the call on their Twitter account above, literally hundreds of people who had lost wedding rings called in, but because of the distinctive form, it was easy to determine whom it didn’t belong to.

MORE LOST AND FOUND: Widow Finds Late Husband’s Wedding Ring Under Apple Tree – 35 Years After He Lost It

One photo sent in looked a perfect match, and after professional examination they determined it was indeed Strand who could claim the ring.

“By the way, the water treatment plant in Rogers where Mary’s ring was found is located on Diamond Lake Road,” wrote KARE 11 news. “Coincidence? We think not.”

WATCH the story below from KARE 11… 

SHARE This Needle In A Haystack Story With Your Friends… 

New Indoor Farm in Downtown Compton Grows 4.5 Million Pounds of Affordable Greens in One Year

By
Andy Corbley
-
Towers of veggies in one of the grow rooms at Plenty's Compton farm - credit Plenty
Towers of veggies in one of the grow rooms at Plenty’s Compton farm – credit Plenty

Capable of growing 4.5 million pounds of leafy green vegetables per year, a new indoor vertical farm is getting its ribbon cut in the city of Compton.

Built and managed by the firm Plenty, one of the US’ leading indoor farming companies, it aims to be a nourishing flood for food deserts.

Indoor farms use ultraviolet light arrays to mimic the sun, and hydroponic growing apparatus stacked on vertical towers. Hydroponics use liquid fertilizer and mist to grow crops without soil. The number of fruits and vegetables capable of being grown this way is limited, but can be done in the middle of a city, and with other advantages such as an absence of pests.

“Plenty is an indoor growing company so we grow plants inside without the sun in controlled environments,” said Plenty CEO Arama Kukutai. “We are producing leafy greens and we also produce tomatoes, in the future, we’ll be producing strawberries and other fruit and produce.”

Plenty also say their Compton location is the West Coast’s only commercial-scale vertical farm, and one of the most advanced in the world.

MORE HYDROPONIC STORIES: Indian Man Grows Precious Saffron In a Shipping Container–Wants to Share His Hydroponic Technique With Others

To wit, robots do a lot of the work inside, carting around trays of lettuce, kale, and spinach, and moving the towers around the facility. Other than the robots, many of the other employees come from Compton itself.

SIMILAR FARMING NEWS: Canadian Family Turns Old School into Hydroponic Farm Growing Fresh Veggies Even in Winter For the Whole Town

“They were very committed to making sure that the people that they hired actually came from the city, came from this community, and this is what they’ve done,” said Compton Mayor Emma Sharif. “They’ve kept the community and to the city and 30% of the people that are hired comes from the community.”

The products grown there are available now in Compton’s stores like Whole Foods Market, Walmart, and Bristol Farms.

WATCH the story here from ABC 7 Compton… 

SHARE This Nourishing News With Your California Comrades… 

Detroit Students Build a House–Then Deliver it By Truck For Low Income Housing

By
Andy Corbley
-
WXYZ Detroit 7 - Fair use
WXYZ Detroit 7 – Fair use

It was a surreal sight for Pedro Rivera, a whole house was on the back of a trailer driving down a Detroit suburban road; a house that he and his friends had built with their own hands.

“All my friends, we all looked at each other like, ‘Wow, this is what we did,'” Rivera, a student at Oakland Schools Technical Campus-Northeast, told 7 Action News.

At the technical campus, students study to become specialists in carpentry, additions, or electrical work, but school instructor Aaron Swett who led the project to build a 1,368-square-foot home from the ground up, explained that it would help introduce the students to the whole gamut of construction trades.

The program, which includes working alongside professional tradesmen, prepares the students for their own careers in construction and carpentry, many of which are sorely needed in the US.

But it does something else as well, it provides a slow but steady supply of low and middle-income housing units for Michigan, a state that lacks them.

MORE DETROIT NEWS: City of Detroit Surprises Single-Mom Crossing Guard With $50k at a Tiger’s Game Following Viral Tiktok Post

The home cost $100,000 in materials, and will go on the market for around $170,000, about half the nationwide median listing price.

“Just seeing it getting lifted and everything, it was kind of like ‘Wow, this is our accomplishment,'” Rivera said of the home build. “It’s going to a good family. Good home, good neighborhood — it’s nice.”

WATCH the story below from WXYZ Detroit Action 7…

SHARE The Endeavor Of These Great Kids With Your Friends… 

“Rough diamonds may sometimes be mistaken for worthless pebbles.” – Thomas Browne

By
Good News Network
-

Quote of the Day: “Rough diamonds may sometimes be mistaken for worthless pebbles.” – Thomas Browne

Photo by: Jarren Simmons

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?

Dutchman Starts Overnight Sleeper-Train Operation Throughout Europe: A Hostel on Rails

By
Andy Corbley
-
credit - European Sleeper
credit – European Sleeper

Tonight, Europe will experience a little resurrection—the first privately-run overnight sleeper train service will take passengers and their dreams aboard a Brussels to Berlin line.

Born from a former-train guard’s longing for a historic form of rail travel and a growing demand for low-carbon transport, European Sleeper used crowdfunding and friendly competition to revive this 19th-century form of locomotion.

The idea, according to European Sleeper’s founder Elmer van Buuren, is that people are realizing a combo of budget airline plus hotel stay involves a lot of extra planning, early mornings, and carbon emissions.

Alternatively, high-speed rail is expensive and booked weeks in advance.

By comparison, European Sleeper allows one to avoid the necessary booking of accommodations, while delivering passengers right into a historic city center in time for morning business meetings or a day of exploring, rather than 50 kilometers outside in an airport.

“Until a couple of years ago, everyone thought sleeper trains were a thing of the past and something for hopeless romantics with their heads in the 19th century. That is just not the case,” van Buuren told the Financial Times.

Van Buuren has faced a significant number of challenges in launching European Sleeper. Private rail companies are few and far between, and the stock of specialty sleeping carriages is either refurbished from the mid-20th century with a lack of modern amenities, or are being ordered too small in number for manufacturers to put any effort into them.

Furthermore, the coordination required between the EU member states to connect railway timetables is extremely difficult in the best of times, and has proven even harder still because the night trains would need a place to park during the day, and placements in arrival cities during the busiest hours.

Fortunately, the demand for sleeper trains won’t go away, and national railway companies are beginning to address the consumer demand to place orders of sleeper carriages.

Van Buuren turned to crowdfunding, raising €500,000 from 140 small investors in the first serious attempt. One of the large issues with finding the funding is that train operators need to apply every year for track capacity.

MORE RAILWAY INNOVATION: World’s First 100% Hydrogen-Powered Trains Now Running Regional Service in Germany to Replace Diesel

“And that means that you cannot really prove that you can produce your product for the next 10 years,” explains Elmer, this time to Euro News. “If we had a framework agreement across the borders that would guarantee… we will get the capacity for the next 10 years, that would highly de-risk the investment and get financiers on board.”

This, says van Buuren, will require the EU member state regulators and infrastructure managers to work out better plans than those they have now.

But despite these and other challenges, European Sleeper is launching its inaugural service tonight (Thursday, May 25th,) from Brussels to Berlin, on a three-way line that will connect these two cities plus Amsterdam. The company managed to amass another €2,000,000 in seed capital, which garnered them recognition from the European Commission as one of 10 pilot projects that aim to improve train travel and slash emissions.

What can travelers expect?

Aboard a European Sleeper train, three classes exist. The sleeping cars for a single business traveler are comfortable and run at €128 which includes breakfast. Small groups and families can book couchettes (from €89 per person, including breakfast) that seat either 4 or 6 people.

In the near future, the company wants to add dining cars so that the third class (recline seating) has refreshment options as well.

The expensive tickets take into account that the passenger is avoiding the need to book a hotel or a long taxi ride from the airport.

Starting next year, the three-way line which runs Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights with returns on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday, will extend through Dresden down to Prague in the Czech Republic.

MORE LOW EMISSIONS TRAVEL: Boat-Plane Hybrid That Needs No Runway Could Transform Travel from LA to San Diego, Boston to NYC

In 2025, they will hopefully have lines that take passengers from Amsterdam, Brussels, and the UK, down through Lille, Provence, and Barcelona.

Several low-emissions travel options are debuting across Europe in the next few years. Along with European Sleeper, rigid airships will return to the continent’s skies for the first time in a century when Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV) launch their services from Oslo to Stockholm or Liverpool to Belfast, with emissions even lower than those of rail travel.

Passengers will enjoy silent air travel with floor-to-ceiling windows and substantially more space and freedom of movement than aircraft.

SHARE This Exciting Return To The Train’s Past With Your Friends… 

Butterfly Populations Grew by 200% Higher in People’s Gardens than in Other Habitats

By
Andy Corbley
-
A small tortoiseshell (Algais urticae) SWNS.
A small tortoiseshell (Algais urticae) SWNS.

Britain’s butterflies are bouncing back thanks in largest part to Britons’ gardens providing a safe haven, a new report reveals.

The study was the first to look at butterfly trends in UK gardens separately from those in the wider countryside and found that half of the 22 species of butterflies surveyed experienced a faster population increase in gardens than in other habitats between 2007 and 2020.

The study was conducted by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and was carried out by nearly 8,000 volunteers in the BTO Garden BirdWatch scheme, which records other garden wildlife in addition to birds on a weekly basis.

They found numbers of marbled white and large skipper butterflies both grew by more than 200%, while those of the holly blue, small skipper, ringlet, brimstone, and orange-tip grew by 100%.

Although usually found in grasslands, marbled whites, large skippers, and small skippers have recently expanded their range in the UK.

Their increases are markedly greater in gardens but isn’t clear why these and other species are doing so well there. One theory is that gardens are providing refuge and feeding opportunities.

A report last year from Butterfly Conservation said that since the 1970s 80% of UK species had experienced declines, so the new study is more than welcome.

“It is extremely encouraging to see that gardens are contributing to the population growth of some of the UK’s widespread butterfly species,” said Dr. Kate Plummer, BTO Senior Research Ecologist and lead author on the paper.

“We are increasingly finding that gardens are crucial for biodiversity conservation, and these new findings certainly support that.”

Though not as efficient as bees, butterflies are important pollinators in both gardens and the countryside, and any plant that butterflies regularly visit has probably co-evolved its own reproductive strategies in sync with the insect; meaning if the butterfly declines, so will the plants they feed on.

“Ongoing monitoring, with the help of citizen scientists, will help us to better understand how to maximize the positive environmental impacts of our gardening activities,” said Dr. Plummer.

There was also an increase in butterfly populations across the wider countryside but on average the increases seen in gardens were bigger.

Although it reflects an already-established trend reported by the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme, the BTO says their results show the importance of gardens to the species’ recovery.

MORE INSECT NEWS: While in Lockdown Citizen Scientists are Going Outside Observing Insects, Helping Boost Their Recovery

As private gardens are difficult to access, they say their citizen-science approach opens a window for a clearer picture and understanding of the human impact on butterflies.

Importantly, the study’s findings highlight that individual garden owners have a role to play in protecting and enhancing UK butterfly populations through their gardening choices.

Thanks to the recording efforts of our dedicated Garden BirdWatch participants, we are understanding more and more about the importance of garden habitats for all sorts of wildlife,” said Dr. Michelle Reeve, BTO Garden BirdWatch Manager.

“The fates of bird populations are inextricably linked to that of other species, including butterflies, so learning how they are faring is crucial.”

MORE BUTTERFLY STORIES: A New Butterfly Has Been Named After The ‘Lord of the Rings’ Villain

To maximize one’s garden for butterflies, the BTO says they tend to visit perennial plants and location is important.

Butterflies much prefer to feed in sunny, sheltered parts of the garden, with scented blooms presented in large and visible displays.

SHARE This Great News And Great Gardening Tips With Your Friends… 

Gigatons of Carbon Could be Captured in Offshore Underwater Volcanoes: A Boon for Climate

By
Andy Corbley
-
Modeling of the depths of the Mayotte seabed CC 3.0. Mayotte Volcanological and Seismological Monitoring Network
Modeling of the depths of the Mayotte seabed CC 3.0. Mayotte Volcanological and Seismological Monitoring Network

A new study concludes that an extinct volcano off the shore of Portugal could store as much as 1.2-8.6 gigatons of carbon dioxide, the equivalent of 24-125 years of the country’s industrial emissions.

Doing so would rely on a method known as “in situ mineral carbonization,” which works when the CO2 taken from the air is pumped deep underground.

Once in the bowels of this extinct volcano, calcium, magnesium, and iron react to the incoming carbon dioxide to form calcite, dolomite, and magnesite, trapping the CO2 forever in a rocky prison.

Doing it in the Fontanelas volcano, 60 miles off the coast of Portugal presents several advantages. First, the mountainous structure of the volcano would make drilling into it easy relative to other in situ mineral carbonization drilling projects. Second, volcanic basalt tends to contain high percentages of iron, magnesium, and calcium. Thirdly, it’s near at hand to the shore and doesn’t take up any land space in the country.

“We know that most countries, including Portugal, are making efforts to decarbonize the economy and our human activities, this is a message that this may be one of the instruments to solve the problem,” says Ricardo Pereira, a geologist at the NOVA School of Science and Technology, and co-author of the study.

Utilizing existing data on dredging and drilling done by seismologists and scientists working in oil exploration, the joint American-Portuguese team of scientists publishing for the Geological Society of America found that the rocks of the Fontanelas volcano contained high levels of carbonates—indicating that the processes of in situ carbonization were already occurring naturally.

MORE VOLCANO UTILIZATION: The Perfect Energy Source Is Already Here – Endless Geothermal Is Poised for Release From Deep in the Earth

Furthermore, the rocks dredged up were 40% porous, meaning a high amount of space exists for the injection of CO2.

The authors suggest that there are likely other undersea volcanoes that countries could use as CO2 landfills.

SHARE This Potentially Big Discovery In The Emissions Race With Your Friends… 

“Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind.” – Johannes Brahms

By
Good News Network
-

Quote of the Day: “Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind.” – Johannes Brahms

Photo by: Weiqi Xiong

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?

See the Moon Under the “Da Vinci Glow” in the Next Three Days

By
Andy Corbley
-
Earthshine - NASA
Earthshine – NASA

There’s a unique kind of crescent moon in the sky tonight (May 24th,) and possibly the next two days as well.

It’s a crescent moon lit by Earthshine, also known as the “Da Vinci Glow” after the main man himself, who finally discovered what this common, yet difficult-to-explain phenomenon was.

Though the moon is just a crescent, it’s glowing via light reflecting off the face of the Earth, sometimes called “the old moon in the new moon’s arms” which is about 50-times brighter than a full moon.

This allows stargazers and star-crossed lovers alike to look up and see the whole moon like in the picture above.

In a rather textbook example of Da Vinci’s brilliance, his theory describing Earthshine was published before Copernicus revealed to the world that the Earth in fact revolved around the Sun, rather than the other way around.

Da Vinci instead used his artistic insights into the nature of light, and his engineering-level knowledge of geometry to ascertain where the ethereal glow around the moon came from.

“It’s easiest to see during either a waxing or waning crescent. You’ll need clear skies to see the Moon, but parts of the Earth need to be cloudy enough to reflect a fair amount of light onto the Moon,” Christine Shupla, science engagement manager at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, told CNN in an email.

MORE STARGAZING EVENTS: See 40 Shooting Stars Per Hour Under the Aquariid Meteor Shower in May Night Sky

There’s quite a lot of reporting on the possibility of Earthshine tonight and tomorrow in the news media, suggesting perhaps the chances are high. Try to keep it in mind when you’re taking out the trash after dinner!

SHARE This Fast-Approaching Phenomenon With Your Friends… 

Editor’s note: This story has been changed regarding the cause of crescent moons.

Adorable Photos Show a Newborn Litter of Critically-Endangered Scottish Wildcat Kittens

By
Andy Corbley
-
Highland Wildlife Park, via SWNS
Highland Wildlife Park, via SWNS

Adorable photos show a newborn litter of 5 Critically-Endangered Scottish wildcat kittens.

First-time mom Talla gave birth to the litter at Wildcat Wood in Highland Wildlife Park, on April 2nd, and the kittens are due to receive their first veterinary check soon to determine their sexes.

The Scottish wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris) is one of the country’s most iconic animals, but also one of the most endangered. This is mostly because of inbreeding with feral or domestic house cats, and habitat loss.

Taxonomically speaking, it’s a subspecies of the European wildcat (Felis silvestris) but appears so much like just a rugged tabby cat that two hikers, in one instance GNN reported on, believed they had found a lost tabby kitten in the snow on a hike in Cairngorms National Park.

One of the hikers noted that the animal’s claws were like “miniature razors,” and he and his friend joked that the little creature must be a Scottish wildcat.

A total of nine wildcats live at the Highland Wildlife Park. The new kittens will be on show for the public to visit, unlike other wildcats which are part of a breeding project. At 5 weeks old, they are already exploring their enclosures and playing atop the plastic and wood crates that form their den.

Highland Wildlife Center, via SWNS

Keepers at the wildlife conservation charity will name the youngsters in the coming weeks

“We are thrilled to welcome five Scottish wildcat kittens born to mum Talla and dad Blair on April 2nd,” said Keith Gilchrist, animal collection manager at Highland Wildlife Park.

“This is Talla’s first litter, and she is taking to motherhood brilliantly and being very attentive. The kittens are doing extremely well and are getting more confident every day.”

MORE BREEDING PROGRAMS: Critically-Endangered Amur Leopard Twins Born at San Diego Zoo: ‘A Glimmer of Hope’

“It has been fantastic to see them growing curious about their surroundings and start exploring their home in Wildcat Wood with Talla by their side.”

Highland Wildlife Park, via SWNS

The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland leads the partnership project Saving Wildcats, working with global experts to restore Scotland’s Critically-Endangered wildcat population by breeding and releasing them into the Cairngorms National Park, Scotland’s largest.

All those cats born last year are soon to be released.

MORE ZOO BIRTHS: A Pair of the World’s Rarest–and Most Adorable—Piglets Are Born in a UK Zoo

“It’s an incredibly exciting time for wildcats in Scotland and we are delighted the kittens will help engage visitors with this iconic species and inspire more people to protect, value, and love nature,” said Gilchrist.

SHARE These Adorable Yet Critically-Important Kittens With The World… 

Revolutionary New Clean Fuel Developed that Could See Cars Being Powered by Sunshine

By
Andy Corbley
-
Sunshine fuel – SWNS
Sunshine fuel – SWNS

An environmentally clean fuel made from the power of the sun has been devised by scientists which could revolutionize motoring.

The solar-powered technology converts carbon dioxide and water into liquid fuels that can be directly dropped into a vehicle’s engine.

The researchers from the University of Cambridge harnessed the power of photosynthesis to convert CO2, water, and sunlight into multi-carbon fuels—ethanol and propanol—in a single step.

These fuels have a high energy density and can be easily stored or transported, according to scientists whose work was published in Nature Energy.

“Shining sunlight on the artificial leaves and getting liquid fuel from carbon dioxide and water is an amazing bit of chemistry,” said Dr. Motiar Rahaman, the new study’s first author.

“Normally, when you try to convert CO2 into another chemical product, you almost always get carbon monoxide or syngas, but here, we’ve been able to produce a practical liquid fuel just using the power of the Sun.”

They managed this by developing a copper and palladium-based catalyst, optimized to allow the artificial leaf to produce more complex chemicals.

Unlike fossil fuels, these solar fuels produce net zero carbon emissions and are completely renewable—and unlike most bioethanol, they do not divert any agricultural land away from food production, experts said.

Sunshine fuel – SWNS

OTHER BIOFUEL DEVELOPMENTS: First Flight of Regional Jet Powered by Hydrogen Fuel Cells–40-Seater is Largest Ever to Fly

While the technology is still at laboratory scale, the researchers said their ‘artificial leaves’ are an important step in the transition away from a fossil fuel-based economy.

Bioethanol is often touted as a cleaner alternative to gasoline since it’s made from plants instead of fossil fuels.

The United States is the world’s largest bioethanol producer. According to the USDA, almost 45% of all corn grown in the USA is used for ethanol production.

MORE AUTOMOTIVE NEWS: Car Makes Record-Breaking 621-Mile Trip on Single Charge Powered by the Sun

Currently, the artificial leaf and copper catalyst are proof of concept devices, and show only modest efficiency, the study authors added. They are now working to optimize the light absorbers so that they can better absorb sunlight and optimize the catalyst so it can convert more sunlight into fuel.

Further work will also be needed so the device can be mass-produced and make large volumes of fuel.

SHARE This Development In Bioethanol Fuels With Your Friends… 

Big White Dogs Save the World’s Smallest Penguin in Australia

By
Andy Corbley
-
Middle Island Project - Facebook
Middle Island Project – Facebook

Just off the coast of Warrnambool city, Australia’s Middle Island is home to some very small residents, at the center of a big achievement.

There one can find the little penguin, also known as the fairy penguin, which as the same suggests is the world’s smallest—standing just 35 centimeters tall.

Starting in 1991, sedimentation and tidal patterns created a short window during the year when a tidal causeway allowed access to Middle Island from the mainland, which foxes quickly discovered and used to devastate this ground-nesting bird population.

Enter a rather unlikely hero. A local chicken farmer named Swampy Marsh had no professional background in conservation, but what he did understand over many years of keeping chickens was how to defeat or outfox foxes.

Running up to 5,000 chickens free-range, Marsh used Maremma dogs as guardians. These great big white pooches, officially known as Pastori Maremma-Abruzzesi owing to their Italian origins from the coastal region of Maremma, were excellent protectors of Marsh’s flock, and he figured that since little penguins are equally as defenseless against foxes, the same protection scheme would work.

And it did; though officially no dogs were allowed on Middle Island, the severity of the little penguins’ plight convinced Warrnambool city council to give it a go. Marsh then arrived with his dog Oddball and got to work.

Their success was immediate and sustained. It totally changed the fox pattern for entry onto the island and soon Oddball’s role was professionalized, creating the Middle Island Project for breeding these Maremma dogs for use in protecting Middle Island.

During 2006 and 2017, the first two Mamemma dogs, Eudy and Tula, ensured that not a single fox attack took place, and the island’s penguins grew to 180 birds.

MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: Island is Wonderland for Penguins Once Again After Dog Helps Eradicate 300,000 Invasive Rabbits

The dogs don’t actually attack the foxes, they just hang out on the island in pairs. If they smell a fox in the distance, their deep, basso barks are enough to scare the predators away. Conservationists ensure the dogs can take a few days off, and have everything they need to do their job, including food, water, shade, and company.

WATCH the story below from Terra Mater…

SHARE These Big White Knights With Your Friends On Social Media…

Editor’s note: This story has been altered to better reflect the distribution of little penguins in Australia.

“Develop enough courage so that you can stand up for yourself, and then stand up for somebody else.” – Maya Angelou

By
Good News Network
-

Quote of the Day: “Develop enough courage so that you can stand up for yourself, and then stand up for somebody else.” – Maya Angelou

Photo by: Dalton Touchberry

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?

13 Years After Losing Both Legs in Afghanistan, Veteran Summits Everest Establishing World Record

By
Andy Corbley
-
credit - Crowdfunder UK - Hari Budha Magar
credit – Crowdfunder UK – Hari Budha Magar

A Nepali veteran of the British operations in Afghanistan has become the first double above-the-knee amputee to summit the world’s tallest mountain.

Hari Budha Magar, who lives in Canterbury reached the top at 3 PM last Friday, having started the climb on April 17th—13 years to the day since he lost his legs in an IED explosion.

Anyone with knowledge of the history of warfare knows about the almost mythical bravery and exceptionalism of the Ghurkas. Hari is one of these people—Ghurka being a historical term for a Nepali warrior, and a modern legal term for a Nepali foreign fighter that isn’t considered a mercenary under the Geneva Convention.

In the face of that legacy, Hari’s accomplishment is perhaps to be expected, though he certainly didn’t feel like that 13 years ago, battling alcoholism and depression.

“I grew up in Nepal, up to age of 19, and I saw how the disabled people were treated in those remote villages,” he said. “Many people still think that disability is a sin of previous life and you are the burden of the earth. I believed this myself because that is what I saw. That is how I grew up.”

He tried to kill himself a pair of times, but eventually decided to climb Everest instead. However, there was a legal summit to conquer in his native Nepal before he could tackle the Mountain So High No Bird Can Fly Over It.

OTHER EVEREST CONQUERERS: All-Black Climbing Team Makes History Reaching Top of Everest, Inspiring Diverse Adventurers

Disabled people had been banned by the Nepali government from attempting the mountain. Enough people die on the journey every year, and the authorities saw no reason to risk that. But, Hari was able to overcome that roadblock and prepare for the real quest.

PA News was at Everest Base Camp after Budha Magar, supported by his all-Nepalese team, completed their descent from the peak.

Hari Budha Magar (center) reaches Mt. Everest summit – courtesy of Shanta Nepali Productions

“All of my jackets were completely freezing,” he said. “It was all frozen. Even our warm water, we put hot water in the Thermos, and that was also frozen and we were not able to drink.”

MORE AMAZING DISABLED PEOPLE: Disabled Student Can Pursue Her Dreams of Being a Cellist After Teens Build Her a Specialized Prosthetic

He used a variety of interchangeable prosthetics for the climb, which included some equipped with ice spikes, and others with mountaineering boots attached.

Completing the mission, Budha Magar says he wants to return to the spot in Afghanistan where he lost his legs in order to say ‘thank you’ because if he still had his legs, he would never have climbed Everest.

SHARE This Inspiring Man’s Journey From Rock Bottom To The Top Rock… 

City of Detroit Surprises Single-Mom Crossing Guard With $50k at a Tiger’s Game Following Viral Tiktok Post

By
Andy Corbley
-
credit - @MDmotivator
credit – @MDmotivator

For no other reason than that she was a working mom with a great personality and an important job making sure people drive safely through the city of Detroit, a traffic control officer was recently on the receiving end of all the goodness social media can wield.

It started when TikTok account MDMotivators interviewed Lanita Edge on duty in the middle of the road, gabbing as she does with passers-by, and wishing people a happy Mother’s Day.

She revealed in the video which went viral that she felt it was an important service to the city—to help people get where they need to go and get home safely. She explained she was born and raised in the Motor City, and was a Tigers fan.

In that first video, Edge was surprised when the TikToker Zackery invited her to the Tigers game for Mother’s Day. The working mom recently lost her husband and asked if the invitation was reliant on the fruits of her paycheck, at which point Zackery surprised her with $500.

Meanwhile, Zackery had secretly set up a crowdfunding campaign that amassed $50,000, a gift simply for being her fine self, that was delivered on the grass in the Tiger’s ballpark.

MORE DETROIT NEWS: How One Developer is Turning Farm Storage into Soaring Yet Affordable Apartments

“The people of Detroit have watched the video and donated an additional $50,000,” he said.

Her son and Detroit Tigers catcher Jake Rogers handed her the check.

“It was like a movie. It was beautiful. I feel very blessed to be able to just witness this,” Zackery told ABC 7 Detroit. “All I am doing is showcasing who she is as an individual and the people online came together and created this.”

SIMILAR SOCIAL MEDIA STORIES: Delta Flight Attendant Consoles Fearful Passenger and Photo Goes Viral

“God uses wonderful people every day,” Edge said, explaining she was at a loss for words. “I didn’t know this man and God used him to be a blessing to me. I couldn’t thank him enough. I couldn’t give God thanks enough.”

Now, 9 million social media views later, and dozens of people stop along the crosswalk to say hello, congratulate, or wish her well.

WATCH the news story below… 

SHARE Detroit’s Celebrations For This Beautiful Human Being With Your Friends…

This Fabric Is Designed to Block Mosquito Bites

By
Andy Corbley
-
Credit: Auburn University
Credit: Auburn University

In a potentially huge development for fashion in tropical countries, an entomologist has come up with a Spandex-polyester weave that’s impermeable to the proboscis of the mosquito.

Mosquitos hospitalize hundreds of thousands every year in the tropics by spreading malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, and West Nile virus, and every major proposed solution has failed to alleviate these burdens to any degree that can’t be obtained with a simple mosquito net over someone’s bed.

There have been news reports recently of genetically engineered mosquitos that can sterilize populations in areas to prevent the spread of the diseases they carry, but to John Beckmann who designed the new cloth weave, the simplest solutions are probably the best ones given past experience.

Using a hi-tech knitting machine Beckmann and his team experimented with different weave patterns. They needed to find one that didn’t provide any space for the proboscis to exploit, while at the same time offering comfort and breathability for tropical weather conditions; a tough ask.

To the naked eye, the mosquito’s proboscis, which it uses to feed, appears needle-like, but Beckmann points out that this appendage is so advanced it can go right through most fabrics thanks to a pair of saw-like bladed segments along its sides, microneedles that vibrate like a drill, and the ability to bend at 90 degrees.

MORE ANTI-MOSQUITO NEWS: New Mosquito Repellent Works Better Than DEET, is Safer, and Smells Good

“Knitting is essentially like tying little knots—you’re making loops, and you’re wrapping loops through loops,” Beckmann told Fast Company. “If you do it in the right geometric ways, you can create a chainmail effect at the microscopic level.”

It took a lot of tweaking and refinement, but the finished fabric was described by one of his graduate students at Auburn University, Alabama, as something similar to “Lululemon leggings.”

MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: We Can Now Use CRISPR Gene Editing on Ticks – to Fight Lyme Disease in Humans

The team submitted a paper describing their findings and the tests of the various weaves they used by way of putting a sleeved arm into a glass box full of mozzies and counting the bites.

Now they plan to continue refining the technology with the aim of releasing a clothing line, and licensing the weave to various outdoor companies.

SHARE This Great And Much-Needed Invention With Your Friends… 

Pair of Dirty Windows Purchased on Facebook Are Set to Sell for $200,000

By
Andy Corbley
-
Tiffany Glass Studios - SWNS
Tiffany Glass Studios – SWNS

A pair of dirty windows bought on Facebook during a church demolition is set to sell for $225,000.

Antiques hunter Paul Brown from Pennsylvania paid around five grand for a bundle of various items from St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church in West Philadelphia.

They included these stained glass windows which were discovered to be made by the noted company Tiffany Glass Studios, (1878 – 1933) founded by Louis Comfort Tiffany.

Philadelphia-based auctioneers Freeman’s say the sale marks the first time a Tiffany Studios rose window has ever been offered at auction.

“This is such a rare and exciting market appearance,” said Tim Andreadis, Head of Freeman’s 20th Century and Contemporary Design department. “The intricacy of these works is stunning, and it’s meaningful to bring to market pieces that have such a deep, meaningful history in Philadelphia.”

Freeman’s explains that the twin roses of St. Paul were likely commissioned around 1904, completed in 1906, and supported in part by master merchant John Wanamaker, owner of the eponymous Philadelphia department store.

“The resulting windows feature leaded, mottled, streaky, acid-etched, and ripple glass in vibrant hues,” they add. These were all various forms of glass sold at Tiffany which made them one of the most coveted stained glass designers in North America.

From left to right, Dawn and Autumn panels by Tiffany Studios in the Brooklyn Museum, and The Angel of the Resurrection in the First Presbyterian Church, Indianapolis. credit CC 3.0. Sailko – CC 2.5 Opal Art Seekers

Brown saw the windows on Facebook Marketplace, and bought them along with wooden pews and doors. He then hired workers to sensitively extract the windows and, after confirming they were made by Tiffany Studios, reportedly paid $44,000 for restoration.

Created by what Freeman’s describes as “America’s skillful and most famous art glass designer”, the roses of St. Paul not only respond to the effects of the sun throughout the day, they also feature powerful symbolic imagery: one rose is centered by a crown representing Christ, and the other a dove representing the Holy Spirit.

SHARE This Stunning Art Saved From Destruction On Social Media…

1...282283284...1,718Page 283 of 1,718
© Copyright 1997–2026 GNN, LLC