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All His Training Pays Off: Slackliner Wins Carnegie Medal for Ski Lift Rescue Over Cables

By
Andy Corbley
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Wilson in the act of rescue - Carnegie Hero Fund
Wilson in the act of rescue – Carnegie Hero Fund

Up on the Colorado ski slopes in 2017, a man was suspended from a chairlift by the strap of his backpack coiled around his neck. Nearby, professional slackliner and ski instructor Mickey Wilson knew that there was no one better trained to affect a rescue than he.

For those outside of the know, slacklining is a fun activity similar to tightrope walking in which people practice balance, nerve, and coordination by walking and doing tricks on a single line of nylon strapping that has a lot of bounce.

Normally done between trees with soft grass or sand underneath, professional slackliners will fasten their strap over bodies of water or canyons, with dozens, even hundreds of feet of empty space below them.

It wasn’t a nylon slackline, but the cables on which the chairlifts were mounted may as well have been a sidewalk for Wilson, who despite having a broken hand at the time, won the Carnegie Hero Medal for climbing up one of the lift towers, shimmying 30 feet along the cable, and the adjacent chairlift where Richard Rattenbury was stuck.

Once there, he couldn’t find any way to unlatch the backpack that had already choked Rattenbury out of consciousness. Below them, Hans Meuller and another comrade had tried standing on each other’s shoulders to reach their pal, but couldn’t manage it.

“It’s the scariest thing I’ve ever seen—the most helpless I’ve ever felt—being two feet away from one of my best friends—my best man—[and] watch him lose consciousness,” Meuller told CBS News Colorado.

“I can climb up that tower,” said Wilson confidantly, recounting how he calculated his approach to saving the man. “The first thing that went through my hand was ‘thank God I’m a slackliner and a good slackliner.'”

OTHER SKI RESCUES: Dramatic Moment Skier Rescued a Snowboarder Who Was Buried Head First in Snow and Running Out of Air (Watch)

Hard part done, the backpack was so far extended under the chairlift that Wilson couldn’t even reach it. That’s when a ski patrol tossed him a knife which he caught first time (wearing ski gloves? who knows) and cut the man free, who was rushed to the hospital and made a full recovery.

The Carnegie Medal is awarded to civilians who put their lives in danger in attempt to save another. Wilson was recently announced as the winner among other heroes, despite his rescue taking place 6 years ago.

The moral of the story? Get your children into slacklining

WATCH the story below from CBS News CO… *Note to Those Outside the U.S: View video at CBS.com…

CELEBRATE This Man’s Heroism With Any Slackliners You Know…

Simple Urine Test Could Detect a Deadly Brain Tumor that Can Kill Within 12 Months

By
Andy Corbley
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Zinc Oxide zanowire - Nagoya University via SWNS
Zinc Oxide nanowire – Nagoya University via SWNS

Glioma tumors in the brain have a survival rate of 12-18 months when advanced, but now, a simple urine test which could be administered in routine check-ups can detect the cancer even in its earliest stages.

The inventors believe the same technique could be used to spot early signs of other hard-to-detect cancers as well.

Brain cancers are often detected late and so are difficult to remove using surgery. Most sufferers aren’t aware of a glioma—a brain tumor, until they get symptoms such as paralysis of the limbs.

But now, researchers have found a way of capturing cancer DNA using nanowires in urine which will give patients vital extra time.

Led by a team at Japan’s Nagoya University, scientists were able to successfully detect IDH1 mutation, a characteristic genetic mutation of gliomas.

The team, whose findings are published in the journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics,
suggest their invention could be used in routine physicals to catch early signs of the disease.

“The detection of these cells as a non-invasive way to check for cancer has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for cancer screening, diagnosis, prognosis, and monitoring of cancer progression and treatment response,” said Professor Takao Yasui, a member of the research group.

The test works because brain tumors release small DNA particles as they grow and although much is cleaned up by the body, excess particles are excreted in urine.

“However, a major bottleneck is the lack of techniques to isolate these particles, known as cfDNA efficiently from urine, as the excreted cfDNA may be short, fragmented, and low concentration,” details Yasui.

The team came up with a solution in the form of a catch-and-release method on zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowire surfaces to capture cfDNA and extracellular vesicles from gliomas.

MORE BREAKTHROUGHS FROM JAPAN: World’s First ‘Tooth Regrowth’ Medicine Moves Toward Clinical Trials in Japan

ZnO was chosen because water molecules adsorb on the surface of ZnO nanowires. These water molecules then form hydrogen bonds with any cfDNA in the urine sample.

The bonded cfDNA can then be washed out, allowing researchers to isolate trace amounts of it in a sample.

WE’RE KILLING IT WITH NEW CANCER TESTS: New Prostate Cancer Test Makes Diagnosis from Urine in 20 Minutes With Near 100% Accuracy, Researchers Say

“Our technique was a resounding success,” said Yasui. “We succeeded in isolating urinary cfDNA, which was exceptionally difficult with conventional methods.”

“Although we tested gliomas, this method opens new possibilities for the detection of tumor mutations. If we know the type of mutation to look for, we can easily apply our technique to detect other types of tumors, especially the detection of those that cannot be isolated by conventional methods.”

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“I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives… and to see a man live so that his place is proud of him.” – Abraham Lincoln

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives… and to see a man live so that his place is proud of him.” – Abraham Lincoln

Photo by: Raul De Los Santos

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?

Water Cremation May be the Ultimate Low-Carbon End-of-Life Option, But What is it?

By
Andy Corbley
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Karl Fredrickson - Unsplash
Karl Fredrickson – Unsplash

In the UK, the nation’s largest end-of-life service provider is now going to add “resomation” or water cremation, to its offerings.

Perhaps the most eco-friendly funeral procedure beyond just illegally burying someone in a forest somewhere, resomation has a lot of work to do in terms of gettings its name out there.

Resomation, also known as alkaline hydrolysis, neatly deconstructs a human body all the way down to a skeleton in just 4 hours using an alkaline solution. After that, the bones are ground into a powder and placed in an urn for the family.

It’s the method that anti-apartheid hero Archbishop Desmond Tutu chose after he passed away in 2021. It uses 5 times less energy than a fire cremation.

The UK’s biggest funeral provider, Co-op Funeralcare, has announced that it will introduce the practice later this year following last year’s approval by regulators.

“[We] will be providing people with another option for how they leave this world because this natural process uses water, not fire, making it gentler on the body and kinder on the environment,” Julian Atkinson, director of resomation company Kindly Earth, told Euro News. 

For those who care, Euro News claimed in their write-up of the new resomation service that 245 kilograms of CO2 and equivalents are released for every fire cremation. They also cited polling data that showed 89% of UK adults had never heard of water cremation before.

A resomator machine that facilitates a water cremation – Co-op Funeralcare

GNN has stayed abreast of alternative end-of-life options for several years, reporting on green funeral industry developments as they come. Chemically-treated bodies laid to rest in a chemically-treated wood coffin inside a concrete-lined burial vault isn’t a particularly green process either, and this Dutch entrepreneur is replacing at least the second part with a coffin made of fungal mycelium.

It takes as little as two to three years for the mushroom coffin to completely turn a deceased into nutrients for the soil and the Earth—the ultimate in eco-friendly end-of-life options.

In America, where a double grave plot in a cemetery could cost a family more than their house, a company called Better Place Forests is selling trees like gravestones in memorial forest preserves, with the proceeds from the business going towards protecting these forests for all time—literally, since US law states that once land is declared a cemetery, it can never become anything else.

They protect forests in Connecticut, Massachusetts, California, Arizona, Minnesota, and soon Illinois. These preserves feature heritage sugar maple stands, California redwoods, quaking aspen colonies, and views out across the Pacific or the Twin Lakes, and every tree is treated like a gravesite with exclusive ash-scattering rites, allowing families to visit the final resting place of their loved ones.

In 2019, GNN reported that Washington state became the first in the nation to allow human composting, and in 2016, GNN interviewed the “Green Reaper” who was among the first entrepreneurs in the country to offer eco-friendly mortuary services through her company Cornerstone Funeral Services.

All these have to do with the Earth, or fire in the case of traditional cremation, but there have always been human beings who feel an inseparable connection with water, and resomation offers them that connection and the peace of mind to their loved ones that their passions were observed even after they were gone.

SHARE This Eco-Friendly Funeral Checklist With Your  Friends… 

Paris Olympics Gets 11,000 Stadium Seats Made of Recycled City Plastic

By
Andy Corbley
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The aquatics center of Paris 2024 in Seine-Saint-Denis (Fair Use)

Spectators of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris will be watching the aquatic events from seats made of plastic collected in recycling bins from around the area.

In fact, 80% of the 100 metric tons of plastic needed to make the seats came from a single neighborhood—which is also where it’s being processed into new material by a firm called Le Pavé.

“It’s collected in Seine-Saint-Denis, shredded in Seine-Saint-Denis, processed in Seine-Saint-Denis, all for a swimming pool that’s still in the area,” Augustin Jaclin, co-founder of Lemon Tri, the company which collects the recycling, told Euro News. 

Numerous tests have been carried out on the chairs, which include UV resistance, fire resistance, and toxicity, but also mechanical resistance tests to see how well they remain anchored to the floor under persistent attempts to rip them off of it—perhaps by a drunken angry spectator.

Marius Hamelot, co-founder of Le Pavé, said that in the lead-up to the Olympics, manufacturers have been encountering problems getting a hold of new plastics, so they switched to using waste streams. One rich vein in particular was soda bottle tops, of which 5 million were shredded by various companies looking to produce infrastructure like seating for the games.

“It’s a huge communication tool,” says Augustin. “When we tell children to come and put your bottles in the bins, tomorrow they’ll be in the seats of the Olympic swimming pool, it raises awareness [of waste recycling].”

MORE NEWS FROM FRANCE: World’s First Non-Polluting Ferry Sets Sail From Marseille, France

Paris, and France at large, have set ambitious targets of sustainability for the games, hoping to reduce downstream emissions by half compared to the 2012 and 2016 games.

But their approach isn’t only about carbon, they’re also trying to advocate against general environmental degradation with a flagship effort to make the Seine swimmable for the first time in many decades so as to host the triathlon there.

As GNN reported earlier this year, the Seine was well on its way to being ecologically dead in the mid-2010s, and despite being immortalized in song, poetry, and art, the river had an unappealing green-brown color—typical of the waste it was subjected to.

MORE CLEVER RECYCLING: This Greek Island Replaced its Landfill with Recycling Plant That Now Reduces Waste by 85%

Tests from August and July of last year have found the water quality “overwhelmingly good,” making Parisians realize that for the first time in most or perhaps all of their lives, they can swim in their own river again.

SHARE This Great Example Of A Circular Economy With Social Media… 

Woman Who Lost Eye As Baby Wears Glitter Eyeballs to Own Her Difference

By
Andy Corbley
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Rachel Mayta - via SWNS
Rachel Mayta – via SWNS

Rachel Mayta was just 18 months old when her doctor spotted a white glow in her eye which led to her retinoblastoma diagnosis, or cancer of the eye.

The cancer was so advanced doctors made the choice to remove her eye in a two-hour operation, but far from donning an eyepatch and feeling sorry for herself, she filled a prosthetic eye with glitter to create an unforgettable persona, and now helps others “own” their difference.

Rachel grew up without any concern for the missing eye, but after surgery in her 20s made the prosthetic eye more apparent, she began to lose her confidence a little. As an eventual remedy, she began to look for fun or creative prosthetics, rather like a quirky piece of jewelry, to transform her disability into a bit of “bling.”

“They are full bling,” said Rachel from Portland, Oregon of her more than 20 fake eyes. “I just get to focus on being me rather than looking normal.”

One day, Rachel, who hadn’t thought to wear glittery or glow-in-the-dark eyeballs, met a little girl who also had been diagnosed with retinoblastoma.

“I knew I never wanted her to feel the way I was feeling about myself; I thought—‘why am I allowing myself to feel that way?’” she said.

OTHER STORIES OF OVERCOMING: Overcoming Doubt, 14-Year-old Who Made Jaw-Dropping Prom Dress for Older Sister Now Flooded With Requests

That’s when she got the idea to find someone who would make her a gold eye—instead of a regular-looking prosthetic, since there was no movement in her eye anyway and it was always quickly noticed to be a fake.

Rachel Mayta / SWNS

“I had a gold crystal one and one with holographic mirrors,” she said. “I had a brand new one made for my bachelorette party that looks like a turquoise stone.”

Rachel set up a Facebook group called ‘One-eyed and Wonderful’ and began connecting with others who had one eye like her, as well as hosting fundraisers to buy fun fake eyes for people who want them.

She also helps raise awareness for retinoblastoma in children and helps educate people on the early signs of the disease.

MORE POWERFUL PROSTHETICS: World’s First 3D-Printed Eye Offers Digital Prosthetics

She set up the fun eye fund with her ocularist Christina King and between them have helped fund 43 eyes.

“For every $500 raised we get one prosthetic made,” she says. “I want others to see they are not alone, and it is something to be proud of. Own the fact you are different.”

SHARE This Empowering Story Of Turning The Tables On A Disability… 

NASA Celebrates ‘One Year of Science’ From Webb Telescope with Jaw-Dropping Image

By
Andy Corbley
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Rho Ophiuichi - Credits NASA ESA CSA STScI Klaus Pontoppidan STScI
Rho Ophiuichi – Credits NASA ESA CSA STScI Klaus Pontoppidan STScI

It’s been a long and successful year for the James Webb Space Telescope, and to mark the anniversary of its entry into service, NASA has shown off Webb’s vibrant picture of a small star-forming region in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex.

“From our cosmic backyard in the solar system to distant galaxies near the dawn of time, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has delivered on its promise of revealing the universe like never before in its first year of science operations,” NASA stated.

The first-anniversary image displays star birth “like it’s never been seen before,” full of detailed, impressionistic texture. The subject is the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, the closest star-forming region to Earth.

“It is a relatively small, quiet stellar nursery, but you’d never know it from Webb’s chaotic close-up,” boast NASA. “Jets bursting from young stars crisscross the image, impacting the surrounding interstellar gas and lighting up molecular hydrogen, shown in red. Some stars display the telltale shadow of a circumstellar disk, the makings of future planetary systems.”

Two critical differences single out the JWST as such a remarkable machine: the first is that it sees into infrared light—a spectrum which the human eye cannot see, and the second is that it orbits the second LaGrange Point a million miles from Earth, removing any light pollution of our world from diluting its imagery.

It’s made some important discoveries and snapped some incredible photographs. From our own solar system, Webb has clarified details on Jupiter, such as the planet’s minuscule rings, as well as the Jovian aurorae, on Neptune where the telescope was able to clearly image the planet’s rings and moons together for the first time, and from Saturn where it was able to gather exquisite data on the effect of methane clouds in Saturn’s atmosphere.

Webb has also been studying Saturn’s moons and managed to record a plume of water erupting from the surface of the ocean world Enceladus that was 6,000 miles long.

Outside the solar system, the JWST has taken amazing photos of the oldest galaxies ever found, created just 500 million years after the Big Bang, of an exploding star in the constellation Cassiopeia, and also lent a hand to a European effort to study X-ray light in the universe with a 4-panel mosaic of technological artwork. 

MORE ASTRONOMY NEWS: Scientists Discover Time Moving 5x Slower After Big Bang–Exactly as Einstein Predicted

“In just one year, the James Webb Space Telescope has transformed humanity’s view of the cosmos, peering into dust clouds and seeing light from faraway corners of the universe for the very first time,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “Every new image is a new discovery, empowering scientists around the globe to ask and answer questions they once could never dream of.”

“Thousands of engineers, scientists, and leaders poured their life’s passion into this mission, and their efforts will continue to improve our understanding of the origins of the universe—and our place in it.”

SHARE This Beautiful Cosmic Milestone With Your Friends… 

“Our knowledge is a little island in a great ocean of nonknowledge.” – Isaac Bashevis Singer

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “Our knowledge is a little island in a great ocean of nonknowledge.” – Isaac Bashevis Singer

Photo by: Venti Views

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?

This Monkey Was Already Endangered When Discovered in 2003–but is Now on the Up and Up

By
Andy Corbley
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Kipunji monkey © Tim Davenport / WCS
Kipunji monkey © Tim Davenport / WCS

Discovering a whole new species is an exciting moment for scientists; when they determined it was Critically-Endangered it probably induced the opposite reaction.

The kipunji was only identified in 2003 living on the slopes and forests of Mt. Rungwe and Livingstone Mountains within Kitulo National Park in Tanzania, after locals gave scientists the news that there were monkeys there.

Twenty years later and this monkey of gentle visage has been the beneficiary of ‘holistic’ conservation undertaken by the talented scientists at the Wildlife Conservation Society. By “sandwiching” hard science on top of protected area management and local community outreach, the kipunji monkey population has increased 65% from when it was first discovered by Westerners.

“Our new survey in 2020—just published in the International Journal of Primatology—shows… illegal activities have fallen in Mount Rungwe and Livingstone/Kitulo forests by 81%, with a total reduction in illegal timber activity of 90%,” writes Tim Davenport on the WCS blog.

Mongabay recounts that the southern highlands of Tanzania were poorly charted or surveyed before WCS began working there in 1999. Lacking the big game of the Serengeti, it had been ignored by Western scientists.

However the biodiversity is outstanding, and several species have been named after Mount Rungwe, including the kipunji which was characterized as one of the 25 most-endangered primates on Earth.

Ranging from black to a multi-coloration like karst rock, the monkeys aren’t very large. They have small black faces and large triangular crests of hair like a pompadour.

MORE CONSERVATION SUCCESS: Jaguars in Mexico are Growing in Number, a Promising Sign That Conservation Strategies are Working

There are “good reasons to be optimistic” about the kipunji, as the Tanzanian government quickly established nature reserves in all the areas of the kipunji’s habit that weren’t already protected, and the WCS built up long-term monitoring programs to ensure any change, positive or negative, is noticed.

As is often the case now in Africa, locals are being incentivized away from cutting down trees for charcoal with beekeeping. Beekeeping is becoming an excellent way for rural communities to earn a living that doesn’t involve poaching or deforestation.

Without the need to sell firewood, lumber, and charcoal for money, locals can leave much more of the forest alone.

MORE MONKEY BUSINESS: World’s Most Endangered Primate Population Triples After 17 Years of Careful Conservation

“You’re permanently looking for the end game. And there are now opportunities, there are people doing tourism, both the Tanzania Forestry Service [and] Tanzania National Parks is doing good stuff,” Davenport told Mongabay.

“It’s not perfect by any means. There are still pressures, there are still, just as anywhere in the world, illegal activities. There is still poverty around the edge. But it’s in a considerably better place than it used to be.”

SHARE The Good News About This Little Mountaineer With Your Friends… 

Man Finds Surprise of a Life in His Field: 700 Coins from Civil War ‘The Great Kentucky Hoard’

By
Andy Corbley
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The Great Kentucky Hoard / Numismatic Guaranty Co.
The Great Kentucky Hoard / Numismatic Guaranty Co.

A man in Kentucky recently found a buried cache of gold coins from the Civil War period rumored to be worth millions of dollars.

Consisting of nearly seven hundred $1, $10, and $20 gold dollars issued by the US Mint between 1840 and 1863, the discovery is being called the “Great Kentucky Hoard.”

“This is the most insane thing ever: Those are all $1 gold coins, $20 gold coins, $10 gold coins,” said the finder in a camera phone video.

Many wealthy Kentuckians are rumored to have buried large quantities of gold and silver in advance of the Civil War, and Ryan McNutt, a knowledgeable archaeologist with a specialty in conflict areas, suggests that since these gold coins were federally issued, it meant that the original owner might have been wary of being identified as a collaborator with the feds during a time when Kentucky was still neutral.

“Given the time period and the location in Kentucky, which was neutral at the time, it is entirely possible this was buried in advance of Confederate John Hunt Morgan’s June to July 1863 raid,” McNutt told LiveScience.

MORE USA TREASURE: Couple Discovers Buried Treasure Worth $52,000 in Their Backyard and Returns it All to the Owners

According to the Numismatic Guaranty Co. (NGC) which certified the hoard’s authenticity, the rarest items are the 1863-P $20 1-ounce gold liberty coins, which can go for 6-figures at auction. 18 were included in the hoard.

These were minted by the US Treasury after gold was discovered in California, and do not include the phrase “In God We Trust” which was added after the end of the Civil War.

WATCH what it looks like to find legit buried treasure… 

SHARE This Unbelievable Find With Your Friends… 

California Military Base is Being Transformed Into one of the Largest City Parks in the U.S.

By
Andy Corbley
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credit City of Irvine Great Park
credit City of Irvine Great Park

Construction of a massive municipal park—over 20 years in the making, is finally underway in the city of Irvine.

They say if California became its own country, it would have one of the world’s largest economies. The new Great Park of Irvine is a reflection of the always lofty ambitions of the state, and is expected to dwarf Central Park by more than 500 acres.

It was on May 23rd this year that the “Great Park Project” broke ground on the long-derelict El Toro Marine Corps Base, 21 years after voters approved a ballot measure ordering the state to create a park on the site.

Expected to take another 10 years to complete, the park will span 1,300 acres and include several museums, an amphitheater, a veterans memorial garden, an aquatics center, a sports complex, and not one but two lakes.

“After many years of community input and after the last year of intensive planning and design, we are excited to be launching what is a $1 billion investment to establish the world’s next great metropolitan park,” said Irvine City Councilman Michael Carroll who serves as Chairman of the Great Park Board.

$455 million was raised for the project through 30-year municipal bonds that will pay off $1 billion to investors and comes after repeat failures from past governments to find money and time to kick start the work.

OTHER BIG PARK PLANS: Abandoned Airport Turned into Sensory Experience Park Providing Green Refuge in Crowded Taiwan City

Irvine professionals from SWA Group and Kellenberg Studios will be in charge of the transformation.

MORE NEWS FROM CALI: Utah and California Snowpacks Break All Previous Records–Will Completely Alleviate Droughts

First item of work on the agenda is to demolish and clear away 77 old military buildings while leaving the El Toro air traffic control tower which will be leased by the FAA. However a portion of the Irvine Great Park, as it’s being called, is already open to visitors and includes a soccer pitch and some other amenities including tethered balloon to take visitors up into the sky.

SHARE This Long-Awaited Municipal Transformation With Your Friends… 

Editor’s note: The headline here has been altered to reflect its size. 

The World’s Largest 3D Printed Building is a Horse Barn That Can Endure Florida Hurricanes

By
Andy Corbley
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COBOD via SWNS
COBOD via SWNS

The world’s largest 3D-printed building has been completed by Florida-based Printed Farms—a luxury horse barn spanning 10,100 sq. feet, which they claim is almost 50% larger than the previous record-holder in the Middle East.

The firm used the COBOD BOD2 construction 3D printer to create the structure in Wellington in Southern Florida.

The building has been constructed to endure the extreme weather challenges of the hurricane-prone, horse-loving region, with a “focus on structural integrity and occupant safety.”

“The versatility and benefits of 3D printing technology are also demonstrated through the structure’s 3D printed walls that create a cavity and air gap which provides natural cooling to the building,” COBOD said in a statement.

The building is 155 feet and 83 feet wide. The build process involved five repositionings of the printer, with the two sides completed twice and the middle section executed once.

COBOD printers have now created the world’s tallest 3D-printed building (33 feet) the world’s fastest (3 buildings in 8 days in Oman), and now the world’s largest 3D-printed building.

“Printed Farms has done a remarkable job in completing this massive structure and the project demonstrates again how 3D printing is transforming the construction industry for the better,” said Philip Lund-Nielsen, COBOD Co-founder and Head of Americas.

MORE 3D-PRINTED NEWS: First 2-Story Home to be 3D Printed in the U.S. Reaches for the Sky in Texas

“We are especially proud to observe our 3D printers being utilized for a broad range of applications besides housing, which is the industry’s predominant use case.”

“Our machines dominate this space already, but are in addition also used to print turbine bases, schools, office buildings, data centers, silos, and… [now] horse barns are added to the list.”

WATCH the printing below…

SHARE This World Record Print With Your Friends… 

“Freedom means the opportunity to be what we never thought we would be.” – Daniel J. Boorstin

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “Freedom means the opportunity to be what we never thought we would be.” – Daniel J. Boorstin

Photo by: Sofia / insvezia

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?

Driver Stops Train to Rescue Frightened Pug Before a ‘Massive’ Tearful Reunion with Owners

By
Andy Corbley
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credit - Michael Jones
credit – Michael Jones

A freight train driver took a break from his work in the locomotive to play the part of rescuer for a little lost pug which had run away from her owners the night before.

Poppy the pug had become frightened by a speeding car in Rutland, UK, and 60-year-old owners Dawn and Ian Bain had been out searching for her all night long.

At twenty-past eight the next morning, Michael Jones was nearing Langham Crossing in his freight train when he described seeing a “flash of red” from Poppy’s harness disappear into the bushes near the level crossing.

“All of a sudden there was just this tiny little face just looking back at me,” Jones told the BBC. “She was trembling and looking down at the ground.”

He stopped the train and lept out of the cabin to collect the tiny dog who was happy to see a friendly face. Inside the locomotive, he called ahead to the next crossing at a town called Oakham that he had found a lost dog, and then turned his attention to feeding the little pug crumpets and water.

At that same moment, Mrs. Bain arrived at the Oakham crossing to ask the employee there if any dog had been reported on the tracks that morning, to which the worker in the box replied that not only had one been found, but that it was on its way to them at that very moment.

MORE NEWS FROM ACROSS THE TRACKS: Hero Conductor Stops Train to Rescue 3-Year-Old Boy Lost on the Tracks (Video)

“My heart—it didn’t know whether to sing or stop,” said Mrs. Bain, still in her nightgown from the previous 12 hours of searching. “In comes this train with this beautiful man on, with Poppy sat on his knee. I cried, massively, and he cried.”

Poppy was totally unharmed from her ordeal, and is recovering from the shock of it all at home with her companion Tinker.

MORE LOST ANIMAL HOMECOMINGS: A Lost Dog Treks 150 Miles Across Alaskan Sea Ice Before He’s Reunited with His Family

The belief amongst those involved was that if Jones had not been so observant early on a workday, she would never have been found because neither the Bains nor anyone else had thought to look for her around the tracks.

SHARE This Lucky Pug’s Close Call On Social Media… 

Mechanic Saved a Family’s Dream With Quick Fix for Wheelchair Malfunction in Aussie Outback

By
Andy Corbley
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Mick Scott and Cooper Greenwood - credit Kyrsten Greenwood
Mick Scott and Cooper Greenwood – credit Kyrsten Greenwood

A good, honest mechanic is worth as much as the car you bring in for him to service, and in a small country town of just under five-and-a-half thousand people, a local mechanic’s talent saved the day and gave a wheelchair-bound child the vacation of a lifetime.

9-year-old Cooper Greenwood from Sydney has Aicardi-Goutières Syndrome, a rare disease similar to cerebral palsy. His family was already enjoying an outback adventure around Northwest Australia’s Kimberly region in a motorhome when his electric wheelchair broke.

The chair allows Greenwood to move about with liberty—decide where he wants to go and what he wants to do, and without it, his mom says, he becomes very frustrated and depressed.

Cooper tries not to let his disability get in the way of living his life, and the wheelchair is a big part of that. However he was determined to carry on with the trip and began hitching a ride with his dad in a special backpack.

As the family was preparing for the next leg of their journey, they took to social media and asked if anyone in the small town of Kununurra, Western Australia, knew how to fix sophisticated electric wheelchairs. Someone responded that the Greenwoods should call Mick Scott.

“When they did bring it in, I sort of agreed to have a brief look at it and I’ve seen the size of the chair and I thought it must be for a really young fella,” Mr. Scott told ABC News Au.

GIVING A HELPING HAND: A Trip to Delaware Hardware Store Turns into Life-Changing Moment

Scott diagnosed the problem and even managed to find the part he needed and get it shipped via express post to Kununurra while the family went to the next stop on their trip around East Kimberly’s Mitchell Falls, where Cooper was able to go up in a helicopter for the first time.

The Greenwood family recently enjoyed a dream holiday in the East Kimberley – credit Kyrsten Greenwood

When they returned from camping, they discovered that Scott had the wheelchair ready to roll out, after which Cooper’s mom Kyrsten described him as an “absolute legend.”

MORE NEWS LIKE THIS: Mom Moved to Tears as Disabled Son Finally Gets to Play in the Sea Thanks to Beach Wheelchair –WATCH

“Just super, super happy to be able to get them sorted and I don’t know about legend status, mate—but, yeah, we try our best,” Mr. Scott replied.

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Netherlands to Return Nearly 500 Looted Objects to Indonesia and Sri Lanka

By
Andy Corbley
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The Cannon of Kandy - Rijksmuseum
The Cannon of Kandy – Rijksmuseum

Two museums in the Netherlands have decided to repatriate 472 artifacts to Sri Lanka and Indonesia which the museums claim were taken under duress or by looters.

The objects entered the nation during the Dutch East India Company’s near-monopoly in the trade between Europe and what were once called the Spice Islands, as well as the following colonial period.

In total, the repatriations include the ‘Lombok treasure’, consisting of 335 objects from Lombok in the Lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia, four statues from the Javan Hindu kingdom of Singasari, 132 objects of modern art from Bali, and from Sri Lanka—a cache of ceremonial weapons from the city-states of Kandy and others including a royal canon made of gold, silver, and rubies.

Dutch Secretary of State for Culture and Media Gunay Uslu announced the decision on Thursday after a 2020 report recommended that certain museum possessions be returned.

“This is a historic moment,” Uslu said in a press statement. “It’s the first time we’re following recommendations… to give back objects that should never have been brought to the Netherlands. But more than anything, it’s a moment to look to the future. We’re not only returning objects; we’re also embarking on a period of closer cooperation with Indonesia and Sri Lanka in areas like collection research, presentation, and exchanges between museums.”

The transfer of ownership to Indonesia took place at the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden on July 10th. The one for Sri Lanka will take place later this year.

Repatriation of artifacts taken from around the world during the colonial periods has become a hotter and hotter issue as former colonies become richer and more stable, and objects like the Benin Bronzes or the Kor-i-noor diamond often find their way into news headlines.

MORE ARTIFACT REPATRIATION: German Museums Work Year-Round to Find Rightful Heirs to Hundreds of Stolen Jewish Silver Pieces

Historic opponents of such repatriation have pointed to instability in countries they might have returned collections to, while others argue that Europe’s museums will lose important pieces that will cause them to close down whole gallery wings, depriving Europeans of the opportunity to learn about other cultures.

But others are more optimistic that it will actually lead to a greater understanding of the artifacts by cooperating with the descendants of the cultures which created them.

MORE NEWS LIKE THIS: Surviving the Nazis and Fire, 2000-Year-old Caligula Mosaic Finally Returns to Museum

“I expect countries of provenance and museums here in Europe will have a discussion about which objects will go back, and not all of them will be,” Valika Smeulders, head of the Rijksmuseum’s department of history told Art News.

“But what we will gain, all of us, is more knowledge about these objects, how they came into our possession, their background, what stories are we able to tell. So in the end we’ll have an enrichment of what we do instead of empty galleries.”

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Police Officer’s Free School Inside Delhi Slum is Helping Kids Escape Life on the Streets

By
Andy Corbley
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Officer Than Singh holds classes for low-income children in India / courtesy of Ki Pathshala
Officer Than Singh holds classes for low-income children in India / courtesy of Ki Pathshala

A Dehli police officer who managed to crawl his way out of the city slums as a child is now giving back to poor children who live the lifestyle of skipping school and working odd jobs.

With his free school, when class is in session in the parking lot of the famous Red Fort, Than Singh helps kids who’ve missed school catch up to their age bracket so they can be at the same level as their peers.

Born in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur, Singh grew up with two siblings on the streets of New Delhi, where he would sell corn and his father would iron clothes. But despite this day-to-day existence, Singh never forgot the importance of school.

His father wanted to be a police officer, but the weight of supporting the family never allowed him to properly prepare himself. Eventually though, Singh followed in his father’s footsteps, stayed in school, and passed the examination for the Delhi Police.

Going back to police the streets on which he was raised, Singh began to feel something had to be done to help children like him who had to work instead of study. He then started a one-of-a-kind school called Than Singh Ki Pathshala.

“I volunteered to teach these kids so that they are able to come a little par to their peers. For this, I started meeting the parents. Police are the only segment that go to people irrespective of their socio-economic status and get to understand their problems,” Constable Singh told The Better India. “After meeting their parents, I convinced them to not worry about kids and send them to our pathshala.”

He teaches 80 children aged 3 to 15 outside of the Red Fort from neighborhoods like Raj Ghat, Vijay Ghat, and Shantivan. Local battery-rickshaw drivers have volunteered to bring the children home from the school every day.

Than Singh – courtesy of Ki Pathshala

He gets everything through donations: books, lunches, uniforms, and other supplies.

MORE GREAT INDIAN NEWS: This Ultra-White Paint is Cooling the Homes Inside the Poorest of India’s Slums

“I want to give these children a good atmosphere because their parents go to work and there is a chance that they could wander on streets. This is why we continue to teach them after school. Also, when other children got to know that they can get admission after studying with us, more and more kids started coming,” said Singh.

Last year, 70 of Singh’s students were able to enroll in proper government schools, 10 of whom achieved the highest exam scores in their class.

MORE OFF-DUTY OFFICERS: Watch Married Police Officers Cut Short Their Date Night to Stop An Armed Robbery at Restaurant

“There is no other peace than working for these children. I could be the reason towards bringing a change in their lives with just a little support. What could have been better than this for me?” said Singh.

These image was originally published by The Better India. The Better India is the world’s largest solutions-based content-driven impact platform that uses the power of digital media and positive storytelling to showcase the journey of India’s most inspiring individuals and institutions. Visit www.thebetterindia.com to learn more.

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“Courage is knowing what not to fear.” – Plato

By
Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “Courage is knowing what not to fear.” – Plato

Photo by: NEOM (Hisma Desert in Saudi Arabia)

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?

24 Million Miles Ahead of Tesla, Autonomous Semi Truck Logs Accident-Free Milestone on Delivery Routes

By
Andy Corbley
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Inceptio - released
Inceptio – released

China’s leading developer of autonomous driving technologies for heavy-duty trucks, today announced it has powered more than 24.8 million miles (40 million km) of accident-free trucking on China’s highways.

Tesla has been promising shareholders full autonomous driving for its cars for years, but setbacks have been frequent. Founded by a Chinese engineer who studied in Australia, to say that the Inceptio Autonomous Driving System is miles ahead of America’s tech billionaire is a bit of an understatement.

This latest milestone underlines the safety and reliability of Inceptio’s full-stack autonomous driving solution, as well as its accelerating commercial uptake. Inceptio’s L3 autonomous trucks have been in commercial operation since late 2021.

Working closely with two of China’s top long-haul companies Dongfeng Commercial Vehicle and Sinotruk, Inceptio has shipped hundreds of mass-produced heavy-duty trucks designed from the ground up for full integration with the Inceptio Autonomous Driving System. Major customers, including Budweiser, Nestlé, JD Logistics, and Deppon Express have deployed Inceptio trucks across a nationwide line-haul logistics network in China.

“We are incredibly proud of the stellar performance record that Inceptio trucks have amassed over the past two years,” said Julian Ma, founder and CEO of Inceptio Technology. “Across 40 million kilometers of commercial operations, our Inceptio Autonomous Driving System has achieved a highly satisfactory on-time arrival rate for our customers with a perfect safety record.”

MORE BUSINESS NEWS: Sweden Is Trying to Build a Whole City Borough Out of Wood to ‘Show What is Possible’

“The Inceptio R&D team and the autonomous driving system itself are learning a tremendous amount from our fast-growing trove of operational data,” he added.

Innovation invariably leads to disruption in the market, which includes around 4 million long-haul truckers who perform the demanding job of driving massive vehicles on fast moving highways—sometimes a dozen hours per day.

In 2019, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration reported 5,005 fatal, 119,000 injurious, and 419,000 non-injurious traffic collisions involving large trucks (and buses) in the US (but the buses accounted for a significantly smaller fraction).

MORE GOOD AUTOMATION: Batteries 3D-Printed Using Layers of Powder Use 40% Less Material, Charge in Minutes and Recycle Easier

Automated trucking might not only increase safety, but would significantly reduce the costs of goods related to transport. Automated trucks can drive all night without suffering from white-line hypnosis or fatigue, and Inceptio’s algorithms optimize fuel consumption, reducing use by as much as 7% compared to human drivers, meaning they help reduce the industry impact on climate, as well as costs related to fuel.

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Scientists Discover Time Moving 5x Slower After Big Bang–Exactly as Einstein Predicted

By
Andy Corbley
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Artist's rendering of the accretion disc in ULAS J1120+0641 - Credit Kornmesser CC 4.0. SA
Artist’s rendering of the accretion disc in ULAS J1120+0641 – Credit Kornmesser CC 4.0. SA

Most of us know the framework of the Big Bang Theory—the universe began expanding outward from a single point after a large explosion, and as matter began to coalesce into larger and hotter structures, the universe began expanding at greater and greater speeds.

This would necessitate that in the earliest periods of the universe, this expansion was slower, and that since Einstein showed that time and space were connected, time too would be slower—exactly what was just discovered by astronomers Down Under.

In a groundbreaking paper published in Nature, Professor Geraint Lewis of Sydney University and Dr. Brendon Brewer at Auckland University used quasars as clocks to track the speed of time in the early universe—perhaps less than a billion years after the Big Bang.

Quasars are the universe’s most powerful known objects, and they showed that time moved 500% slower in the earliest chapter of the universe than it would today.

“Looking back to a time when the universe was just over a billion years old, we see time appearing to flow five times slower,” said Professor Lewis. “If you were there, in this infant universe, one second would seem like one second—but from our position, more than 12 billion years into the future, that early time appears to drag.”

Professor Geraint Lewis from the Sydney Institute for Astronomy in the School of Physics

Previous universe dating methods used supernovae explosions, but quasars are far more energetic, acting more like repeat fireworks displays than a single firecracker. These active galactic nuclei are powered by supermassive black holes billions of times larger than the sun surrounded by gargantuan accretion disks of hot gas. The energy they emit is beyond all metaphor.

MORE SCIENCE NEWS: Nature’s Famous Spiral is Coded into 400 Million Years of Plants–But Not in This New Fossil

Lewis explains that he and his team used spectroscopy to separate the light from the 200 or so quasars into green, red, and infrared, which allowed them to chart the lights’ path through space and time rather like the ticking of a clock.

“With these new data and analysis, however, we’ve been able to find the elusive tick of the quasars and they behave just as Einstein’s relativity predicts,” said Lewis.

MORE ASTROPHYSICS: Astronomers Spot Light From Behind a Black Hole for the First Time – Proving Einstein Right Again

It’s the third or fourth time in recent memory that a bold prediction of Einstein has been proven correct, demonstrating the superb intellect of a man who is getting more predictions right from his grave than some scientists do in the lab.

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