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Revolutionary Music Therapy Helps Paralyzed Man Walk and Talk Again – It ‘Unlocked the Brain’

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Ian Palmer with his music therapist, Clare – SWNS

A patient who was left almost completely paralyzed from a rare disease is now walking and talking again, after a music therapist prescribed mindful listening to his favorite song every night—in this case, a tune by The Carpenters.

71 year-old Ian Palmer was struck down with Guillain-Barré syndrome last June, forcing him to spend seven months in a hospital where he was unable to walk or speak properly. The rare condition happens when a person’s own immune system attacks their body’s motor nerves, causing muscle weakness and sometimes paralysis.

“It selectively targets the motor nerve cells and you have to wait for them to regenerate—which in your 70s is quite worrying!”

“I was in intensive care, being suctioned 24 hours a day, as I couldn’t swallow, and this was leading to choking problems, and I had a nasogastric tube fitted for over four months.”

Ian’s speech was affected by the syndrome because it caused damage to his larynx, the tunnel in the back of the throat where air passes through to create sounds.

But when Ian was transferred to Sue Ryder Neurological Care Centre, a state-of-the-art care unit in Lancashire, England, clinicians used music therapy techniques to overcome ‘near total paralysis of his body’.

His specialist, Clare, taught him mindfulness techniques using his favorite records—and he began listening to The Carpenters each night.

Ian Palmer with his music therapist, Clare – SWNS

Ian was admittedly skeptical, but he can now walk 2 miles a day (3k) and have conversations with his family after the exercises “opened up” his brain.

He’s never been very musical, so when Sue Ryder first suggested music therapy he said, ‘What good is that going to do?’

“I’m a typical Northern man, and I thought, ‘What’s a girl with a guitar going to do for me—get me to the gym.’”

“But it really worked. Clare sat me down and explained the process. I learned that music is very unlike other therapies, as it opens up all of the brain.”

She taught Ian to sing a long note using his diaphragm to assist.

“I told her, ‘I don’t even know where that is!’ But, she explained that by calling on the diaphragm, you’re training the brain so that it can use other muscles too.

“It learns the pathways and reopens them.”

CHECK OUT: The Lullaby Project Connects Mothers Behind Bars with Their Babies, Helping Them Write Original Lullabies

Clare also got Ian to practice mindfulness techniques, with some assistance from his favorite records.

“She wanted something I could relax to, and being of a certain age, The Carpenters was my choice. She asked me to do it before bed, and now I put The Carpenters on every night.

“She told me to push away the thoughts, and just focus on the music.

FUN: Older Gentleman Steals Dance Floor With Flawless Michael Jackson Moves: Age is Just a Number (WATCH)

Ian, who has since been discharged from the clinic, which also has locations around England and Scotland, said he was amazed at the difference music therapy had made to his experience.

“One of my goals was to walk through my front door. Now I can take my headphones and go for a walk doing my vocal exercises. There’s been such a positive impact.”

Using his diaphragm, he also learned how to breathe more effectively.

“My mum couldn’t understand me when she first came to visit. But now I’m confident that the music therapy I’ve received has more than dealt with it, and my voice has been able to join the rest of my body in recovering.”

POPULAR: Singing Bus Driver Becomes a Star After Making Music Video to Show Family in India What He Did for Work (WATCH)

And there might not have been a better a song choice than We’ve Only Just Begun…

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“The greatest gift to offer any situation, moment, or person is a positive state of heart and mind. That’s the possibility engine.” – William Sebrans

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Quote of the Day: “The greatest gift to offer any situation, moment, or person is a positive state of heart and mind. That’s the possibility engine.” – William Sebrans

Photo by: adrianna geo

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?

Chipotle is Giving Away Free Burrito Lunches to Healthcare Workers – Sign Up Today

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Chipotle
Chipotle

It’s time to celebrate American healthcare workers—and Chipotle is giving us an easy way to say thank you.

To mark National Nurses Week in early May, the Mexican restaurant chain announced more than $1 million in free lunches for healthcare professionals.

2,000 healthcare workers will win ‘Burrito Care Packages’ which come with 50 free entrées for their team. In total, they will feed 100,000 nurses and their colleagues.

Launched on April 27, healthcare workers in the US can sign up for the chance to win the Care Packages until the final day of Nurses Week, Friday, May 12. Learn more and sign-up at chipotle.com/healthcare-heroes.

No purchase is necessary, and the company will begin reaching out to the winners directly by May 19.

“Given the demands placed on the healthcare community every day, we know finding time to bond, celebrate, or even eat as a team can be challenging,” said Chris Brandt, Chief Marketing Officer. “The Burrito Care Packages offer a convenient opportunity for healthcare units to come together and share a delicious meal on us.”

LOOK: Heartwarming Photo Captures Man’s Gesture of Gratitude Towards the Nurses Who Saved His Wife’s Life

Round-Up Your Bill to Support Nurses

To support its 2023 campaign, Chipotle is making it easy for all customers to round-up their change to the next highest dollar amount (until May 12) to support the American Nurses Foundation, a charitable and philanthropic arm of the American Nurses Association.

Since the pandemic began, the brand has given away more than $4 million in free Chipotle to medical professionals.

SHARE the Free Lunches With EVERY Healthcare Worker You Know on Social Media…

Great-Grandma Gets 90th Birthday Wish to Ride a Harley Again, Courtesy of a Biker Gang

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Barbara Morris celebrates her 90th on the back of a Harley – SWNS
Barbara Morris celebrates her 90th on the back of a Harley – SWNS

A great-grandmother who is mad for motorcycles was granted her birthday wish to ride on the back of a Harley-Davidson – a call-back to her youth while celebrating turning 90.

Fearless Brit Barbara Morris said she “felt 21 again” during her spin around town on the powerful American cruising bike.

She mentioned to her family several years ago that if she made it to 90, she’d like to get back in the saddle one last time.

She was left stunned when her sons arrived recently at her nursing home with members of a local biker group. Though wearing a dress, she had no concerns about straddling the bike right there on the spot, before taking a trip with 13 other riders to a pub.

“I just felt the years melt away,” said the great-grandmother of six. “It was just an incredible experience to feel the wind blowing in my face again.”

Barbara got her first motorcycle license as a teen in the 1950s. She’s pictured below with her best friend Mac.

Barbara at 18 on the back of a bike in 1953 –SWNS

Her granddaughter Kirsty Harvey, 34, who helped organize the surprise for Barbara along with the local biker chapter of Widows Sons, said the inspiring senior had a ‘daredevil spirit’ and wasn’t fazed by anything.

“My uncle said to her ‘You always said if you made it to 90, you wanted to go on a Harley,’ and then she said, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe you remember that’.”

Barbara Morris with members of Widows Sons – SWNS

“She’s got nerves of steel, she’s not really afraid of anything. She’s kind of from that generation that was made of tough stuff. Nothing really fazes them.”

Barbara got her first bike, a Royal Enfield 350, when she was about 19, and used it to get around while in college. She quickly caught the bug for riding, which she then passed on to the rest of her family.

“She always had a little bike that she nipped about on. Her three sons later all had motorbikes and a keen interest in motorbike racing and groups.”

To ride on a powerful Harley-Davidson was made all the more special because she’d never been on one before.

WATCH: Older Gentleman Steals Dance Floor With Flawless Michael Jackson Moves: Age is Just a Number (WATCH)

Kirsty explained how they brought in the staff at the Ambleside Bank Residential Home in Manchester to organize the surprise. “They permed her hair and did her make-up, and got her dressed up nicely.”

SWNS

“She can’t see very well, so they had to take her right up to the bike, and when she realized what it was, her face was ‘just a picture’.

LOOK: 80-yo Woman Celebrates Doing a 5K Every Day Since Pandemic–1,000 in a Row!

“She thought it was just a nice bike to look at, and when we actually told her she was going on, she was a bit speechless. She couldn’t believe it.”

INSPIRE More Silver Shenanigans By Sharing With Seniors on Social Media…

Astronomers Solve the 60-Year Mystery of Quasars – the Most Powerful Objects in the Universe

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Quasar Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO and Mentes Astronomicas (CC license)
Quasar Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO and Mentes Astronomicas (CC license)

Scientists have unlocked one of the biggest mysteries of quasars – the brightest, most powerful objects in the Universe – by discovering that they are ignited by galaxies colliding.

First discovered 60 years ago, quasars can shine as brightly as a trillion stars packed into a volume the size of our Solar System. In the decades since they were first observed, it has remained a mystery what could trigger such powerful activity. New work led by scientists at the Universities of Sheffield and Hertfordshire has now revealed that it is a consequence of galaxies crashing together.

The collisions were discovered when researchers, using deep imaging observations from the Isaac Newton Telescope in La Palma, observed the presence of distorted structures in the outer regions of the galaxies that are home to quasars.

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Most galaxies have supermassive black holes at their centers. They also contain substantial amounts of gas—but most of the time this gas is orbiting at large distances from the galaxy centers, out of reach of the black holes.

Collisions between galaxies drive the gas towards the black hole at the galaxy centre; just before the gas is consumed by the black hole, it releases extraordinary amounts of energy in the form of radiation, resulting in the characteristic quasar brilliance.

The ignition of a quasar can have dramatic consequences for entire galaxies – it can drive the rest of the gas out of the galaxy, which prevents it from forming new stars for billions of years into the future.

This is the first time that a sample of quasars of this size has been imaged with this level of sensitivity. By comparing observations of 48 quasars and their host galaxies with images of over 100 non-quasar galaxies, researchers concluded that galaxies hosting quasars are approximately three times as likely to be interacting or colliding with other galaxies.

The study published this week in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society has provided a significant step forward in our understanding of how these powerful objects are triggered and fueled.

Professor Clive Tadhunter, from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, said: “Quasars are one of the most extreme phenomena in the Universe, and what we see is likely to represent the future of our own Milky Way galaxy when it collides with the Andromeda galaxy in about five billion years.

RELATED: Astronomers Observe 2 Neutron Stars Colliding and the Extreme Reaction ‘Defies All Expectations’

“It’s exciting to observe these events and finally understand why they occur – but thankfully Earth won’t be anywhere near one of these apocalyptic episodes for quite some time.”

Quasars are important to astrophysicists because, due to their brightness, they stand out at large distances and therefore act as beacons to the earliest epochs in the history of the Universe. Dr Jonny Pierce, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Hertfordshire, explains:

“It’s an area that scientists around the world are keen to learn more about – one of the main scientific motivations for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope was to study the earliest galaxies in the Universe, and Webb is capable of detecting light from even the most distant quasars, emitted nearly 13 billion years ago.

CHECK OUT: Ringed Planet That Defies Known Physics Discovered in Outer Reaches of Our Solar System

“Quasars play a key role in our understanding of the history of the Universe, and possibly also the future of the Milky Way”.

(Source: University of Sheffield)

UNCOVER the Mystery for Your Friends By Sending This on a Collision With Social Media…

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

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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 April 29, 2023
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
After the fall of the Roman Empire, political cohesion in its old territories was scarce for hundreds of years. Then a leader named Charlemagne (747–814) came along and united much of what we now call Western Europe. He was unusual in many respects. For example, he sought to master the arts of reading and writing. Most other rulers of his time regarded those as paltry skills that were beneath their dignity. I mention this fact, Taurus, because I suspect it’s a propitious time to consider learning things you have previously regarded as unnecessary or irrelevant or outside your purview. What might these abilities be?

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
I’m turning this horoscope over to Nigerian poet Ijeoma Umebinyuo. She has three messages that are just what you need to hear right now. 1. “Start now. Start where you are. Start with fear. Start with pain. Start with doubt. Start with hands shaking. Start with voice trembling but start. Start and don’t stop. Start where you are, with what you have.” 2. “You must let the pain visit. You must allow it to teach you. But you must not allow it to overstay.” 3. “Write a poem for your 14-year-old self. Forgive her. Heal her. Free her.”

CANCER (June 21-July 22):
Historical records tell us that Chinese Emperor Hungwu (1328–1398) periodically dealt with overwhelming amounts of decision-making. During one ten-day phase of his reign, for example, he was called on to approve 1,660 documents concerning 3,391 separate issues. Based on my interpretation of the planetary omens, I suspect you may soon be called on to deal with a similar outpouring. This might tempt you toward over-stressed reactions like irritation and self-medication. But I hope you’ll strive to handle it all with dignity and grace. In fact, that’s what I predict you will do. In my estimation, you will be able to summon the extra poise and patience to manage the intensity.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Is it even possible for us humans to live without fear—if even for short grace periods? Could you or I or anyone else somehow manage to celebrate, say, 72 hours of freedom from all worries and anxieties and trepidations? I suspect the answer is no. We may aspire to declare our independence from dread, but 200,000 years of evolution ensures that our brains are hard-wired to be ever-alert for danger. Having provided that perspective, however, I will speculate that if anyone could approach a state of utter dauntlessness, it will be you Leos in the next three weeks. This may be as close as you will ever come to an extended phase of bold, plucky audacity.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
“Dear Sunny Bright Cheery Upbeat Astrologer: You give us too many sunny, bright, cheery, upbeat predictions. They lift my mood when I first read them, but later I’m like, “What the hell?” Because yeah, they come true, but they usually cause some complications I didn’t foresee. Maybe you should try offering predictions that bum me out, since then I won’t have to deal with making such big adjustments. —Virgo Who is Weary of Rosy Hopeful Chirpy Horoscopes.” Dear Virgo: You have alluded to a key truth about reality: Good changes often require as much modification and adaptation as challenging changes. Another truth: One of my specialties is helping my readers manage those good changes. And by the way: I predict the next two weeks will deliver a wealth of interesting and buoyant changes.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
Poet Pablo Neruda wrote, “Let us look for secret things somewhere in the world on the blue shores of silence.” That might serve as a good motto for you in the coming weeks. By my astrological reckoning, you’ll be wise to go in quest for what’s secret, concealed, and buried. You will generate fortuitous karma by smoking out hidden agendas and investigating the rest of the story beneath the apparent story. Be politely pushy, Libra. Charmingly but aggressively find the missing information and the shrouded rationales. Dig as deep as you need to go to explore the truth’s roots.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
We’ve all done things that make perfect sense to us, though they might look nonsensical or inexplicable to an outside observer. Keep this fact in your awareness during the next two weeks, Scorpio. Just as you wouldn’t want to be judged by uninformed people who don’t know the context of your actions, you should extend this same courtesy to others, especially now. At least some of what may appear nonsensical or inexplicable will be serving a valuable purpose. Be slow to judge. Be inclined to offer the benefit of the doubt.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
I completely understand if you feel some outrage about the lack of passion and excellence you see in the world around you. You have a right to be impatient with the laziness and carelessness of others. But I hope you will find ways to express your disapproval constructively. The best approach will be to keep criticism to a minimum and instead focus on generating improvements. For the sake of your mental health, I suggest you transmute your anger into creativity. You now have an enhanced power to reshape the environments and situations you are part of so they work better for everyone.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
In the 17th century, renowned Capricorn church leader James Ussher announced he had discovered when the world had been created. It was at 6 pm on October 22 in the year 4004 BCE. From this spectacularly wrong extrapolation, we might conclude that not all Capricorns are paragons of logic and sound analysis 100 percent of the time. I say we regard this as a liberating thought for you in the coming weeks. According to my analysis, it will be a favorable time to indulge in wild dreams, outlandish fantasies, and imaginative speculations. Have fun, dear Capricorn, as you wander out in the places that singer Tom Petty referred to as “The Great Wide Open.”

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
We often evaluate prospects quantitatively: how big a portion do we get, how much does something cost, how many social media friends can we add? Quantity does matter in some cases, but on other occasions may be trumped by quality. A few close, trustworthy friends may matter more than hundreds of Instagram friends we barely know. A potential house may be spacious and affordable, but be in a location we wouldn’t enjoy living in. Your project in the coming weeks, Aquarius, is to examine areas of your life that you evaluate quantitatively and determine whether there are qualitative aspects neglected in your calculations.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
“Dear Dr. Astrology: Help! I want to know which way to go. Should I do the good thing or the right thing? Should I be kind and sympathetic at the risk of ignoring my selfish needs? Or should I be a pushy stickler for what’s fair and true, even if I look like a preachy grouch? Why is it so arduous to have integrity? —Pinched Pisces.” Dear Pisces: Can you figure out how to be half-good and half-right? Half-self-interested and half-generous? I suspect that will generate the most gracious, constructive results.

ARIES (March 21-April 19):
According to a study by Newsweek magazine, 58 percent of us yearn to experience spiritual growth; 33 percent report having had a mystical or spiritual experience; 20 percent of us say we have had a revelation from God in the last year; and 13 percent have been in the presence of an angel. Given the astrological omens currently in play for you Aries, I suspect you will exceed all those percentages in the coming weeks. I hope you will make excellent use of your sacred encounters. What two areas of your life could most benefit from a dose of divine assistance or intervention? There’s never been a better time than now to seek a Deus ex machina (a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly or abruptly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence).
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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)

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“Start with pain. Start with doubt. Start with hands shaking… but start.” – Ijeoma Umebinyuo

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Quote of the Day: “Start with pain. Start with doubt. Start with hands shaking… but start.” – Ijeoma Umebinyuo

Photo by: Nighthawk Shoots

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?

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

By
Andy Corbley
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credit - Cenydd Owen
credit – Cenydd Owen

In an absolutely jaw-dropping change of fortune, a Welshwoman with late-stage renal failure met a kidney donor on the beach who happened to be a perfect match.

44-year-old Lucy Humphrey from Caerphilly has lived her whole adult life with lupus, but it was in 2017 that she heard from her doctors that if she couldn’t find a new kidney in 5-year’s time, there was a chance she would die.

Requiring kidney dialysis, Humphrey and her partner Cenydd Owen had to cancel their campervan holiday, and so decided to drive it instead to the beach to have a barbeque.

While they were there, one of their two Dobermans, a big lug called Indie, kept running over to another camper to pester her while she was crocheting. By the third time, Owen went over to apologize.

There were no hard feelings between the camper, 40-year-old Katie James, and Indie, and in fact she was soon over at the barbeque chatting with Humphrey.

It was there James learned that Humphrey needed a kidney. She spoke up to mention that she had just joined the kidney donation register and offered to swap phone numbers.

“And to be honest I didn’t think anything else would come of it,” Humphrey remarked to the Daily Record.

MORE INSPIRING STORIES: Inspired By Daughter’s Life-Saving Kidney Donor, Father Returns the Favor and Becomes a Donor

However, blood tests later revealed the two campers were a perfect match, something which Humphrey described as a 1-in-22 million chance. The transplant took place in October of 2022, after which Humphrey needed 4 weeks to be discharged from the hospital due to James’ donated kidney not “waking up” fast enough.

After that, she could finally go on that campervan holiday, have a drink with dinner, and do many more activities besides.

MORE WELSH NEWS: Wales is Building a National Forest That Will Span the Length and Breadth of the Country

“I’m so grateful for her… I told my partner in 2019 if I didn’t find a transplant within five years it was possible something would happen and I would die,” said Humphrey. “I want this to be a message to other people not to give up hope.”

“The Kidney Gang” credit – Cenydd Owen

James said when she first signed up she was told she wouldn’t receive any information on what her donated kidney would accomplish—whether it saved a life or not, or even who it went to.

Like this, she not only knows for sure it saved a woman’s life, but it created a lasting friendship—proof of which lies in the smartphones of James, Humphrey, and Owen, where WhatsApp messages bear the address “The Kidney Gang” from the group chat they created.

SHARE This Incredible Story Of Generosity And Friendship With Your Friends… 

Good Gardening—A New Year: What Have You Got in the Ground?

By
Andy Corbley
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Painting by Josephine Wall – CC 3.0
Painting by Josephine Wall – CC 3.0

Welcome back to Good Gardening! Last week most of our Good Gardeners were lying dormant still, and didn’t have anything so far to share. Perhaps on the cusp of May, there will be news and pictures—or at least we can start with mine.

Since our last post, my garden has sprung to life thanks to a mild Italian winter. I took a chance to start a bit early, which is why the tomato plant in the central frame is as tall as it is (my grandmother told me it was doomed).

In the left frame one can see a line of yellow bell peppers, and on the right, the sown carrots beginning to emerge from their thick winter mulch. The flowers in the middle are calendula, which I also started early to build as deep a root system as possible to survive the summer.

I also planted a Japanese maple to commemorate the birth of my son, Harrison, on April 13th. I had to make the difficult choice between a rising maple and a spreading maple, but unlike what I remember from living in the US, here in Italy, the rising maple is quite popular, and I liked the idea of saving space along the ground. I covered the upturned soil in moss, watered it, and covered it with leaves because the birds rip up the moss I plant.

 

 

“More beings than most – Awake but one time a year – and with that are glad,” – Andy Corbley

 

Topic Week 14: What have you got in the ground?

Question 1: How did you prepare your garden for the growing season?

Question 2: What have you got peeking out of the soil so far?

Question 3: Do you like to start things inside early or sow directly?

Tell Us Here in The Comments… or, send your questions, tips, and photos to [email protected]. Join our Facebook Good Gardens thread every Friday on the GNN Facebook Page…

Good gardening rules

  • Green thumbs can help novice greenhorns.
  • Share your gardening photos and resources.
  • Garden jargon encouraged!

INVITE Friends to our Gardening Discussion on Social Media–And Share Your Photos and Tips!

Volcanic Microbe Discovered Can Eat CO2 ‘Astonishingly Quickly’ to Cut Climate-Heating Gases

By
Andy Corbley
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Vulcano, Italy - credit Vicky Brock CC 2.0.
Vulcano, Italy – credit Vicky Brock CC 2.0.

A microbe discovered living on the slopes of an Italian volcano can eat and store CO2 in its body faster than any other species yet known.

Scientists hope to be able to harness the creature’s powers to create carbon-capture ponds to aid in pulling CO2 out of the atmosphere.

While reducing the input of fossil fuel-released CO2 into the atmosphere is still important, many scientists are now predicting that the predicted effects of climate change will take place regardless based on the amount of CO2 already in the atmosphere; as such the removal of that CO2 moves into equal importance.

Near the Sicilian city of Palermo, the island of Vulcano played host to a microbe that ate CO2 “astonishingly quickly” and that sinks in water.

The sinking is unique because it would allow machinery to collect the CO2 the microbes absorbed, meaning carbon-capture ponds wouldn’t need to act like landfills; they could be refilled over and over again.

“The project takes advantage of 3.6 billion years of microbial evolution,” said Dr. Braden Tierney, from Weill Cornell Medical College, to The Guardian.

“The nice thing about microbes is that they are self-assembling machines. You don’t have that with a lot of the chemical approaches [to CO2 capture].”

MORE CARBON NEWS: Facebook, Google, Stripe, Shopify Investing a Billion Dollars in Pre-Orders for Captured Carbon

Microbes have been seen by many different parties as a potential part of the solution to climate change.

In 2022 GNN reported that scientists working for the biochemical firm LanzaTech discovered a way to genetically engineer bacteria that consume carbon oxide and carbon dioxide before converting them into two widely used chemicals, acetone and isopropanol, that would otherwise generate hundreds of thousands of tons of CO2 emissions.

MORE SOLUTIONS TO CLIMATE CHANGE:  Tiny Marine Microbe ‘Could Turn Out to be Secret Weapon in Battle Against Climate Change’

Processes like these are significant because they fit into already existing company infrastructure, in this case, the production of acetone and isopropanol which are used in dozens of common household products from cleaning agents to lightbulbs.

“There will be circumstances where the tree is going to outperform microbes or fungi. But there will also be circumstances where you really want a fast-growing aquatic microbe that sinks,” said Dr. Tierney.

SHARE The Idea Of Carbon-Capture Ponds With Your Friends… 

Hero Conductor Stops Train to Rescue 3-Year-Old Boy Lost on the Tracks (Video)

By
Andy Corbley
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YouTube
YouTube

Neither the early morning start nor the distraction of a smartphone managed to take a New York train conductor’s eyes off the tracks earlier this week.

He spotted a 3-year-old wandering around the tracks dangerously close to an electrified third rail, and slammed on the brakes while going 70 mph before warning all traffic that could have been passing through Tarrytown Station of the danger.

Once the train came to a stop, cameras show the assistant conductor Marcus Higgins jogging down the tracks to rescue the child.

News reports claim the child is autistic and non-verbal. He was separated from his mother when he fell over the side of a barrier and into the cutting where the train tracks sat.

“Emergency, emergency, emergency, I need you to kill rail we got a toddler on the track,” the conductor can be heard saying.

Given the child’s disability, he didn’t take note of Higgins’ warnings not to touch the electrified rail. Once it was clear he didn’t understand, Higgins’ colleague, still on the train, started hammering the station to cut the power to the rail.

The station responded, and Higgins brought the boy on board the train where he was later reunited with his mother and sister.

WATCH the story below from Fox News… 

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Stunning ‘House of Arches’ Uses Gorgeous Geometry to Keep Three Generations Cool in Rajasthan’s Heat

By
Andy Corbley
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Mirai House of Arches in Bhilwara - credit Sanjay Puri Architects
Mirai House of Arches in Bhilwara – credit Sanjay Puri Architects

In northwest India, an architectural firm cleaned house on the award circuit with a truly sumptuous family home built to stay naturally cool in 104°F (40°C) heat.

At nearly 10,000 square feet of interior space, the building houses a family of three generations wrapped in natural stone and wood that bend around fluctuating ceiling heights. But the showpiece of the Mirai House of Arches is the “curvilinear punctuated envelope” of terracotta that surrounds the house.

Creating shaded balconies, porticoes, and patios, the envelope takes advantage of sun position, average wind direction, and the excellent thermoregulatory capabilities of the natural materials to keep the house cool during the 8-month Rajasthan summer.

The science lies in the separation of the envelope from the house itself. Even as the rays of the sun heat the envelope, wind and moisture evaporation can make their way into the space between the house and the envelope to reduce the radiative heat that enters the living areas.

“Based on the location, the southern and eastern sides have minimum open space with adjacent villas on those sides to be built in the future,” said Sanjay Puri of Sanjay Puri Architects, the firm that built the house.

OTHER SUSTAINABLE HOUSES: This Breathtaking Café Made Entirely Out of Cardboard Shows Just How Eco-Friendly Architecture Can Be

On the northern and western sides, there is a shaded lawn and garden, with a door opening to the living room.

“There is an interesting play of volumes in each part of the house, bedrooms of a single volume, dining area of a double volume, and a living area of an intermediate 1.5 level volume.”

Mirai House of Arches in Bhilwara – credit Sanjay Puri Architects

Mirai House of Arches is built in a city called Bhilwara, which has a legendary past, and is today known as the “city of looms.” The dramatic house suits this legendary founding.

SIMILAR INDIAN CONCEPTS: Architecture Built 1,000 Years Ago to Catch Rain is Being Revived to Save India’s Parched Villages

It has won the Architecture Master Prize 2022, the Best Implemented Project of Private Residence 2022 at the Golden Trezzini Awards, and the Best Residential Project in Architecture at the CDA Awards 2022 in Paris.

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“A true lover always feels in debt to the one he loves.” – Ralph W. Sockman

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “A true lover always feels in debt to the one he loves.” – Ralph W. Sockman

Photo by: Fernando Jiménez, CC license

With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?

Britain Names the First Two ‘Celtic Rainforests’ to Be Restored to Primeval Glory

By
Andy Corbley
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credit Ben Porterco - Wildlife Trusts
credit Ben Porterco – Wildlife Trusts

Two so-called “Celtic rainforests” in the UK are to be restored with a mixture of native planting and natural reforestation.

The hope is that they will provide rich habitats for dozens of species, improve groundwater quality and flood prevention, and allow residents and tourists to experience an exceptionally rare forest biome called temperate rainforest.

The most famous and largest temperate rainforests on Earth are found in the US states of Oregon and Washington, along Brazil’s Atlantic coast (known as the Atlantic Forest), and on New Zealand.

Britain, especially Wales, would have featured a certain amount of these Celtic rainforests in areas that experience high moisture content coming off the ocean, and low variations in annual temperatures.

One such place is Creg y Cowin on the Isle of Man, where 28 hectares (70 acres) of native Celtic rainforest will be planted by hand, and another 8 hectares (20 acres) left to regenerate naturally.

The Manx Wildlife Trust will be responsible for the project, and it anticipates “the return of oakwood dwellers such as wood warbler, pied flycatcher, and redstart, as well as raptors, owls, and woodland invertebrates.”

MORE NEWS LIKE THIS: The US Halts Old-Growth Timber Sales in World’s Largest Remaining Temperate Rainforest

Historic agricultural dwellings called “tholtans” will be left on the landscape for their historical and cultural significance.

Elsewhere, in Gwynedd, North Wales, another 40 hectares (112 acres) of Celtic rainforest will be raised via a mixture of native planting and regeneration. The selected site is the peak and slopes of Bwlch Mawr, near the university town of Byrn Mawr.

MORE REWILDING IN BRITAIN: Irish Metalhead Turns His Ancestral Estate into Model of Rewilding: It Naturally Grew Into Biodiverse Eden

“There’s real momentum now to restore and expand our amazing temperate rainforests, and it’s brilliant to see the Wildlife Trusts advancing their plans,” Guy Shrubsole, environmental campaigner and author of The Lost Rainforests of Britain, told the Guardian in the wake of the announcements.

The projects were funded by a £30 million donation from the UK insurance company Aviva, which hopes to sequester carbon in these new rainforests.

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Watch Mesmerizing Scene of Thousands of Sheep Being Herded Down an Idaho Highway

By
Andy Corbley
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Credit - Life on the Range
Credit – Life on the Range

Some exceptionally-managed drone piloting allowed ranchers in Idaho to capture a video of thousands of sheep being herded along the road.

As many as 2,600 lambs and ewes were involved in the crossing in the town of Eagle, just one stop on their way toward the Table Rock area where they would reach the fresh pastures needed to sustain the large flock.

Locals gathered in what passes for droves in that rural part of the country. The crossing is a tradition that’s marked with a small festival.

The footage was organized, captured, and released by Life on the Range, an education outreach program organized by the Idaho Rangeland Resources Commission to help inform and connect Idaho residents and Americans in general with the life, times, and challenges of ranching.

WATCH the footage in its entirety… 

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Ex-Racehorse Destined for Kill Pen Rescued by Woman Who Helped Raise Her–WATCH

By
Andy Corbley
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Meaghan Martin
Meaghan Martin

Meaghan Martin has seen a lot of long faces in her years as a horse trainer, and it was this history that allowed her to turn a potentially-sad story into a happy ending.

She was just a teenager when she met the young mare Saxy, a horse that was to be trained for racing. But having never made a name for herself, and collecting only a few thousand dollars in winnings, Saxy was sold on as a workhorse.

Retired equine athletes in America are often sold to the Amish communities, who use them to pull plows and buggies, and it was during this activity that Saxy was involved in a collision that left her marked for slaughter.

Around this time, Martin was all grown up and worked full-time at Red Lion Farm, in Gray, Maine. She was scrolling through Facebook and saw a mare with a brand on her neck that immediately jumped out at her.

“That number is actually what saved her,” Martin told the local NBC affiliate. “I recognized that brand and said ‘Oh, that’s one of the babies that I worked with.'”

Her friend and owner of Red Lion, Kendra Gorham, felt as Martin did that Saxy had to come home; that they couldn’t let her fall to such a tragic end. Agreeing to split the cost and raise money and supplies whenever possible, the two ladies set off to Pennsylvania to bring Saxy home.

Within 48 hours of reaching out to their community, they had enough money and supplies to ensure Saxy had a real chance of recovering from her accident.

MORE ANIMAL RESCUES: 275 Rare Parrots Saved From Hurricane at Florida Sanctuary: ‘They’re Family’

“People donated blankets, people donated brushes, people donated boots for her feet before we had shoes on her to keep her more comfortable,” Martin said. “People were so incredibly generous with their energy, with their money, with their things.”

News Center Maine details the moment when, seeing her old trainer for the first time in years, Saxy wrapped her head around Martin after she entered her paddock, bringing immediate tears.

MORE NEWS LIKE THIS: Dramatic Rescue Shows Community Teaming up to Save 4 Horses That Fell Through Ice into Freezing Pond

Once back home, it was clear that the mare would need slow and careful rehabilitation. Without shoes and with thin hooves, walking was difficult. Furthermore, she had spent her life with strict orders to run fast, or pull things. Gentle but precise maneuvering was never something she had to do, and must now learn.

Saxy now works for Martin as one of her horses for an equine-assisted psychotherapy program for humans suffering from trauma and PTSD.

WATCH the story below… 

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Physical Activity and Sedentary Lifestyle Have Greater Impact on Lifespan Than Our Genes

By
Andy Corbley
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Credit: Joseph Pearson

Shakespeare once wrote “The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars, but in ourselves.”

Concurring with the Bard, a recent paper in the journal Human Kinetics shows that the ratio between physical activity and sedentary activity has a greater impact on lifespan and healthspan than our genetic makeup.

The study was conducted with 5,446 older women who were separated into three groups relative to what was termed their genetic risk factor, or GRS, which was measured by a small selection of single-nucleotide polymorphisms that are well-known to affect longevity.

The authors point out that a sort of layman’s understanding of genetics and their importance in human health and well-being is a poor marker for the truth.

They cite studies which show that genes related to physical fitness had no bearing on the normal association between physical activity and coronary artery disease, and another that showed relationships between physical activity and cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s were not influenced by a person’s APOE-4 status—APOE-4 being a genetic mutation that is known to be commonly present in Alzheimer’s patients.

Perhaps with the advent of gene-modification technology like CRISPR, and the greatly reduced cost of doing genetic analysis along with the extension of this technology to the general population for familial history through products like 23 and Me or Prometheus, more people are spending more time focusing on their genes as a kind of Magic 8 Ball.

MORE HEALTH KNOWLEDGE: To Reduce the Harmful Health Effects of Sitting, Take a 5-Minute Walk Every Half-Hour

It’s not uncommon to hear people blame “bad genes” for any combination or number of health disruptions, but evidence is beginning to show that, as Shakespeare wrote, the fault is in ourselves, not our stars.

The study in older women boasts “a large, diverse, and well-characterized cohort of older women across the United States with long-term follow-up,” as the authors describe it.

MORE INTERESTING STUDIES: Cold Water and Air Increase “Good” Body Fats Says a Review of More Than 100 Studies

They found conclusively that “among older women, higher accelerometer-measured light [physical activity] was associated with lower risk of mortality, and higher accelerometer-measured [sedintary behavior] was associated with a higher risk of mortality during an average follow-up of 6.1 years,” and that “findings were consistent across categories of a GRS for longevity.”

The authors then highlighted the necessity for communicating the importance of physical activity to older women.

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“It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.” – Robert Goddard

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.” – Robert H. Goddard

Photo by: Olivier Mesnage (La Turballe, France)

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?

When Architect Asks AI to Design Futuristic Skyscrapers It Proposed a Vertical Forest

By
Andy Corbley
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AI-designed Future City / Manas Bhatia
AI-designed Future City / Manas Bhatia

An Indian architect was excited about the potential for AI to enhance the creativity of city architecture, and he asked an image bot to generate a vision for the future of cities.

All he had to do was enter a series of text prompts, for which he used some like ‘Utopian Technology’ and ‘Futuristic Towers’.

Delightfully, the AI software called Midjourney, didn’t produce a grey-sky mechanical utopia of humans trapped in battery pods like in The Matrix. Instead, it depicted buildings cloaked in vertical forests and vegetation while borrowing structural shapes from nature.

Manas Bhatia, like so many architects around the world, believes that the profession needs to make as much room for nature as possible to guarantee a more sustainable future. For his project “AI x Future Cities” he used Midjourney to create what the human minds at his firm, Ant Studio, might not be able to come up with on their own—a creative element he sees as offering huge potential for positive change in the field.

Working on the project, Bhatia would change the text prompts by putting new words in and taking other ones out, while both he and the AI worked together to refine their vision for future cities.

“The trial-and-error part is the most fun,” Bhatia told CNN. “We use AI to create images and, in the process, the AI trains itself and improves over time.”

MORE ARCHITECTURE NEWS: ‘Best New Skyscraper’ Mimics Nature: Looks Like 2 Mountains With a Valley, Water, and Greenery Between – LOOK

Bhatia is extremely positive about the future of AI, as opposed to seeing it as something that will potentially put him out of a job.

Manas Bhatia – AI designed future city

“It has tremendous potential,” he said. “At our studio, we tried using AI to generate mood board images for a client presentation, and that went very well… In the near future, architects and designers combined with AI would be something to hope for.”

Courtesy of Manas Bhatia

He worked on another section for his project by using words like “symbiotic,” and “hollowed” and his AI created pictures of apartment blocks built into hollowed-out trees.

MORE SUSTAINABLE LIVING: Rooftop Forest Planned for London Courthouse Includes 100 Trees, 10,000 Plants, and Much More

At Ant Studio, he works to replace existing building facades with nature-inspired skins that thermoregulate themselves, reducing the need for energy consumption in the building. His logic in asking the AI to imagine tree apartments stems from this work, which he assumes would be optimal if the building itself, and not just the facade, were made of living forms.

He also designs all manner of structures with nature and natural forms and functions at the center of the blueprints, including buildings built around trees.

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1,000-Year-Old Viking Coins Found by Young Girl With Metal Detector in a Cornfield

By
Andy Corbley
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Bramslev Silver Coins - credit North Jutland Museum
Bramslev Silver Coins – credit North Jutland Museum

A girl metal detecting in northwestern Denmark discovered nearly 300 silver coins dating back more than 1,000 years ago.

The hoard was discovered in a farmer’s field at a place called Bramslev, near to the Medieval fort of Fyrkat built by the famous Viking warlord Harald Blåtand (Bluetooth), and was also found alongside a silver ring pin that had been cut in half.

The coins themselves are a mix of those from the Arab, Germanic, and Danish worlds. Of particular interest to the Danish archaeologists working on the site are those from Denmark, because they were struck—probably in the years 970-980—with crosses, suggesting Harald’s influence in the Christianisation of Denmark which began around ths time.

Coins struck earlier in Harald’s reign did not bear crosses, suggesting it was a gradual change of the man along with the people and country.

“The two silver treasures constitute a fantastic story in themselves, but to find them abandoned in a settlement only eight kilometers from Haralds Blåtand’s Viking fortress Fyrkat is incredibly exciting,” says archaeologist and museum inspector at North Jutland Museums, Torben Trier Christiansen.

Fyrkat is one of several “Ring Forts” built during Harald’s time at the top of the Viking totem pole. Being the only country connected to central Europe by land, Denmark was at much greater threat from invasion by the Christian kingdoms to the south than the Vikings in Norway or Sweden.

The proximity to the fort raises questions about whether the burying of the hoard was done in haste—after a battle at the fort perhaps. Vikings believed they could have access in death to the treasures they hoarded and buried in life, and so hoards weren’t always meant to be dug up later—the Middle Ages equivalent of stuffing a mattress with cash.

OTHER VIKING AGE NEWS: 4 Years After Discovery, the First Viking Ship Burial Found in Over 100 Years Reveals its Lost Secrets

Although, that could be exactly why they were buried.

“Perhaps the castles were not given up entirely voluntarily,” says Christiansen. “The Bramslev treasures were apparently buried around the same time or shortly after the castles were abandoned, and if there have been disturbances at Fyrkat, it makes good sense that the local magnate here at Bramslev has chosen to hide his valuables out of the way.”

MORE HOARDS: Biggest Coin Hoard in a Decade Worth $180,000 Discovered During “Metal Detecting Rally” In British Countryside

The girl who found the hoard gave it over to the North Jutland Museum, from which she received compensation for the discovery. The museum team will be returning after the summer harvest to look over the field for more clues.

There are probably no more silver treasures to be found, but during the investigations this spring, it was established that both of the two silver treasures found were originally buried inside or very close to buildings.

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