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Your Valentine’s Day 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 Valentine’s Day horoscope…

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY – Week of February 11, 2023
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
To get the most out of upcoming opportunities for intimacy, intensify your attunement to and reverence for your emotions. Why? As quick and clever as your mind can be, sometimes it neglects to thoroughly check in with your heart. And I want your heart to be wildly available when you get ripe chances to open up and deepen your alliances. Study these words from psychologist Carl Jung: “We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect; we apprehend it just as much by feeling. Therefore, the judgment of the intellect is, at best, only the half of truth, and must, if it be honest, also come to an understanding of its inadequacy.”

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
“In love there are no vacations. Love has to be lived fully with its boredom and all that.” Author and filmmaker Marguerite Duras made that observation, and now I convey it to you—just in time for a phase of your astrological cycle when boredom and apathy could and should evolve into renewed interest and revitalized passion. But there is a caveat: If you want the interest and passion to rise and surge, you will have to face the boredom and apathy; you must accept them as genuine aspects of your relationship; you will have to cultivate an amused tolerance of them. Only then will they burst in full glory into renewed interest and revitalized passion.

ARIES (March 21-April 19):
During my quest for advice that might be helpful to your love life, I plucked these words of wisdom from author Sam Kean: “Books about relationship talk about how to ‘get’ the love you need, how to ‘keep’ love, and so on. But the right question to ask is, ‘How do I become a more loving human being?'” In other words, Aries, here’s a prime way to enhance your love life: Be less focused on what others can give you and more focused on what you can give to others. Amazingly, that’s likely to bring you all the love you want.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
You have the potential to become even more skilled at the arts of kissing and cuddling than you already are. How? Here are some possibilities. 1. Explore fun experiments that will transcend your reliable old approaches to kissing and cuddling. 2. Read books to open your mind. I like Margot Anand’s The New Art of Ecstasy. 3. Invite your subconscious mind to give you dreams at night that involve intimacy.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
You are an Italian wolf searching for food in the Apennine Mountains. You’re a red-crowned crane nesting in a wetland in the Eastern Hokkaido region of Japan. You’re an olive tree thriving in a salt marsh in southern France, and you’re a painted turtle basking in a pool of sunlight on a beach adjoining Lake Michigan. And much, much more. What I’m trying to tell you, Gemini, is that your capacity to empathize is extra strong right now. Your smart heart should be so curious and open that you will naturally feel an instinctual bond with many life forms, including a wide array of interesting humans. If you’re brave, you will allow your mind to expand to experience telepathic powers. You will have an unprecedented knack for connecting with simpatico souls.

CANCER (June 21-July 22):
My Cancerian friend Juma says, “We have two choices at all times: creation or destruction. Love creates and everything else destroys.” Do you agree? She’s not just talking about romantic love, but rather love in all forms, from the urge to help a friend, to the longing to seek justice for the dispossessed, to the compassion we feel for our descendants. During the next three weeks, your assignment is to explore every nuance of love as you experiment with the following hypothesis: *To create the most interesting and creative life for yourself, put love at the heart of everything you do.*

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
I hope you get ample chances to enjoy deep soul kisses in the coming weeks. Not just perfunctory lip-to-lip smooches and pecks on the cheeks, but full-on intimate sensual exchanges. Why do I recommend this? How could the planetary positions be interpreted to encourage a specific expression of romantic feeling? I’ll tell you, Leo: The heavenly omens suggest you will benefit from exploring the frontiers of wild affection. You need the extra sweet, intensely personal communion that comes best from the uninhibited mouth-to-mouth form of tender sharing. Here’s what Leo poet Diane di Prima said: “There are as many kinds of kisses as there are people on earth, as there are permutations and combinations of those people. No two people kiss alike.”

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Borrowing the words of poet Oriah from her book The Dance: Moving to the Deep Rhythms of Your Life, I’ve prepared a love note for you to use as your own this Valentine season. Feel free to give these words to the person whose destiny needs to be woven more closely together with yours. Oriah writes, “Don’t tell me how wonderful things will be someday. Show me you can risk being at peace with the way things are right now. Show me how you follow your deepest desires, spiraling down into the ache within the ache. Take me to the places on the earth that teach you how to dance, the places where you can risk letting the world break your heart.”

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
Libran author Walter Lippman wrote, “The emotion of love is not self-sustaining; it endures only when lovers love many things together, and not merely each other.” That’s great advice for you during the coming months. I suggest that you and your allies—not just your romantic partners, but also your close companions—come up with collaborative projects that inspire you to love many things together. Have fun exploring and researching subjects that excite and awaken and enrich both of you.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Scorpio writer Paul Valéry wrote, “It would be impossible to love anyone or anything one knew completely. Love is directed towards what lies hidden in its object.” My challenge to you, Scorpio, is to test this hypothesis. Do what you can to gain more in-depth knowledge of the people and animals and things you love. Uncover at least some of what’s hidden. All the while, monitor yourself to determine how your research affects your affection and care. Contrary to what Valéry said, I’m guessing this will enhance and exalt your love.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
In his book Unapologetically You, motivational speaker Steve Maraboli writes, “I find the best way to love someone is not to change them, but instead, help them reveal the greatest version of themselves.” That’s always good advice, but I believe it should be your inspirational axiom in the coming weeks. More than ever, you now have the potential to forever transform your approach to relationships. You can shift away from wanting your allies to be different from what they are and make a strong push to love them just as they are.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
I analyzed the astrological omens. Then I scoured the internet, browsed through 22 books of love poetry, and summoned memories of my best experiences of intimacy. These exhaustive efforts inspired me to find the words of wisdom that are most important for you to hear right now. They are from poet Rainer Maria Rilke (translated by Stephen Mitchell): “For one human being to love another human being: that is perhaps the most difficult task that has been entrusted to us, the ultimate task, the final test and proof, the work for which all other work is merely preparation.”

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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“The best way to love someone is not to change them, but instead, help them reveal the greatest version of themselves.” – Steve Maraboli

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Quote of the Day: “I find the best way to love someone is not to change them, but instead, help them reveal the greatest version of themselves.” – Steve Maraboli 

Image: Roberto Nickson

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?

‘Miss Patty’ Has Made 7,000 Hats for the Students that Ride Her Bus

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Andy Corbley
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Courtesy Miss Patty
Courtesy Miss Patty

Many employees of school systems leave behind important memories with their students, but for bus driver Patty Reitz, she principally leaves behind a memory of friendship, and warm ears.

Known as Miss Patty, the Clarence Central School District bus driver has crocheted 7,083 hats over three decades of service for the students and the school.

Her career included years working in the elementary school’s cafeteria, but she began crocheting in 2005 to pass the time while caring for her mother while she was in the hospital.

“I needed something to do,” she said. Later she took it up while waiting for the students to board her bus.

Back on her first attempt at a hat, a high schooler started it all when he noticed what she was doing.

“The one boy gets on the bus, and he goes ‘what are you doing?’ I said I’m making a hat. He said ‘that would be great going down ski slopes at Holiday Valley.’ So I said what color would you like? That started everything,” Reitz told the local NBC affiliate.

Her specialties are either an elf hat with pompom or a sort of potato sack-shaped affair with tassels on the corners.

MORE FROM SCHOOLS: Good News Now Showing in 120 Schools in Partnership With Digital Signage Company

She uses colored yarn and buys it all herself, though she regularly receives gift cards and other presents, certainly around Christmas time.

“She cares. She cares about her students,” said third-grade teacher Deborah Bosworth. “Any student that I’ve had that has been on Miss Patty’s bus gets a hat, and they also get a friend. Miss Patty is one of the favorites.”

Despite the tremendous amount of work that she’s already done, Reitz says she has no plans to stop with her hat-making. The bus driver said she’s already getting organized for next year’s bus riders.

“I’m going to do it until I can’t do it anymore,” she said.

WATCH the story below from WGRZ… 

SHARE This One Person Hand-Making a Difference In Kids’ Lives… 

The Fascinating and Brilliant Woman Who Mapped the Secrets of the Ocean Floor to Upend Scientific Thought

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Andy Corbley
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The Heezen-Tharp World Ocean Map depicting Tharp's discoveries

As massive a project as it would see to be now, once upon a time humanity needed to formulate the theory of plate tectonics.

That’s where perhaps the most influential cartographer of the 20th century, and of all human history besides, Marie Tharp came into the picture: hand-combining the hard data collected by colleagues into the first proof of the theory of continental drift and plate tectonics.

Before this, it was believed that the Earth began as a blob of molten material. As it cooled, like a date drying in the sun, cracks began to form the ocean basins and mountain ranges as heavier metals wiggled down towards the core and lighter metals rose up to the surface.

Tharp would prove instrumental in advancing the true understanding of the movement of the continents from her position in the geology department at Columbia University, piecing together maps of the ocean floor made by sonar depth measurements gathered by the department’s head.

These maps, when combined with a colleague’s maps of the placement of undersea volcanoes, provided irrefutable evidence that Pangea had split apart based on the movements of the continental plates.

An animated short explaining her pioneering work was recently chosen for National Geographic’s Short Film Showcase.

The Heezen-Tharp World Ocean Map depicting Tharp’s discoveries

In 1999, Tharp won the Mary Sears Woman Pioneer in Oceanography Award for her discovery. In her acceptance speech, she colored in the glory of her accomplishment by highlighting it as once-in-a-lifetime.

MORE LIKE THIS: Honoring The Black Astrophysicist at NASA Whose Innovative Space Telescope is Still on the Moon (1939-2020)

“Not too many people can say this about their lives: The whole world was spread out before me (or at least, the 70% of it covered by oceans). I had a blank canvas to fill with extraordinary possibilities, a fascinating jigsaw puzzle to piece together: mapping the world’s vast hidden seafloor.

“It was a once-in-a-lifetime—a once-in-the-history-of-the-world—opportunity for anyone, but especially for a woman in the 1940s. The nature of the times, the state of the science, and events large and small, logical and illogical, combined to make it all happen.”

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Sisters With Rare Disorder Make Dramatic Leaps With New Therapy After Doctors Said They’d Never Walk or Talk

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Andy Corbley
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Bella Burkhart - submitted
Bella Burkhart – submitted

What parent could imagine anything worse than hearing their newborn has a genetic mutation that impedes neuromotor development that’s so rare, it affects just 300 infants worldwide?

Yet even for something as rare as a CASK Disorder, the miracles of modern medicine can lend a healing hand—as they did for Anna and Bella Burkhart.

Bella had a noticeably small head that announced what tests would later confirm: Bella was born with a rare genetic disorder. Mother Emily Burkhart immediately suspected a genetic problem because she’d seen this before—in Bella’s older sister, Anna.

A decade earlier, doctors predicted Anna would never walk, talk, or have a fulfilling life. Today, she rides the bus to school, interacts with her friends on TikTok, has plans to dye her hair, and even made her middle school cheerleading squad.

When Anna, and Bella for that matter, were born, few signs of the coming disorder were present, but both soon began to miss developmental milestones such as the inability to grasp, roll around, and crawl. She didn’t walk until she was nearly 3 years old.

Her parents sought answers for Anna’s delays. After years of testing and hospitalizations, Anna was finally diagnosed with a rare mutation of a gene common in many species, called CASK. Doctors knew little about the condition, said Burkhart.

“Basically, she was just going to struggle, and she was probably going to be wheelchair-bound and non-verbal,” she said. “I just wasn’t going to accept that.”

Soon, the family was visiting Roanoke, Virginia so Anna could receive intensive therapy through an experimental research protocol. While customary occupational and physical therapy is delivered for only one hour a week, therapists at the Neuromotor Research Clinic at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech, work with children 3 to 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, for up to 4 weeks.

Anna Burkhart – submitted

Turning a corner

The research clinic’s team had worked with many children with disabilities that had affected their brain development and function, including those with cerebral palsy. But the team never worked with a child with Anna’s diagnosis before and wasn’t sure what to expect.

“What Anna needed was different than previous kids we’d worked with,” said Dory Wallace, a senior occupational therapist. “It was about helping her learn how to pay better attention, how to use her words, and how to interact and engage with the people in her environment. Once we met her, we completely changed what we thought we were going to do to meet her needs.”

Anna responded right away.

“I love seeing that light switch go on when a child realizes she’s learned something new,” Wallace said. Two weeks later, the change was already dramatic.

MORE FROM CHILDREN’S MEDICINE: In World First, Children Given New Ears Grown From Their Own Cells

“She was sorting colors and she was sitting still to play with a toy,” said Burkhart “She was just doing all the things that we were able to want and expect, plus some.”

A similar turnaround came when nearly 10 years later, Burkhart’s second daughter Bella was born with microcephaly, a clear sign of a potential CASK diagnosis. Bella was 14 months old when she started therapy.

“Dory had her doing things the first day that we hadn’t seen Bella be able to do,” said Burkhart. “I started to cry because it was like, ‘OK, we’re in the right place.’”

Emily’s husband Charlie was mesmerized.

“I’ve never seen Bella work so hard. I videotaped a lot so I can replicate it at home,” he said. “To be able to come down here for a month and get this blueprint and get her going, there are no words to describe how appreciative I am.”

MORE HEALTH NEWS: Regenerative Medicine Breakthrough: Cellular ‘Glue’ Heals Wounds, Potentially Regrows Nerves and Tissue

The Burkharts have high hopes for Bella because they’ve seen how big sister Anna has progressed. Anna continues to use some of the therapeutic program the family learned at the clinic years ago.

The program is called I-ACQUIRE, and while usually utilized in cases of infantile stroke or hemiparesis, it worked with CASK by relying on the brain’s plasticity to develop the disrupted portion of the child’s brain, for example by restraining overactive limbs to force the child to learn how to control the under-utilized one in the case of hemiparesis.

“We’re learning from each child while we’re simultaneously trying to help that child,” said Stephanie DeLuca, co-director of the Neuromotor Research Clinic. “We provide very specific guidelines for how therapists should deliver the interactions of therapy to help the child progress and maximize their development.”

WATCH another success story from the Neuromotor Research Clinic… 

SHARE These Incredible Scientists’ Work Saving Children’s Productive Lives… 

John Cleese and Daughter Sign Up to Star in a Reboot of Fawlty Towers

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Andy Corbley
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John Cleese in Fawlty Towers – By Flickr User, Insomnia Cured Here (CC BY-SA 2.0)
John Cleese in Fawlty Towers – By Flickr User, Insomnia Cured Here (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The classic British sitcom Fawlty Towers has been recognized for decades as one of, if not the greatest British sitcoms of all time. Now more than 40 years after it ended, it’s getting a reboot.

Spinoffs and squeals can be nervous endeavors but with John Cleese at the helm, it’s sure to keep its original brand of brutal social contract humor.

The original Fawlty Towers sets one of the original Monty Python members, John Cleese, as Basil Fawlty who operates a hotel in the seaside town of Torquay with his wife Sybll. Together with the Spanish butler Manuel, they try (and mostly fail) to keep the hotel running smoothly while keeping their marriage afloat.

The new series was picked up by Castle Rock Entertainment, and stars Cleese as the ever-misanthropic Basil, alongside his daughter Camilla Cleese.

Rob Reiner, the director of The Princess Bride, and his director wife Michelle have come on as executive producers, ensuring that the original humor of the show is preserved for modern audiences.

Cleece said that an additional exec. producer for the show, Matthew George, came to Cleese with the idea over dinner, and it resulted in “one of the best creative sessions I can remember”.

Camilla Cleese at the Laugh Factory: Credit Laugh Factory, Hollywood, retrieved from YouTube

“By dessert we had an overall concept so good that, a few days later, it won the approval of Rob and Michele Reiner,” Cleese told the BBC. “Camilla and I look forward enormously to expanding it into a series.”

MORE COMEDY: Tired of Streaming Old Sitcoms? Check Out This TV Comedian Visiting Tiny Towns Across Canada –An Absolute Gem

Camilla Cleese is John’s daughter with his second wife, Barbara Trentham. She has credits in several American comedy TV shows, writing credits on her father’s 2011 live show, and is a regular stand up comedian herself.

The new Fawlty Towers will feature a much older Basil attempting to run a boutique hotel with Camilla, even after discovering she’s his daughter.

KNOW Any Fans Of The Show? Share This Cracking Good News But DON’t Mention The War…

“We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.” – Martin Luther King

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.” – Martin Luther King

Image: Raimond Klavins

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?

Ohio Man Brings Voters of All Stripes Together to Agree to Disagree Over ‘Dinner and a Dialogue’

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Andy Corbley
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Courtesy of Dinner and a Fight
Courtesy of Dinner and a Fight

After a man in Ohio got in a fight with some friends over political positions, he realized the country needed a new method of agreeing to disagree.

He created a gathering called Dinner and a Fight, but fight is crossed-out and replaced with “dialogue,” and after 11 such meetings people continue to show up— all with varied opinions, from left to right and independent.

In a Greek Orthodox Church in Akron Ohio, about 30 people sit down for a buffet-style dinner, all the while eyeing five chairs at one end of the hall next to signs that read “agree strongly,” “agree slightly,” “neutral,” “disagree slightly,” and “disagree strongly.”

After dinner, Ted Wetzel, the organizer of Dinner and a Fight who came up with the idea (after a dinner and a fight), announces the polarizing topic to be discussed, such as mask-wearing, or firearm possession.

During the dialogue, fellow organizers use microphones to ensure everyone understands it’s a bridge-building exercise; it’s not a debate or a fight, but an attempt to help people see the world differently by understanding the human sentiments beneath hot politicized rhetoric and talking points.

Dinner and a Fight – Courtesy of Ted Wetzel

MORE FROM POLITICS: President Biden Pardons Thousands Convicted of Cannabis Possession Under Federal Law

After the dialogue, dessert is served, and everyone rejoins their table to chew over the difficult topic while eating the sweetest part of the dinner.

Dinner and a Fight – Courtesy of Ted Wetzel

A feature piece on Wetzel’s work published in Christian Science Monitor had a reporter tagging along to one Dinner and a Fight, where the topic was whether election results reflect the will of the American people. The talk was productive—and Wetzel compared it to a snow globe.

“When we came in, all the stuff [was] sitting right on the floor – and we shook it up,” he says.

Dinner and a Fight is neither the only nor the first such civil discourse group that is trying to tackle the dramatic polarization in the country, but they tend to heavily lean left.

Wetzel is able to pull in a much greater balance of views, including Trump supporters, thanks to a difficult-to-define mixture of folksy language and imagery. Religious and ethnic minorities join in, too—and a classical melting pot depiction of America emerges.

At the end of the dinner, a wrap-up sheet is left on each table which reads at the top “We will not solve this vexing topic today, but we can make progress.”

RELATED: After Neighbor’s Biden Sign is Stolen in Wisconsin, This Trump Supporter Replaced It: ‘We love our neighbors’

A series of wrap-up questions include, “Did the table agree on something today?” Ted Wetzel finds that often, they do agree.

But the diners are always reminded, “It’s okay to disagree”

WATCH the group’s promo below—and check out Wetzel’s resources for anyone who wants to host their own dinner-dialogue…

SHARE This Great Idea With Your Politically-Motivated Friends… 

State Department Launches ‘Welcome Corps’ Program to Allow Citizens to Easily Sponsor Legal Refugees

By
Andy Corbley
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Markus Spiske (pubdomain)

US citizens or lawful permanent residents can now easily sponsor refugees seeking safety in America through a new program called the “Welcome Corps.”

Connected with a consortium of non-profits that specialize in the resettlement of Internationally Displaced Persons, or IDPs, the Welcome Corps will allow private US citizens to quickly capitalize on their humanitarian instincts when tragedies come calling worldwide.

Modeled after the Canadian refugee system, an IDP looking to come to America will be referred to the Welcome Corps by non-profits like Community Sponsorship Hub or International Refugee Assistance Project.

To sponsor their resettlement in America, five citizens or permanent residents must agree to financially and socially support an IDP and their family with up to $10,000 for the first 90 days.

Once the five-member compact is made, they will be referred to the consortium of non-profits for instructional sessions on how to help the IDP apply for residence, enroll their children in school, find work and housing, etc.

The advantage of the State Dept. leaving the work up to a private-private partnership is that a community response creates warmer social conditions for the folks arriving.

MORE ON REFUGEES: Ukrainian Refugees Move Into Medieval Irish Castle Owned by Good Samaritan

“You have five friends as soon as you step off the plane,” Sarah Krause, executive director and co-founder of the Community Sponsorship Hub, one of 200 non-profits the government has tasked with organizing the Welcome Corps, told Fast Company.

“It can take a long time to make five friends in the United States as a newcomer otherwise.”

In the second phase of development for the Welcome Corps, State will allow private sponsors to identify IDPs on their own for referral to the program. State hopes to welcome an additional 5,000 vetted refugees this year with the help of 10,000 private sponsors.

Those looking to enroll as a sponsor can visit the Welcome Corps website.

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Equipment Manager Finally Gets to Play: Watch a Boy’s Basketball Triumph as High School Cheers

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Andy Corbley
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Carson scores a basket (Family video)
Carson scores a basket (Family video)

Equipment manager Carson Watters loves basketball, loves working on his junior varsity high school team, but never imagined he would ever get to play in a game.

The Philip Simmons HS freshman has worked hard all year, said his coaches, and deserved to show what he could do on the court.

“Seeing him go in and the look on his face when they called him into the game,” Carson’s mother Mary Watters said, “because he didn’t know it was going to happen, I can’t even describe it.”

15-year-old Watters has Down Syndrome. He’s trained the whole year as player-manager of the Iron Horses, and was able to show it when, with the clock running down, his teammates passed him the ball and he did rest.

“I made my lay-up,” he told reporters from ABC post-match.

His mother Mary knew ahead of time that the coach was going to sub Carson into the match, but they kept it a secret from him. She said that his freshman year has been anything but difficult, despite some apprehensions

“We really were not sure how the kids would respond,” Mary told GNN. “He had been at elementary school with some of them, but we really were not sure what the response would be since high school can be a socially difficult time for all the kids, and sports can be so competitive. We were absolutely blown away with how the team embraced Carson.”

Carson on the bench – by Jack Birchfield / BirchCreativeCo

MORE FROM SPORTS: Little League Batter Hit in the Head Embraces Devastated Pitcher in Inspiring Display Sportsmanship –WATCH

“We are more encouraged than ever about Carson’s future and potential for involvement in mainstream activities,” Mary continued.

“More than anything, we hope it will encourage parents of kids with different abilities to seek involvement for their children in mainstream activities and encourage the general public, kids and adults, to embrace and recognize the enrichment, value and contribution that everyone can give, regardless of ability or differences.”

WATCH the story below from ABC 2 News…


SHARE This Inspiring Story Of Support in Sport With Your Friends… 

Codebreakers Crack Secrets of Lost Mary Queen of Scots Letters 430 Years After She Wrote them in Captivity

By
Andy Corbley
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Portion of coded letter from Mary Mary Queen of Scots to French Ambassador Chateauneuf – British National Archives
Portion of coded letter from Mary Mary Queen of Scots to French Ambassador Chateauneuf – British National Archives

An international cryptology team accidentally discovered a series of coded letters written by Mary Queen of Scots and deciphered them.

The contents of those letters that have so far been decoded reveal the thoughts, plots, and emotions penned by Mary while she was imprisoned by Queen Elizabeth I, and were believed to have been lost entirely.

The cipher which Mary used was so extensive that it was entirely lost upon the bibliographers at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France who had written them and what they contained. They ended up shoved in a collection pertaining to correspondences with the Italians.

When cryptographer and computer scientist George Lasry, piano and music professor Norbert Biermann, and physicist Satoshi Tomokiyo came across the letters, they quickly realized they “had nothing to do” with Italy.

Their detective work revealed verbs and adverbs often in the feminine form, several mentions of captivity, and the name ‘Walsingham’ which arose the suspicion that they might be from Mary.

Using computerized and manual techniques, the research team decoded the letters written from 1578 to 1584. They show the challenges Mary faced maintaining links with the outside world, how the letters were carried and by whom, and the brilliance of her spy/correspondence network.

MORE FROM HISTORY: Internet Sleuth Proves That 5 Historical Torture Devices Were Never Used – But Invented By Con Artists

Key themes include complaints about her poor health and conditions in captivity, and her negotiations with Queen Elizabeth I for her release, which she believes were not conducted in good faith. Her mistrust of Elizabeth’s spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham is also apparent, as well as her animosity for Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester and a favorite of Elizabeth.

Mary also expresses her distress when her son James—the future King James I of England,  is abducted in August 1582, and her feeling they have been abandoned by France.

Cipher on coded letter from Mary Mary Queen of Scots to French Ambassador Chateauneuf – British National Archives

Surrounded by enemies

Born Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland in 1542, she spent much of her life in captivity, first at the hands of Scottish Protestants for her religious faith as a Catholic, and then by her cousin Queen Elizabeth I, who considered her a threat to the throne. Beyond Albion, Mary found more allies in France, especially among Catholics.

Most of her letters are addressed to Michel de Castelnau de Mauvissière, the French ambassador to England. She was involved in several conspiracies to incite rebellion amongst Catholics in Britain, and her deeply-coded letters helped conceal her complicity.

“Upon deciphering the letters, I was very, very puzzled and it kind of felt surreal,” explained the lead author of the paper published on the work, Dr. Lasry. “We have broken secret codes from kings and queens previously, and they’re very interesting, but with Mary Queen of Scots, it was remarkable as we had so many unpublished letters deciphered and because she is so famous.”

Lasry and his team deciphered 57 letters and published them in the journal Cryptologia on the 436th anniversary of Mary’s execution (Feb. 8th), aged 44, at Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire.

Encrypted letter from Mary Queen Scots – Bibliotheque Nationale de France

“Mary Queen of Scots left an extensive corpus of letters held in various archives,” explain the authors. “There was prior evidence, however, that other letters from Mary Stuart were missing from those collections, such as those referenced in other sources but not found elsewhere.”

“The letters we have deciphered…are most likely part of this lost secret correspondence.”

During her time in captivity, Mary communicated with her associates and allies because of extensive efforts made to recruit messengers and to maintain secrecy.

MORE FROM MYSTERY: Priceless Tapestry Is Made Whole as Missing Piece is Returned, Solving 40-Year Heist Mystery

The existence of a confidential communication channel between Mary and her supporters was known to the English government at the time, but the channels appear to be so strong that for decades, none of the letters fell into the wrong hands.

Eventually, a sterner jailer was appointed who managed to intercept a plot to install her on the English throne, enough to charge her with treason and pass an execution sentence.

“Due to the sheer amount of deciphered material, about 50,000 words in total and enough to fill a book, we have only provided preliminary summaries of the letters, as well as the full reproduction of a few of them, hoping to provide enough incentive to historians with the relevant expertise to engage in in-depth analysis of their contents, to extract insights that would enrich our perspective on Mary’s captivity,” the codebreakers write.

SHARE This Super-Sleuth Work And Fascinating History With Your Friends…

“Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.” – Winston Churchill

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.” – Winston Churchill

Image: Donald Giannatti

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Artist Creates Fantasy Sculptures By Repurposing Dead Insects

By
Andy Corbley
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Joos Habraken / SWNS
Joos Habraken / SWNS

An artistic form of recycling has an artist in Belgium creating exceptionally unique sculptures from the bits, bones, and barbs of insects.

Joos Habraken creates these insectoid sculptures, measuring from 8 to 15 centimeters tall, out of between 30 and 100 pieces of dead insects.

Each sculpture can contain parts from up to 30 individual insect species including beetles, grasshoppers, mantises, and butterflies.

Joos harvests the bug body parts from insects he finds on walks or purchases them from wholesalers.

“I feel like I’m creating a new species with a new life and story,” Joos says. “I start with an archetype like father, mother, witch, or benevolent king. These are things that people know, without them knowing they recognize them.”

Then Joos takes apart the bugs, modifies the pieces he wants to use, and mounts them on a stick before gluing them together.

Joos Habraken / SWNS

“The hardest part is getting the details right because you’re using 30 different bugs, so you don’t know if the head will fit the body,” said the 28-year-old rock climbing instructor from Ghent, Belgium.

Each piece takes between 30 and 40 hours of work and Joos makes three or four pieces a year. So far, he’s sold every piece he’s made, with the exception of the last three, as he is preparing for an exhibition.

MORE FROM THE ARTS: Diego Rivera’s Dream of a ‘City of Arts’ in Mexico Turns to Reality 80 Years Later

The figures come with their own detailed backstories and portray characters and species from a fictional universe.

Credit Joos Habraken – SWNS

“It’s definitely therapeutic and meditative to create these, but I don’t think about what it brings to me, it’s just the creation of something beautiful,” said Joos.

MORE SCULPTURE: Monumental Animal Sculptures Made From 35 Tons of Plastic Collected on Oregon Coast by Volunteers–LOOK

“100% of the time people are interested when I tell them, they ask what I mean, then I show them and they love them.”

“Sometimes I don’t touch my art for a month. You just don’t always have the time, but it’s always nice to come back and see the work come together, that moment is just a super good feeling.”

WATCH Joos at work below… 

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5-Year-old Who Emptied Piggybank for Earthquake Relief Now Wins $48Mil Lottery Jackpot at 18

By
Andy Corbley
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Juliette Lamour family photo / Ontario Lottery and Gaming
Juliette Lamour family photo / Ontario Lottery and Gaming

A delightful story from northern Ontario saw a 5-year-old girl’s good Karma wait 13 years to reward her.

Juliette Lamour won the state’s second-largest lottery jackpot in history, CAD$48 million, on her first-ever try. Local news from her home city of Sault Saint Marie revealed a touching side of the story—that at 5 years old Lamour made a very big act of charity, and the suggestion that her generosity has been rewarded is impossible to resist making.

It was 2010 and the island nation of Haiti had just been ravaged by an earthquake. Aid organizations from across the world rushed to help the people of the obliterated country stabilize and recover.

At the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds hockey team ice rink a branch of the Canadian Red Cross had set up a table to help raise money for Haiti, and Juliette and her sister Sophie were determined to help.

They upturned their big pink sharing piggy bank that day, out of which came $61.38.

Then last week, Juliette stepped forward as a young woman to claim the $48 million prize at the Ontario lottery offices.

MORE FROM CANADA: Best Friends Win Million Dollar Lottery and Spread the Wealth in Hometown to Help Others

She told Soo Today that she was on her way to bring her grandfather some ice cream.

“I called him on the phone asking what kind of ice cream he wanted,” she recalled. “And he said to me: ‘You just turned 18, go buy a lotto ticket, test your luck.’ So I did.”

MORE LOTTERY STORIES: Irish Woman Who Won $145M Lottery Has Given Over Half: ‘I’m Addicted to Helping People’

“I got to the corner store and I’m in my car—and I didn’t know how to buy it,” she said laughing. “So I had to call my dad. I said: ‘Dad, Grandpa wants me to buy a ticket. How do I do it?’ He’s like: ‘Oh, just go inside and get a QuickPick.’”

Fortunately for Lamour, her father is a financial advisor, so it’s unlikely to burn a hole in her pocket.

CELEBRATE This Young Woman And Her Good Karma… 

Work Begins on Notre Dame’s New Spire—On Track for a December 2024 Reopening

By
Andy Corbley
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- CC 3.0. Vincent Callebaut
– CC 3.0. Vincent Callebaut

Preparatory work began this week to restore the sharp spire atop the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris as the destroyed monument continues on track for a late-2024 reopening.

Scaffolding has been set up, and custom-cut stones for the spire’s base were recently delivered by barge along the River Seine as they would have been during the last spire’s construction in the 19th century.

It’s been almost 4 years since the iconic building was devastated by a fire, and the reconstruction has been going according to schedule. Early hopes were that it would be ready to welcome visitors for the Summer Olympics in Paris next year, but a December completion seems more likely.

At the moment, December 8th, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, is the target.

The original spire was designed by architect Eugene Viollet-Le-Duc, and the replacement has been made as an exact replica out of 500 tons of oak, with another 250 tons of lead for the covering and ornaments.

The collapse of the spire was described as one of the most dramatic moments of the fire.

Notre Dame fire CBS News-YouTube-only use once

Once completed, the spire will be 100 meters tall. France24 recently released the second mini-doc looking at how the restoration work is going—available here in English.

The French government has repeatedly assured the people of Europe that extreme precautions are being taken to prevent lead poisoning in the environment or the workers.

An update on the reconstruction GNN published last year, detailed how the original cathedral had a huge amount of lead used on the roof, which the fire melted down into the depths of the building. After it cooled, chipping the toxic metal off the surviving stone and wood became the majority of the cleanup work.

In the meantime, restoration work uncovered multiple stone tombs and a lead sarcophagus among the lowest foundations of the cathedral in a remarkable discovery. The sarcophagus contained the remains of a religious leader from the 13th century.

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Mars Rover Team Excited After Finding… ‘Rock. Rock. Rock. Rock. Rock. Rock. METEORITE!’

By
Andy Corbley
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Credit - SWNS
Credit – SWNS

Always keen to anthropomorphize their robots, NASA put out a social media post of one of their Mars rovers coming upon an exciting discovery.

Putting words into the Curiosity rover’s mouth as it lazily dug around in the dirt, the rover said, ‘Rock. Rock. Rock. Rock. Rock. Rock. METEORITE!’

“This one’s about a foot wide and made of iron-nickel,” ‘said’ the Curiosity Rover on Twitter. “We’re calling it ‘Cacao.'”

Sent to explore a region of Mars called Gale Crater, as well as to climb Mount Sharp, Curiosity has been roving 3,725 Martian days, or just over 10 years of Earth days.

It’s not uncommon for the robot geologist to discover a meteorite, and in fact, the NASA tweet included pictures of other meteorites it’s found on the Red Plant over the years.

A commenter asked why they appear to be sitting on the surface of Mars like regular stones, to which the rover replied that the craters they would have made upon impact were likely filled in and then eroded away, leaving only the hardest materials behind.

Curiosity’s Mast Camera, or Mastcam, took a panorama of Cacao with its 100-millimeter focal length lens. The panorama is made up of 19 individual images that were stitched together after being sent to Earth.

The color has been adjusted to match lighting conditions as the human eye would perceive them on Earth.

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“There’s no knowledge that is not power.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

By
Good News Network
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Credit: Giammarco Boscaro

Quote of the Day: “There’s no knowledge that is not power.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image: Giammarco Boscaro

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?

Ocean Cleanup Nonprofit Gets $25Mil From Airbnb Co-Founder to Launch Massive Plastic Pollution Cleanup

By
Andy Corbley
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Boyan Slat, Founder of The Ocean Cleanup, and Joe Geddia, Co-Founder of Airbnb - Released

 

Boyan Slat, Founder of The Ocean Cleanup, and Joe Gebbia, Co-Founder of Airbnb – Released

The co-founder of Airbnb.org has just donated $25 million to support the Dutch nonprofit The Ocean Cleanup as they prepare to assemble and deploy the largest plastic capture system ever developed for use in the ocean.

The Ocean Cleanup’s pilot-scale ocean cleaning system, System 002, has been deployed in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) located between Hawai’i and California since late 2021. It has so far removed close to 200,000 kilograms, or roughly 440,000 pounds, of plastic that otherwise would have remained trapped for decades or more.

This pilot system is now in the process of being scaled up to the largest, most cost-effective ocean cleaning system ever developed, and will feature a capture area 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) across, and a three-vessel team that will allow it to operate 24-7.

“I’m proud to partner with The Ocean Cleanup in their crucial work to remove harmful plastics from our oceans,” said Joe Gebbia, co-founder of Airbnb and Samara. “The Ocean Cleanup has created systems and technology that actually work at scale. In order for them to deploy across our oceans and rivers, they now need to scale their funding. It is my hope that this donation can inspire others to act.”

As the only group currently cleaning the trillions of plastic pieces in the GPGP, The Ocean Cleanup has streamlined their cleaning systems to be as cost-effective as possible, allowing their entirely not-for-profit income generation and any potential donations to go far.

MORE FROM PHILANTHROPY: Billionaire MacKenzie Scott Donates $15m to Provide Glasses to Farmers With Blurry Vision in Developing Nations

Dutch wiz kid and Ocean Cleanup founder Boyan Slat has been developing the capture system for a decade, and has gradually enlarged and improved it based on fieldwork harvesting plastic from the GPGP. System 03, cleans ten times faster than the previous system and could clean all the plastic patches of the world’s oceans with about 10-50 systems.

“Joe’s continued support of The Ocean Cleanup’s mission has a direct impact on our operations all over the world,” said Slat. “Thanks, in part, to his generous assistance, we are able to scale up our work in oceans and rivers, helping us reach our goal of ridding the world’s oceans of plastic. On behalf of the world’s largest ecosystem, we are immensely grateful for the support.”

Slat’s work in the GPGP will go down as one of the greatest accomplishments in the 21st century. In front of him was a true leviathan of a problem—a patch of plastic trash twice the size of Texas swirling in International Waters where even the loudest climate-hollering nation-state had no desire to even crack an idea about how to clean it.

MORE FROM POLLUTION: Fishermen Getting Paid to Collect Plastic Trash at Sea, As Indonesia Slashes Pollution

Relying only on his team, and his vision of basic scientific deduction and elegant engineering solutions, Slat proved that the most absurd problem was nevertheless solvable.

His vision attracted millions in private contributions from philanthropists like Gebbia, even while government scientists sneered at his use of fossil-fuel vessels to pull the nets to capture the plastic.

WATCH the explanation of the new cleanup system below…

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Plant Toxins Fatal to Sugarcane Hailed as the ‘New Weapon’ Antibiotic in Fight Against Bacteria

By
Andy Corbley
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The plant compound was found to infect sugarcane
The plant compound was found to infect sugarcane

The threat of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections has been growing across human civilization for years, but a new look at a plant pathogen discovered years ago reveals a potential new method of combating it—an antibacterial agent that works like nothing else deployed in medicine.

Called albicidin, it belongs to a pathogen that causes a disease in sugarcane called leaf scald, but also seems to attack bacteria in a completely different way than common antibiotics like fluoroquinolones.

A new study looking at the mechanism used by albicidin to attack lifeforms found that it works as a DNA topoisomerase inhibitor.

Topoisomerases are nuclear enzymes that play essential roles in DNA replication, transcription, chromosome segregation, and recombination. In the study, albicidin was found to efficiently lock DNA gyrase in antibiotic-resistant E. coli, caused double-strand DNA breaks, and eventual cell death.

“We could not elicit any resistance towards albicidin in the laboratory,” said Dmitry Ghilarov, one of the researchers in a British-German-Polish group that studied the potential antibiotic at the John Innes Center in Norwich, UK.

“That is why we are really excited—because we think it will be very hard for bacteria to evolve resistance against albicidin-derived antibiotics.”

Antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections are one of the biggest challenges in conventional medicine today. Far more dangerous in terms of case fatality and total fatality than COVID-19 has ever been, developing new methods of fighting these infections has nevertheless been a task largely ignored by major pharma companies.

SIMILAR STORY: Stroke Recovery Improved for 70% of Patients Taking Celery Seed Drug

“Now we have a structural understanding, we can create modifications of albicidin to improve its efficacy and pharmacological properties,” said Ghilarov.

“We believe this is one of the most exciting new antibiotic candidates in many years. It has extremely high effectiveness in small concentrations and is highly potent against pathogenic bacteria—even those resistant to the widely used antibiotics such as fluoroquinolones.”

MORE FROM DISEASE CURES: ‘Life-Changing’ New Treatment to Stop Tinnitus Developed After 20 Years Searching for a Cure

Animal infection models have already established both safety and efficacy in two derivatives of ablicidin.

Furthermore, the researchers write in their study that inhibitors of DNA gyrase represent an untapped reservoir of potential antibiotic compounds, and building a broad understanding of one will help expand the field outward, potentially turning over new leaves in the development of a whole new class of pharmaceuticals.

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Man Finally Meets Family That Hid Him During Nazi Holocaust 80 Years Ago–And Visits the House

By
Andy Corbley
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The Bourlet family / SWNS
The Bourlet family / SWNS

An elderly Belgian man was able to meet the descendants of a neighbor who saved him from the Holocaust after his perseverant son and a helpful geneticist managed to track down his grandchildren.

The meeting was organized in the same house where a 5-year-old David Rossler was hidden along with his mother. Now 85, Rossler had a chance to thank the grandchildren for what their grandfather, Georges Bourlet, had done.

Mr. Bourlet lived in Auderghem, Brussels with his four adolescent children, Paul, Jacques, Anne-Marie, and Christiane. Together they gave shelter to Rossler and his mother towards the end of the war in 1944 after Rossler’s uncle and grandfather had already been seized and sent to Auschwitz.

In the present day, David Rossler’s son Lionel has tried for years to find the family that hid his father and grandmother. Thanks to social media and genealogist Marie Cappart at MyHeritage, he was able to track down Anne-Marie’s son Xavier.

“After browsing records and cross-referencing data, Marie found an Anne-Marie Bourlet, born in Auderghem in 1929,” said Lionel. “She discovered that Anne-Marie married someone with the surname Dedoncker and had five children—all of them possibly still alive.”

MORE FROM EUROPE: Smells Like History: Academics Recreate the Lost Smells of Europe for Museums

“After a bit more research, Cappart found Xavier, one of Georges Bourlet’s grandsons, and managed to contact him.”

L-R back: Bernard Moens, Anne Moens, Pascale Moens. L-R front: Christine Moens, David Rossler, Xavier Dedoncker – SWNS

Through Xavier, Cappart got in contact with all five grandchildren of Georges Bourlet and explained that Lionel hoped to be able to introduce them to David whom their grandfather had saved when he was just a boy. It became clear that one of the grandchildren lived in the very house that David was hidden in, after which a meeting was set up there.

“It was an incredibly emotional day for us,” Lionel explained. “I was able to see, with my own eyes, the place where my father was kept safe from the Germans all those years ago.”

“If I had Mr. Bourlet in front of me, I would want to kiss him,” said David. “To say thank you with all my body, with all my life, I am alive, I have a family of which I am very, very, very proud of. To tell him that my life is thanks to him.”

MORE FROM HISTORY: Story of Unsung Dutch Hero Who Saved Thousands From Nazi Holocaust is Finally Told 45 Years After His Death

“Nine people were saved thanks to what he did,” Lionel added. “My brother, myself, and our children would not be here today if not for his courage and kindness.

“In Jewish tradition, there is a saying that ‘he who saves one life saves all of humanity’ – Georges Bourlet saved humanity nine times over We are submitting our testimony to Yad Vashem in hopes that he will be recognized for his heroism and granted the title of ‘Righteous Among the Nations,'” said Lionel, referencing the Israeli civilian honor for those who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.

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