Quote of the Day: “If someone asks me what inspires me, I always say, ‘That which is missing.’” – Pharrell Williams
Photo by: Christopher Kumm (chriscrosscrash)
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?
Meet the 32-year-old who became a professional puzzler and now competes in jigsaw championships.
Karen Kavett has always loved puzzles and she turned her hobby into her job, after sharing videos of her skills over the last five years.
The Los Angeles-based content creator likes to try her hand at jigsaws with a twist—such as gradient and patterned puzzles—and has even completed one with her feet.
She’s so good that when she competed in the National Jigsaw Puzzle Championships in San Diego, California in October, she finished in second place even though her entire puzzle edge fell on the floor. She clocked a time of 50 minutes for the 500-piece puzzle while competing against 99 top puzzlers.
“I was less than a minute away from winning,” said told SWNS news. “It was so exciting and so validating after the many hours I have spent doing puzzles.”
During the lockdown puzzle boom, Karen decided to focus her YouTube channel on her hobby after she discovered their popularity. She says “people like to see me suffer and try tricky puzzles”.
She uses time-lapse to creates satisfying videos for her 202,000 subscribers, including her quest to finish a 24,000-piece puzzle (which took 157 hours) and a 9,000-piece Despicable Me jigsaw that took 67 hours.
A second bedroom in her home has been turned into her puzzle studio, where she has even completed a tiny puzzle that she needed to do with tweezers. (Watch a great video below…)
She became part of a global community of speed puzzlers and hopes to compete in the world championships this year.
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Karen has now designed her own puzzle and was able to complete it herself for the first time recently.
“It was so surreal solving my puzzle for the first time,” she said. “It’s a puzzle of a puzzle.
Karen continues to grow her puzzle collection, consisting of around 400 jigsaws—and gives away dozens that she doesn’t want to keep.
See the most difficult puzzle she ever tried in the video below—a plain brown one with weird shapes that she will definitely be giving away. “I’ll never be doing this puzzle EVER again,” she joked.
INSPIRE Your Friends to Turn Their Hobby into a Gig By Sharing on Social Media…
Reprinted via EarthTalk®, From the Editors of E – The Environmental Magazine
Dear EarthTalk: The Endangered Species Act has been around for five decades. How successful has it been in protecting and restoring threatened and endangered species? – A.J. Munson, Bern, North Carolina
The Endangered Species Act (ESA) has been successful in preventing the extinction of hundreds of wildlife species and in promoting the recovery of thousands more since its inception in 1973.
Some of the species that have successfully recovered and been removed from the list of threatened and endangered species include American alligators, gray wolves, bald eagles (which soared off the list in 2007), peregrine falcons (the fastest animal on Earth), and humpback whales, which leapt off the list over a decade ago.
According to the Center of Biological Diversity, a leading nonprofit with the simple mission of “saving life on Earth,” the ESA has protected more than 1,600 species in the U.S., preventing the extinction of 99 percent of the species listed under it.
Without the ESA, at least 227 species would likely have gone extinct by now since the law’s passage in 1973. In addition, 110 species have seen tremendous recovery since being protected by the act.
The ESA also supports conservation outside the U.S., as the federal government uses the law to enforce the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), a global agreement between nations to regulate trade on species under threat. Examples of the ESA’s reach beyond U.S. borders is in helping save giant pandas as well as several species of tiger.
However, it’s important to note that some species have not recovered as expected, despite being protected under the Act, especially in more recent years. There are many factors that can affect the success or failure of recovery efforts—including habitat loss, climate change, and disease.
But researchers from Columbia and Princeton concluded in their October 2022 study that one threat looms even larger: lack of adequate funding for conservation efforts.
Since 1985, ESA funding has decreased by almost 50 percent when measured on a per species basis. Furthermore, they uncovered that the average wait time for a species to be listed has almost doubled over the decades from 5.9 years during the 1990s to some 9.1 years more recently. The upshot is that by the time a species receives protection, it may have already reached a point where the ESA may be ineffective.
But, the ESA, which is managed by the US Fish and Wildlife agency, has played a crucial role and continues to be a key tool for protecting and recovering these species. This groundbreaking piece of legislation, now in its 50th year, has done incredible things for American wildlife.
SEE MORE SPECIES SAVED: Endangered Species Act Turns 40, With Hundreds of Comeback Stories
It continues to protected precious species of plants and animals, bringing them back to sustainability.
EarthTalk® is produced by Roddy Scheer & Doug Moss for the 501(c)3 nonprofit EarthTalk. See more at emagazine.com. To donate, visit Earthtalk.org. Send questions to: [email protected].
HAIL This Government Successes by Sharing With Earth Lovers on Social Media…
Scientists at Cambridge University just completed a successful trial of their artificial pancreas that helps Type 2 diabetes patients better manage their blood sugar levels.
In fact, researchers say the device and app, powered by an algorithm, doubled the duration of time that patients’ blood sugar levels were on target. It also reduced by 50% the time they spent with blood sugar that was too high.
The announcement comes just days after UK’s National Health Service gave the green light to its usage for patients.
The device, created by the University’s Wellcome-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science, combines an off-the-shelf glucose monitor and insulin pump with an app known as CamAPS HX.
The app predicts how much insulin is needed to keep blood glucose at healthy levels.
Earlier studies, including one based on 875 patients, have found that an artificial pancreas running on a similar algorithm works in patients with type-1 diabetes, including very young children.
Unlike the earlier devices, this new one runs completely automatically and patients do not need to tell their artificial pancreas when they are about to eat.
For the study, the researchers recruited 26 patients from a Cambridge diabetes clinic and patients were randomly assigned to two groups.
The first group tried the artificial pancreas for eight weeks and then switched to the standard therapy of multiple daily insulin injections while the second group began on standard therapy and then switched to the artificial pancreas after eight weeks.
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The team used several measures to assess the effectiveness of the artificial pancreas. The first was the proportion of time that patients spent with their glucose levels within a target range of between 3.9 and 10 millimoles per liter, the standard measure of glucose levels in blood.
Patients using the artificial pancreas spent two thirds (66 percent) of their time with their glucose levels within target range, double that for the control group (32 percent).
In contrast, patients taking the standard therapy spent 67 percent of their time with high glucose levels, which halved to 33 per cent when they used the artificial pancreas.
Average glucose levels fell from 12.6 millimoles/liter when taking the control therapy to 9.2 when they used the artificial pancreas. The app also reduced levels of a molecule known as glycated hemoglobin in patients.
Glycated hemoglobin develops when hemoglobin, a protein within red blood cells that carries oxygen throughout the body, joins with glucose in the blood and becomes ‘glycated’. By measuring it, doctors are able to get an overall picture of what a person’s average blood sugar levels have been over a period of weeks or months. For people with diabetes, the higher the glycated hemoglobin levels, the greater the risk of developing diabetes-related complications.
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After the control therapy, average levels of glycated hemoglobin were 8.7 percent but this fell to 7.3 percent while using the artificial pancreas.
No patients experienced dangerously-low blood sugar levels, known as hypoglycemia, according to the findings published January 2 in the journal Nature Medicine.
Participants said they were happy to have their blood sugar managed in this way and nine out of ten of them reported spending less time overall managing their condition. Users liked the fact that they no longer needed to jab themselves and say it made them more confident in managing their blood sugar.
Downsides were increased anxiety about developing hyperglycaemia, which the team say may reflect greater awareness and monitoring of blood sugar levels, and practical annoyances with wearing devices.
The team also successfully tried out their creation on patients who need kidney dialysis.
“The artificial pancreas can provide a safe and effective approach to help them, and the technology is simple to use and can be implemented safely at home,” said study co-lead author Dr. Charlotte Boughton.
Study author Dr. Aideen Daly added: “One of the barriers to widespread use of insulin therapy has been concern over the risk of severe ‘hypos’ – dangerously low blood sugar levels.
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“We found that no patients on our trial experienced these and patients spent very little time with blood sugar levels lower than the target levels.”
Globally, around 415 million people suffer from the condition, with more than 4.9 million Brits having diabetes which is estimated to cost the NHS £10 billion per year.
Ordinarily, blood sugar levels are controlled by the release of insulin, but in patients with type two diabetes insulin production is disrupted—and if left untreated can cause serious problems including eye, kidney, and nerve damage as well as heart disease.
The team now plan to carry out a much larger study to build on their findings and have submitted the device for regulatory approval in the hope it will become commercially available for patients.
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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 January 14, 2023
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
When he was 74 years old, Capricorn author Norman Maclean published his first novel, A River Runs Through It. It became a best-seller. Capricorn film director Takeshi Kitano directed his first film at age 42. Now 75, he has since won many awards for his work in his native Japan. Capricorn activist Melchora Aquino, who was a leader in the Philippines’ fight for independence from Spain, launched her career as a revolutionary when she was in her eighties. She’s known as the “Mother of the Revolution.” I hope these heroes inspire you, dear Capricorn. I believe that 2023 is the year you will get an upgrade in any area of your life where you have seemed to be a late bloomer.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you will soon be called upon to summon grace under pressure; to express magnanimity while being challenged; to prove that your devotion to your high standards is more important than the transitory agendas of your ego. The good news is that you are primed and ready to succeed at these exact assignments. I have confidence in your power to activate the necessary courage and integrity with maximum poise and composure.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
“By dying daily, I have come to be,” wrote poet Theodore Roethke. He didn’t mean he suffered literal deaths. He was referring to the discipline of letting go of the past; shedding worn-out habits; leaving behind theories and attitudes that once served him well but no longer did; killing off parts of himself that were interfering with the arrival of the fresh future. I recommend his strategy to you, Pisces. To the degree that you agree to die daily, you will earn the right to be reborn big-time in a few weeks.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
Nigerian author Wole Soyinka reworked the ancient Greek play, The Bacchae. In one passage, the god Dionysus criticizes King Pentheus, who is supposedly all-powerful. “You are a man of chains,” Dionysus tells him. “You love chains. You breathe chains, talk chains, eat chains, dream chains, think chains. Your world is bound in manacles.” The bad news, Aries, is that many of us have some resemblances to Pentheus. The good news is that the coming months will be a favorable time to shed at least some of your chains. Have fun liberating yourself! Try to help a few others wriggle free from their chains, too. Doing so will aid your own emancipation.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
The coming weeks will be a great time to fill your journal with more intense ruminations than you have for many moons. If you don’t have a journal, think about starting one. Reveal yourself to yourself, Taurus! Make conscious that which has been vague, unnamed, or hiding. Here are assignments to help launch your flood of intimate self-talk. 1. Write passionately about an experience you’ve always wanted to try but have never done. 2. Conduct imaginary interviews with people who rouse strong feelings in you. 3. Describe what deity, superhero, or animal you are and how your special intelligence works. 4. Visualize a dream in which you appear as a bolder, more confident version of yourself. 5. Talk about a time you felt rousingly alive and how you plan to feel that way again.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
A stranger approached me at Wild Birds Unlimited, a store that sells bird food and accessories. “You write the horoscopes, right?” she asked. “I’m a Gemini, and I want to thank you for helping me tone down my relentless fidgeting. You made me realize I have been secretly proud of tapping my fingers on the table while talking with people, and constantly darting my eyes around the room to check out the ever-changing views. I’d unconsciously believed that stuff was a sign of my incredible vitality. But you’ve been a steadying influence. You’ve shown me ways to settle down and focus my energy better. I can see how restlessness sometimes saps my energy.” I told the woman, “You’re welcome!” and let her know that 2023 will be a favorable time to do much more of this good work. Homework: Meditate on channeling your incredible vitality into being grounded and centered.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
According to Cancerian author Ronald Sukenick, the writer’s work is “to destroy restrictive viewpoints, notice the unnoticed, speak the unspeakable, shake stale habits, ward off evil, give vent to sorrow, pulverize doctrine, attack and uphold tradition as needed, and make life worth living.” I believe 2023 will be an excellent time for you to carry out those actions, even if you’re not a writer. You will have abundant power to bless and heal through creative rebellion and disruption. You will thrive as you seek out interesting novelty.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Psychotherapist Ryan Howes has wisdom you’ll benefit from heeding in the coming weeks. “We need to accept our age,” he writes. “We need to accept illnesses and addictions. We need to accept the past. We need to accept others as they are.” He goes on to say that this doesn’t mean we must like all these situations. And we can certainly try to make the best of them. But when we don’t struggle in vain to change what’s beyond our control to change, we have more energy for things that we can actually affect.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Here’s testimony from musician Pharrell Williams: “If someone asks me what inspires me, I always say, ‘That which is missing.'” Yes! This is an apt message for you, Virgo. The best way for you to generate motivation and excitement in the coming weeks will be to explore what is lacking, what is invisible, what’s lost or incomplete. Check in with your deep intuition right now. Do you feel a stirring in your gut? It may tell you where to find important and intriguing things that are missing.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
“Every animal knows far more than you do,” declares a proverb of the Nimíipuu people, also known as the Nez Perce. Author Russell Banks provides further testimony to convince us we should be humble about our powers of awareness. “There is a wonderful intelligence to the unconscious,” he says. “It’s always smarter than we are.” These are good pointers for you to heed in the coming weeks, Libra. You will have a special power to enhance your understanding of the world by calling on the savvy of animals and your unconscious mind. They will be especially rich sources of wisdom. Seek out their educational input!
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Psychologist Carl Jung said that the whole point of Jesus Christ’s story was not that we should become exactly like him. Rather, we should aspire to be our best and highest selves in the same way that he fulfilled his unique mission. I bring these meditations to your attention, Scorpio, because I believe life in 2023 will conspire to make you, more than ever before, the hero of your own destiny. You will be inspired to honor only your own standards of success and reject all others’. You will clearly see that you are progressing at your own natural and righteous pace, which is why it makes no sense to compare your evolution to anyone else’s.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
A reader named Mary Roseberry describes her experience of being a Sagittarius: “I hate to be bored. I hate imperfections. I hate to wait. I hate sadness. I hate conflict. I hate to be wrong. I hate tension.” Wow! I admire Mary’s succinct understanding of who she doesn’t want to be and what she doesn’t like to do. I invite you to compose a similar testimony. You would benefit from getting clear about the experiences you intend to avoid in 2023. Once you have done that, write a list of the interesting feelings and situations you will seek out with intense devotion during the coming months.
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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Quote of the Day: “Ask yourself, and yourself alone, one question. Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good.” – Carlos Castañeda
Photo by: Jack Skinner
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?
A man who has spent years helping disabled people find homes has won a £2.5million country house in a raffle.
Grant Carson scooped up the five-bedroom farmhouse complete with eight acres of the Lake District after entering the Omaze Million Pound House Draw.
The 58-year-old windower said that he can now get a dog, which was what he always wanted, but was always out of the question due to chronic arthritis he has had since he was seven.
The new home is surrounded by such “idyllic countryside” and he can “definitely afford a dog walker,” because along with the house he was also given £100,000 in cash.
The house raffle was organized by Omaze, a charity raffle that lets people support a good cause with the hopes to win a prize, such as a guitar played by Jimi Hendrix, or lunch with George Clooney, or in this case a house.
Carson worked at the same Glasgow charity for 27 years helping disabled people with all aspects of life, and had never won anything before. He was understandably stunned when the Omaze team surprised him at his three-bedroom home in Glasgow.
”It’s not your average Friday night that someone comes to your door and tells you that you’ve won a £2,500,000 house,” said Carson. “I might be one of the luckiest men in Scotland.”
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He recently decided to embark on a new career path as a freelance consultant.
“I’ve just left my old job helping disabled people across Glasgow, which I had done for 27 years, but this win has given me a financial security I’d never dreamed of, which means I can focus on my new venture helping organizations to meet the needs of disabled customers with a lot less pressure.”
Carson is not compelled to live in or keep the house. He can either move in, rent it, or sell it.
If he does decide to rent it out, local real estate agents estimate the property could yield more than £5,000 a month from rentals.
“I love the Lake District, it’s one of the most beautiful places in the country, I’m still pinching myself that I actually own a house here,” said Carson. “I’m not sure what I’ll do long-term yet, but I’m going to move in for a while and enjoy it.”
On that note, the 18th century house is surrounded by stunning scenery, with a tree-lined garden and wild hay meadows surrounded by rolling green hills. It boasts a standalone guest suite with vaulted ceilings and its own kitchen, bedroom, bathroom and living space.
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The Omaze drawing was held to raise money for Dogs Trust, the UK’s largest dog welfare charity. Together, the raffle raised £850,000, about $1 million.
“We’re so grateful to everyone who entered,” said Owen Sharp, chief executive of Dogs Trust. “The money raised will go towards our vital ongoing work to take care of dogs and find them their forever homes—which at the moment, sadly, so many are in need of.”
“Having worked at a charity for so long, I know first-hand how important it is to raise money, I think these Omaze draws are fantastic for the charitable sector,” Carson said.
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A pioneering set of “wearable muscles” with a profile similar to a shoulder sling could increase mobility and strength in the arms of people who have lost it.
As algorithmic intelligence advances, more and more engineers are attempting to design different prosthetics to replace lost mobility, but many are large, bulky, complicated, or extremely expensive.
Michael Hagmann has a rare form of muscular dystrophy called Bethlem myopathy, but his muscular output was increased 61% thanks to a kind of exo-tendon called “Myoshirt” which learns the movements Hagmann wants to make before raising and lowering a cable similar to a human tendon in order to apply mechanical advantage to his actions.
“Although hospitals have numerous good therapy devices, they are often very expensive and unwieldy,” said Marie Georgarakis, a former doctoral student at the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology’s Sensory Motor Systems Lab in Zurich.
“And there are few technical aids that patients can use directly in their everyday lives and draw on for assistance in performing exercises at home. We want to close this gap.”
The Myoshirt is a soft, wearable exomuscle for the arms and shoulders; a kind of vest with cuffs for the upper arms accompanied by a small box containing all the technology that is not used directly on the body.
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Smart algorithms detect the user’s movements and the assistance remains always in tune with them. The mechanical movements can be tailored to their individual preferences, and the user is always in control and can override the device at any time.
In an alpha-stage test, 12 people including Hagmann and another with a spinal cord injury, performed arm strength tests wearing the Myoshirt. In the 10 who had no mobility issues, Georgarakis et al. found that “onset of muscle fatigue” was delayed by 51 seconds compared to an unsupported arm.
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Hagmann experienced a 254 second-delay in the onset of fatigue doing unloaded arm lifts, and the participant with the injured spinal column was able to lift his arms repeatedly for nearly 7-and-a-half minutes more than without the Myoshirt.
At the moment the box containing the motor and computer parts weighs close to 9 pounds, so the team’s first priority is to develop a full prototype with an even more discreet profile to allow people to use it in day to day life as often as possible.
WATCH how effortlessly it works…
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Dozens of bus stops around the city center of Aberdeen, Scotland, are set for a renovation to turn them into “Bee Bus Stops.”
Covered in sedum, a flowering plant also known as stonecrop, they will hopefully encourage biodiversity, keep shelters cooler in summer, and absorb pollutants.
Described as “quite miserable places” in December by council member Kairin Van Sweeden, this new update put’s Scottish heritage as triumphant innovators at the forefront of public transit.
At present the conversion is limited to a test run of 9 stops, but the city could soon make it a blanket policy for all new bus stops, and require the re-fitting of old ones. City planners hope they can draft volunteer programs to water and care for the plants atop the stops as means to encourage a sort of community spirit amid the Union Street area.
They could look like a pilot program in the county of Aberdeenshire, where a Park & Ride has been given a green makeover including a sedum-planted roof, solar panels, and the latest energy-saving LED light displays.
The Ellon Park & Ride features “Papercast” displays, an electrified piece of paper that costs no energy to display an image, making them the lowest-consuming piece of electronic signage on Earth.
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The station features three different bus shelters, all outfitted with sedum roofs and Papercast travel displays.
Cities elsewhere in Europe have already switched over to bee-friendly bus stops, for example in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Bus stops might be small, but they can easily be changed from having ab environmental footprint, into a collective network of zero-impact city infrastructure.
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The world’s largest flower encased in amber has recently been re-examined by scientists who discovered it was producing pollen at the exact same time it was covered in the tree resin which forms amber.
This remarkably lucky discovery allowed the scientists to study the pollen grains and assign the ancient flower to its still-living cousins.
Amber is like a time capsule. It famously preserves plants and insects visible over millions of years in incredible detail. Plant inclusions in amber are rare but very valuable for research. They make it possible to reconstruct the vegetation in different phases of the Earth’s history and to draw conclusions about the flora of the amber-producing forests.
One of the largest deposits in the world is in Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea, where Baltic amber for jewelry is mined, 90% of the world’s total supply. Hundreds of metric tonnes are mined there every year, and the forests may have created 100,000 tonnes of this miraculous resin.
Discovered almost 150 years ago, a 1.1 inch-long flower encased in amber was assigned as the Stewartia genus, known colloquially as camellia flowers, and then sheleved.
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Now, Eva-Maria Sadowski from the Museum of Natural History Berlin and Dr. Christa-Charlotte Hofmann from the University of Vienna, examined this fossil from the collection of the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources for the first time since its discovery.
They found that numerous pollen grains that had escaped from the stamens of the enclosed flower.
“It is very unusual to find such a large blossom in amber, which, moreover, releases its pollen exactly at the time of embedding in the resin,” Dr. Sadowski said in a translated press release. The pollen was scraped out with a scalpel for examination under the scanning electron microscope.
“Only under extremely high magnification can morphological details be recognized on the pollen grains, which are only a few micrometers in size,” adds Dr. Hofmann.
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Based on the pollen and some flower characteristics, the researchers were able to assign the fossil to the Asian representative of the genus Symplocos from the Symplocaceae family. Also known as “sweetleaf” in English-speaking countries, this family includes shrubs and small trees.
It is the first find of this plant genus from Baltic amber, but Symplocos was not alone in the Baltic amber forest at the time. Around 34 to 38 million years ago, it housed numerous other plants whose descendants are now only found thousands of miles away in East and Southeast Asia.
At that time it was even warmer and rainier in Europe than today, so that many representatives of the beech family, like false chestnuts, (Castanopsis) and conifers like the cedar Cryptomeria which today is endemic only in Japan and China, could feel at home.
Together they formed a diverse ecosystem consisting of coastal swamps, bogs, and mixed forests.
“Our new findings about this uniquely beautiful flower inclusion are an additional piece of the puzzle that will help us to further decode the flora of the Baltic Amber Forest and thus to draw conclusions about the climate of past times,” said Dr. Sadowski. “Only with such insights can we gain deeper insights into the forests of the earth’s history and understand their change over time.”
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Quote of the Day: “The voice within is what I’m married to… where an honest yes and no comes from.” – Byron Katie
Photo by: Jaime Dantas
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In the UAE’s Sharjah Mountains, a concept resort spans a vast mountain gully with floating tents hanging in the air.
The ultimate in mountain “glamping,” the so-called Floating Retreat is the brainchild of Dubai-based design studio Ardh Architect, who were tasked to investigate a new kind of hospitality that blended environmental awareness and appreciation for nature with modern comfort.
The images, while striking, create a whorl of questions, not least of which involve safety.
The idea that the pods are actual tents creates the confusion. Essentially the ten luxury hotel rooms designed with state-of-the-art fabric walls, sit docked to a large bridge spanning the gully between two mountain peaks.
Visitors check in at a reception desk at the bottom of the mountain before presumably taking an elevator to the bridge level. Once inside, the tent/room can be raised and lowered according to the guests’ desires.
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“The Floating Retreat project has several key values at its core,” writes Ardh. “One of the main goals of the project is to re-energize the local community through tourism, by providing a space for people to connect with the natural beauty of the region and to learn about its rich culture and heritage.”
Concept images show people along the deck connected to a series of harnesses to prevent them from falling off the railingless edge.
The tents are designed with privacy in mind and can be positioned in various configurations to prevent overlap or proximity to other tents. The side fabric of the tents is made of a blur fabric, while the front of the tent is made of clear material to provide uninterrupted views.
There are several layout options available, including configurations that are suitable for business retreats or yoga sessions, and others that are suitable for spiritual or psychedelic retreats. The layouts can be chosen to suit the specific needs and preferences of the guests.
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“Individual tents/pods of the floating retreat are designed to bring luxury and comfort to those who cannot participate in mountain climbing or other adrenaline-filled outdoor activities,” said Ardh.
Amenities such as guided tours in the area, a 5-star spa facility at the top of one of the mountains, and a restaurant at the foot, are all planned for as well.
SHARE These Spectacular Mountain Vistas With Your Friends….
Astronomers have identified 208 different stars just under 1 million light years from the center of the Milky Way, placing a pretty convincing stellar road sign for the end of our home galaxy.
With the reveal photos of the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomy headlines tend to involve the universe at large, but studying our own galaxy not only helps to inform the structure of other galaxies in the universe, but also features in our own cosmic neighborhood.
Called RR Lyrae stars, the 208 most distant stars were actually found in the residual data of a ground-based telescope survey of a cluster of galaxies beyond the Milky Way.
The Milky Way consists of a “bulge”—the galactic center, around which can be found the thin spiral-arm disk where our own solar system resides, followed by the inner and outer “halo” a region that’s typified by large amounts of dark matter and less information than the inner regions.
Our disk is about 100,000 light years across, but the outer halo extends in every direction for hundreds of thousands of light years. In this region the stars were found “beating” like hearts in the darkness due to their unique characteristics.
“The way their brightness varies looks like an EKG—they’re like the heartbeats of the galaxy—so the brightness goes up quickly and comes down slowly, and the cycle repeats perfectly with this very characteristic shape,” said Raja GuhaThakurta, professor and chair of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz.
“In addition, if you measure their average brightness, it is the same from star to star. This combination is fantastic for studying the structure of the galaxy.”
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The RR Lyrae stars are very old stars in the galaxy, and placing 208 of them in the outer reaches of the halo will make for an excellent data point for astronomers studying the formation of the Milky Way.
Astronomers measure galactic distance in kiloparsecs; each one representing 3,260 light years. Some of the farthest RR Lyrae stars identified were 320 kiloparsecs from the bulge, or around 1.04 million light years, with that decimal figure representing a fair expansion of the previous estimations on the outer reaches of the outer halo.
It’s around 2.5 million light years to the nearest neighboring galaxy of Andromeda.
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“This study is redefining what constitutes the outer limits of our galaxy,” said GuhaThakurta. “Our galaxy and Andromeda are both so big, there’s hardly any space between the two galaxies.”
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Archaeologists working in Denmark’s Jutland peninsula have discovered the foundation and remains of a great hall from the high Viking Age.
Structural features and remains date to between the late-9th to 11th century, but mostly from the era of Denmark’s king Harald Blåtand Gormsson, known colloquially as Harald “Bluetooth” from which the modern technology derives its name.
The archaeologists from the Historical Museum of Northern Jutland have little doubt that the hall would have played a monumental role in day-to-day life. It would have almost certainly been a political seat, as well as the center of get-togethers for all manner of reasons.
“This is the largest Viking Age find of this nature in more than ten years, and we have not seen anything like it before here in North Jutland, even though it has only been partially excavated,” archaeologist and excavation leader Thomas Rune Knudsen said in a statement.
“We only had the opportunity to excavate part of the hall, but there are probably several houses hidden under the mulch to the east. A hall building of this nature rarely stands alone.”
In its design, the long hall is reminiscent of the houses found at Harald Blåtand’s ring castles, which include Fyrkat at Hobro and Aggersborg at Aggersund. It is around 130 feet (40 meters) long and 32 feet (8-10 meters) long. Ten or possibly twelve rectangular oak posts would have securely held up the roof.
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The excavators noted that a lot more needs to be done to truly understand the place of this hall in the times of history in which it was erected, but a nearby runestone may offer a clue as to its former chieftain.
A wealthy landowner named Runulv den Rådsnilde is memorialized in a carved standing stone near to the site, and while it’s difficult to prove the hall belonged to him, “it’s certainly a possibility,” said the team.
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It’s common even in journalism to call everything from the late 8th to 11th century from Scandinavia “Viking,” but Nordic writers closest to the time of the Viking Age used the word as an adverb—as in “he went that summer to go Viking in Northern France.”
In other words, it wasn’t a person, warrior, or profession, but more like a seasonal activity, and the word included all kinds of behavior such as raiding, trading, enslaving, or elisting as foreign mercenaries.
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Rory McCarty was shocked to find an 82-year-old Navy veteran and widower still “grinding” out 8-9 hour shifts at a Walmart. He realized at that moment he could put his social media influence towards a good cause.
Helping raise $108,000 in just a few days, McCarty gave it all to help the man finally retire.
Warren Marion walked into Walmart in Cumberland, Maryland, for the final time last week after having handed in a two-week notice. He was greeted with cheers, balloons, and a large check for $108,000.
McCarty runs an extermination business called Bug Boys, and in a true 21st century story, managed to amass a TikTok following of 300,000 by showing videos of creepy crawlies he finds during work.
“As a business owner … I was astounded seeing this little older man still grinding. Working eight to nine hour shifts,” Mr McCarty said on the GoFundMe page he set up on December 19th to help fund Marion’s retirement.
“I wanted to help this Navy Veteran to live the remainder of his years traveling to see his kids in Florida. Get him off his feet for 8 hrs at a time. And do the things he would love to do that he may not be able to for financial reasons.”
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A video he posted of them both in December has been viewed over three million times, and the GoFundMe met its goal within a few days.
It’s actually the third Walmart employee that TikTok users have managed to coax into retirement, and Marion is the second 82-year-old to receive the generosity of this particular social media platform.
An elderly woman named Nola was filmed on break at another WalMart by TikTok user Devon Bonagura, who managed to raise a whopping $175,000 for her retirement.
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Quote of the Day: “There is one path in the world that none can walk but you. Don’t ask where it leads…walk!” – Friedrich Nietzsche
Photo by: Lili Popper
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In an effort to combat flooding, a Yorkshire woman realized that thousands of wasted Christmas trees every year could be used as natural flood protection, and started a unique business to do just that.
The Rooted Christmas tree rental delivers a potted Christmas fir, pine, or spruce to a family for the festive season. When the lights are taken down, the company then collects their rentals and replants them to enjoy another growing season.
When the trees get too tall, they are placed on the slopes of the nearby Calder Valley as natural floodwater breaks.
The Sunday Times reports that the towns of Mytholmroyd and Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire have been inundated by serious floods 4 times in the last 15 years, with the most-recent one causing $180 million (£150 million) in damages.
Rooted founder Sara Tomkins established a Christmas tree plantation in the spring of 2020 with 400 trees. Dozens of those original 400 have now become too large for the average living room, and have been hauled off for planting in the upper parts of the Calder Valley to stop floodwaters running down into the two towns below.
What started as a sustainability project turned into a flourishing commercial enterprise. When residents learned how their Christmas tree purchases could be used to protect their towns from floods and reduce waste from rotting trees, all of Tomkins’ original trees were rented out.
According to Tomkins, people pretend the trees are members of the family, and like to rent the same one over and over again to “watch them grow up with their kids.”
“It’s like people adopt them,” she says. “They become part of the family. I’ve got a couple of people already asking if they can have the same tree again in 2023 and I’m trying to gently break it to them that it’s going to be nine foot by then so it won’t fit in their house.”
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Tomkins feels that demand might be 3x her current supply, but as a music venue director, she does the job only in her off hours.
“I do this in my spare time so I don’t have the capacity or the physical space to make it any bigger,” she told The Times. “But the demand being there is such a positive thing because, if we can reduce how many Christmas trees we cut down, that is a massive environmental win.”
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8 years after Arctic researchers discovered the lost wreck of HMS Erebus, the team has finally been able to see it with their own eyes and recover hundreds of artifacts from its ill-fated search for the Northwest Passage.
Setting sail from Great Britain in 1845 and captained by the famed polar explorer Sir John Franklin, HMS Erebus is in pristine condition under the ice off King Williams Island in Nunavut, Canada’s northernmost territory.
Franklin’s voyage was accompanied by the HMS Terror, found nearby two years after Erebus. They were abandoned in heavy sea ice with all 129 souls lost in what was the worst disaster in the history of the British Navy’s polar exploration.
In September 2022, archaeological research operations and excavation resumed at HMS Erebus based from the RV David Thompson and support barge Qiniqtirjuaq, just one aspect of a large assistance operation from the local Inuit people. The team completed 56 individual dives over the course of 11 days, reports Parks Canada.
Among the artifacts pulled from what Canadian Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said were “some of the best-preserved wooden wrecks in the world,” were a drafting table tool set, serving dishes, an embossed leather billfold, a toothbrush, lieutenant’s epaulets, and an eyeglass lens, among dozens of other items.
The two wrecks are considered National Historic Sites, and they are jointly-protected and managed by Parks Canada and the Inuit Heritage Trust.
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HMS Erebus is in shallower water, and easier to study. It’s been designated the more important of the two wrecks considering it was the flagship, but expeditions via unmanned submersible in 2016 on HMS Terror turned up important information on what might have happened.
The Guardian, reporting at the time, quoted Adrian Schimnowski, the Arctic Research Foundation’s operations director as saying that the Terror was sitting pretty level on the seafloor, suggesting her fate was gentle and not sudden or jarring. A long rope was discovered running through a hole in the gunwales, suggesting an anchor may have been weighed at the time the ship went down.
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“This vessel looks like it was buttoned down tight for winter and it sank,” said Schimnowski at the time. “Everything was shut. Even the windows are still intact. If you could lift this boat out of the water, and pump the water out, it would probably float,” he said, adding that three of the four tall window panes of the captain’s cabin were still intact.
The Erebus was found to be a little worse for wear than it was in 2014. It’s thought that storms and reduced icepack coverage has led to more erosion. The team explored the second lieutenant’s quarters and the steward’s galley, and is currently exploring what it believes to be the third lieutenant’s quarters.
WATCH the 5-minute presentation of the excavation (skip to 1:50 to see the ship)
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In a few days time, four brothers will set a world record as the first rowing team made entirely of brothers to cross the whole of the Atlantic.
While many siblings find being stuck under one roof challenging, it’s a testament to their endurance that the four of them have shared two rowing benches and one tent-sized cabin for nearly 4 weeks.
The adventurous brothers are two sets of twins—26-year-olds Jack and Hamish Friend, and 24-year-olds Euan and Arthur Friend.
The foursome from Devon, England have already raised more than 80k for charities since setting off on their epic endurance challenge nearly a month ago.
Naming their team ‘The FriendShip,’ they trained for the grueling feat for a total of 18 months ahead of their departure on December 12th from La Gomera, in the Canary Islands.
And they are expected to finally complete the Talisker Atlantic Challenge race and arrive at their destination, Antigua, in the next week. The Talisker Challenge usually consists of 20-40 rowing teams, and the boys’ latest diary entry claims they were in 4th, but gaining fast on 3rd place-holders.
“There have been some massive highs and some pretty low moments over the past 26 days,” said Hamish in a video, reflecting on their progress on Friday. “High moments from just surfing down some massive waves (…) and these amazing starry skies and amazing sunrises and sunsets.
“Low moments such as being slapped in the face by a flying fish at two in the morning, to getting absolutely soaked by these Atlantic storms that come along. Sitting in your cabin all damp and wet trying to get to sleep.”
Indeed, Talisker describes the Atlantic Challenge thusly.
“Sleep deprivation, hallucinations, hunger and the ultimate test of body and mind will be balanced by sighting incredible marine life, witnessing the breaking of a new day and sun sets that cannot be viewed by land.”
The twins each complete 2-hour rowing sessions before rotating into the cabin for rest and recovery.
They consume around 6,000 calories a day of freeze-dried food and make their own drinking water from a solar-powered desalination unit.
The brothers are completing the challenge in aid of three local charities, and have so far raised a whopping £82,000 for the cause.
The charities are CHAT, a vital service for those struggling with housing issues in Mid Devon; the Drive Forward Foundation, which enables children and young people with experience of foster or residential care to achieve their full potential; and Friends of Kiwoko Hospital, a charity set up to support the work of the Kiwoko Hospital in Uganda.
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Katie Humphreys, 22, is Euan’s girlfriend and has been keeping in regular contact to share their progress on social media.
“They are loving it,” she said. “I’m quite shocked—they don’t even want it to end.”
“They have loved being able to push themselves to their mental and physical limits. They have also raised over £80k for three fantastic charities and that’s what’s driving them to do the challenge.”
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A team of New Jersey police officers went “above and beyond” to rescue a stranded man who nearly died from the cold.
Tom McHugh was reported missing by his daughter on December 17th, 24-hours after she had last seen him—when he left for a ride in the mountains of rural Sussex County in his side-by-side.
A search was organized as temperatures were low and snow was on the ground. After finding McHugh’s tire tracks, his side-by-side was found crashed by the side of the trail in Stokes State Forest.
Troopers were able to follow his boot prints through the snow a mile-and-a-half to reach the man, who was alive but unconscious and suffering from hypothermia, a frightful condition that renders the limbs difficult to control, and seriously impairs thinking ability.
One trooper was an ex-marine, and used his training to raise the McHugh’s body temperature without fire or blankets.
“That’s what they teach us to do: life-saving skills in cold conditions,” said New Jersey State Trooper James Thonus. “Strip down, get on top of him, give him sternum rubs, body heat to body heat, whatever you can do to get [him warm].”
Body camera footage released records one trooper calling on another who had just finished running and had “excess body heat” to take turns laying on top of McHugh in the same way.
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McHugh’s breathing improved, but the team were then forced to carry the 6-foot-2, 200-plus pound man all the way back to the vehicles through snow and mud.
McHugh made a full recovery.
“Because they found him so fast. They did what they had to. But they went above and beyond,” said McHugh’s daughter, who called them heroes.
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