Quote of the Day: “The important thing is to tell yourself a life story in which you, the hero, are primarily a problem solver rather than a helpless victim.” – Martha Beck
Photo by: Daniel intodawoj
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?
There are a lot of animals far easier to love and care for than bats, but that didn’t stop Houston Humane Society from rescuing nearly 1,600 of them from freezing to death.
On Thursday a cold snap in Texas caused these tiny winged mammals to plummet from the sky onto the cold pavement where they would have likely all perished if not for the volunteers who collected them en masse for rehabilitation.
Mary Warwick, the wildlife director at the Houston Humane Society was out according to AP doing some holiday shopping when she began to worry about the Mexican free-tailed bat colony under the Waugh Bridge. Sure enough she found nearly 100 lying stiff on the ground.
Twice a day she would go collect them, put them in carriers on her car’s heated seats and then transfer them to incubators in her attic. Volunteers from another bat colony brought in 900 more this week.
Many of the bats, according to the Guardian, needed only a quick hydration boost and some warmth, while others needed to stay in the incubator’s heat a while longer.
The Houston Humane Society completed to mass-releases of the bats back under their bridges, one in Pearland Fite Road Bridge, and the other at Waugh Bridge.
MORE ANIMAL RESCUES: Volunteers in Texas Saved Thousands Of Sea Turtles From The Shocking Cold Weather
In total 1,544 bats were collected and saved by the volunteers, an effort reminiscent of the Texas turtle rescue from last year, when thousands of turtles were cold stunned and could have died.
GNN followed the story of animal hospitals, private volunteers, game wardens, and Elon Musk’s company SpaceX all joining together over two weeks to save and rehabilitate sea turtles that were being stunned into listlessness by the winter storm that arrived on the Gulf coast.
Together this “massive community effort,” rescued 5,000 turtles from dying of cold, or drowning when Gulf of Mexico temperatures dropped below 50°F.
THESE Volunteers Deserve A Share For Their Big Bat Rescue…
An Italian motor company has unveiled a supercar that will run on garbage.
Italian supercars tend towards the polluting side of the spectrum of manufacturing, with massive 12 cylinder engines that care little for miles per gallon.
Bertone are known for iconic designs such as the sharply angled “Italian Wedge” shape of the Lamborghini Countach, but their new GB110 is the first high performance car that will be supplied with fuel made out of plastic waste.
The limited edition run of 33 vehicles has been launched to mark Bertone’s 110th anniversary.
Bertone has not released a price tag for the car, but says it will be “akin to a piece of art,” and allow potential owners to choose a series of modifications to suit “unique tastes and identity.”
Jean-Franck Ricci, CEO of Bertone, says they “have partnered with the company Select Fuel which has developed a patented technology to convert polycarbonate materials into renewable fuel.”
“We believe that de-pollution will require different solutions with combinations of technologies,” Ricci said.
“Plastic waste needs to be treated as a valuable resource. Through our partnership with Select Fuel we take what was once waste and convert it back into its original form.”
MORE LIKE THIS: Airless Tires: These Puncture-Proof Michelin Marvels Are Even Made From 47% Recycled Resources
Boasting a hefty 1,100 horsepower, the GB110 is claimed to be able to pull off 0-60 mph in 2.79 seconds, with a maximum speed somewhere over 236 mph.
“We recognise that plastic waste is a major environmental problem,” Select Fuel said in a statement. “We have committed to developing technologies that convert polycarbonate materials into renewable and sustainable fuels.”
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“Our fuels are used in everything from the transportation industry and renewable aviation fuel to motorsport and high-end sports cars including the Bertone GB110.”
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Japanese oncologists have used artificial DNA in a whole new way to naturally kill cancer cells by helping the immune system identify them.
The whole reason cancer is as lethal as it is is because the immune system doesn’t act upon cancer cells and tumors, disguised as they are to look like normal cells.
By creating a hairpin-shaped pair of DNA molecules called oHPs, the researchers found a way to expose the cancer to the immune system’s targeting procedure, and thus stop and even reverse human cervical cancer and breast cancer-derived cells, and malignant melanoma in mice.
Nucleic-acid treatments for cancer are inherently risky due to the potential for the host immune system to attack healthy cells carrying the same genes or signals as the cancerous ones.
As normal as they may seem to the immune system, cancer cells don’t function like normal cells. They overproduce or underproduce certain material, in this case the target was an overproduced informational molecule called microRNA-21 (miR-21).
When the artificial oPHs encountered the miR-21, they unwound them, and rejoined to form longer DNA strands which were naturally determined as being dangerous due to their overabundance by the host immune system.
MORE CANCER DISCOVERIES: First Patient Gets Potentially Cancer-Stopping Pill – Study is Recruiting Those with Resistant Tumors For a Trial
“The results of this study are good news for doctors, drug discovery researchers and cancer patients, as we believe it will give them new options for drug development and medication policies,” said Professor Akimitsu Okamoto from the Graduate School of Engineering, Univ. of Tokyo.
“Next, we will aim for drug discovery based on the results of this research, and examine in detail the drug efficacy, toxicity and potential administration methods.”
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The iPhone 14 has saved several lives this winter with some pretty impressive safety features that are worth noting as the U.S. continues to be battered with one of the worst winter storms in memory.
A tech news outlet reports that the iPhone 14’s SOS call which connects via satellite rather than through telecom towers saved a man in Alaska recently.
Traveling from Noorvik to Kotzebue by snow mobile, he became stranded without network coverage. Apple’s Emergency Response Center received his SOS call via satellite and connected his position to the Northwest Arctic Borough Search and Rescue Coordinator.
The GPS coordinates contained in the SOS led the volunteer rescuers right to him, and he went home unharmed.
Another safety feature has a two-fold benefit this winter—the Crash Detection Feature. An iPhone 14 or Apple watch has certain parameters of motion sensing that allows it to determine if the user has been in a collision.
The phone will automatically call 911 unless the user selects not to. This saved the lives of two passengers who plummeted off a canyon road in Angeles National Forest, California, before tumbling 300 feet to the canyon bottom. Alone and without cell service, Crash Detection alerted 911, while the passengers followed it up with an Emergency SOS.
As it turns out the phone is also capable of translating that motion data while the user is on the slopes.
Record numbers of 911 calls were being handled in mountain ski towns across America as skiers’ iPhones were placing calls from their pocket based on the considerable changes in speed and direction achieved by experienced skiers.
RELATED: Off-Duty EMT Rescuer Spends Day Keeping Skier Alive After Avalanche
Apple recommends turning the Crash Detection feature off before hitting the slopes, or you can remember to pull your phone out after a rapid braking and select not to place the call. In the case that you were, say, catapulted through the air to land disastrously, you might be grateful you left the feature on.
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Quote of the Day: “I’m in love with cities I’ve never been to and people I’ve never met.” – Melody Truong
Photo by: Andy Corbley – © 2022
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?
In a pilot program to address the homelessness problem in Kansas City, the state gave them part-time work which helped many of them secure the housing they desperately needed.
Kansas City Missouri has seen a decrease in litter collection as the pandemic created a slowdown in court cases and community service clean-up programs.
By putting 26 of the city’s roughly 1,800 homeless folks to work cleaning the streets they happen to sleep on, it cleared two hurdles in one sprint, removing more than 67,000 pounds of trash by the end of the work period, and giving the homeless workers the ability to put “employed” on a housing application.
“We really wanted to focus on people that were homeless in the truest sense of the word,” said Doug Langner, executive director of Hope Faith, a Christian non-profit that helps over 200 homeless in the city.
“It was an awkward feeling at first: they’re punching-in in the day, [and] they punch out and are back on the streets that night,” he told Fast Company.
Hope Faith was able to afford to employ 5 homeless workers at $15 an hour, 4 of whom secured long-term housing at the end of the 3-month work-trial period.
MORE HOMELESS NEWS: U.S. Near its Goal to House Every Homeless Veteran Identified in a January 2022 Count
Another non-profit Creative Innovative saw 6 of their 21 workers make it into housing.
In January the program will expand to 46 trash collectors, half homeless and half long-term prison inmates reentering society, funded by 7 non-profits.
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Two men wrongfully-imprisoned for more than two decades were able to spend Christmas with their families after a podcast and non-profit advanced evidence of their innocence.
Darrell Lee Clark and Cain Joshua Storey were just teenagers when they stood trial for a murder of their 15-year-old friend he died of gunshot wounds at a party in 1996.
Clack had all the charges against him dropped after a motion for a new trial was field on his behalf by attorneys from the Georgia Innocence Project. He was released Thursday along with Storey.
“You never think something like that is going to happen to you,” Clark said in the statement.
“Never would I have thought I would spend more than half my life in prison, especially for something I didn’t do. I’m just glad the truth finally came to light after 25 years. I’m so thankful for the Georgia Innocence Project and Proof Podcast for what they did. Without them, I would still be in prison.”
Susan Simpson and Jacinda Davis host a podcast called “Proof” and they began interviewing the state’s two key witnesses about the case last year.
The details go like this. At a party, 15-year-old Brian Bowling shot himself in a game of Russian Roulette with a gun allegedly provided by Storey. Manslaughter was to be the original charge, but Bowling’s distraught family urged for the charge to be stiffened to murder, and charged Clark who had a corroborating alibi of his absence from the whole situation, in a conspiracy to murder.
MORE LIKE THIS: Thousands Have Donated $1.6 Million to Innocent Man Freed From Prison After 43-Year Wrongful Conviction
The Proof podcast hosts interviewed the party hostess, who admitted that the police had coerced her into making false statements regarding Clark and Storey’s testimony. The second witness was a hearing-impaired man, and Simpson and Davis got him on record as not being able to separate the Bowling murder details with a very similar case from ten years later in 1976.
Furthermore, according to this hearing impaired witness, he never saw Clark run through Bowling’s yard, which was the original cornerstone of his charging in the case.
“An autopsy in the case would have solved it, yet they refused to get an autopsy,” said Mr. Storey’s attorney Luke Martin. “That autopsy would have shown this was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.”
The Georgia Innocence Project also reported, according to NBC, that a coroner, who was untrained as a doctor, testified that it was his “gut feeling” that the gunshot was not self-inflicted.
A Redditor following the case commented on a thread about Clark and Storey’s release that this coroner later went to federal prison for wide-scale fraud he committed while working as a coroner, including for sending bills to families for autopsies.
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“We are elated, thrilled that he is finally home after all this time. It’s even better that it’s in time for the holidays,” Clark’s attorney Meagan Hurley said. “Twenty-five years is an incredibly long time to spend incarcerated for a crime you didn’t commit.”
Hurley credits the Bowlings, who agreed to hear what the podcasters and attorneys had to say.
CELEBRATE The Release Of These Innocent Men On Facebook…
Utter tragedy was avoided recently in Michigan when a good samaritan found a cat frozen to the ground during a winter storm.
The savior’s name was Kelly, the cat’s Elliot, and together they flew to the Big Lake Community Animal Clinic in Muskegon for life-saving veterinary care.
“When he arrived at the clinic, his body temp was only 94 degrees, and his eyes had crusted shut,” the clinic reported Tuesday on Facebook.
“Life saving treatment was started immediately by the vet and staff, with warm IV fluids, warming him up, cleaning his eyes, and checking for any injuries, then monitored. Happy to say he is now resting comfortably!”
MORE LIKE THIS: How a Tiny Injured Kitten Kickstarted an Entire Sustainability Initiative to Eliminate Plastic
As of yesterday Elliot’s eyes are open, and he’s beginning to talk to the staff. His voice is still raspy, and if he had lost his appetite after parts of him were frozen solid, he’s regained it now.
Anyone who recognizes him is asked to contact Big Lake Animal Clinic at 231-799-1074. You can help with Elliot’s medical costs on the Muskegon Humane Society’s website here.
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Certain hyper-efficient microbe species in our guts could be the reason why some people gain weight and others don’t, proving once again how much influence the microbiota has in our lives.
Unfair as it is, some of us seem to put on weight just by looking at a pizza while others can munch away with abandon and not gain a gram. Part of the explanation could be related to the composition of our gut microbes.
Researchers studied the residual energy in the feces of 85 Danes to estimate how effective their gut microbes are at extracting energy from food. At the same time, they mapped the composition of gut microbes for each participant.
The results show that roughly 40% of the participants belong to a group that extracts more energy on average from food compared to the other 60%.
The researchers also observed that those who extracted the most energy from food also weighed 10% more on average, amounting to an extra 9 kilograms, or around 20 pounds.
“We may have found a key to understanding why some people gain more weight than others, even when they don’t eat more or any differently. But this needs to be investigated further,” says Associate Professor Henrik Roager of the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, which ran the study.
The results indicate that being overweight might not only be related to how healthily one eats, the amount of exercise one gets, or their sleep quality. It may also have something to do with the composition of a person’s gut microbes.
Participants were divided into three groups, based on the composition of their gut microbes. The so-called B-type composition (dominated by Bacteroides bacteria) is more effective at extracting nutrients from food and was observed in 40% of the participants.
Following the study, the researchers suspect that a portion of the population may be disadvantaged by having gut bacteria that are a bit too effective at extracting energy.
This effectiveness may result in more calories being available for the human host from the same amount of food—an adaptation which would have been of great value to early man, but during the age of abundance could be leading to obesity.
“The fact that our gut bacteria are great at extracting energy from food is basically a good thing, as the bacteria’s metabolism of food provides extra energy in the form of, for example, short-chain fatty acids , which are molecules that our body can use as energy-supplying fuel. But if we consume more than we burn, the extra energy provided by the intestinal bacteria may increase the risk of obesity over time,” explains Henrik Roager.
The study also looked at the total length of GI tract, from mouth to stomach to the intestines and colon, to see whether variations in a food’s journey time between individuals affected weight gain.
The researchers hypothesized that those with long digestive travel times would be the ones who harvested the most nutrition from their food. But the study found the exact opposite.
MORE ON THE GUT MICROBIOTA: Wisdom and Loneliness May Be Shaped by Healthy Gut Microbes, Researchers Believe
“We thought that there would be a long digestive travel time would allow more energy to be extracted. But here, we see that participants with the B-type gut bacteria that extract the most energy, also have the fastest passage through the gastrointestinal system, which has given us something to think about,” says Dr. Roager.
These findings in humans confirm earlier studies in mice, which showed that germ-free mice which received gut microbes from obese donors gained more weight compared to mice that received gut microbes from lean donors, despite being fed the same diet.
Even then, the researchers proposed that the differences in weight gain could be attributable to the fact that the gut bacteria from obese people were more efficient at extracting energy from food.
RELATED: Diabetes Might Be Cured Using Healthy Stool Samples, Say Researchers at UCSD
“It is very interesting that the group of people who have less energy left in their stool also weigh more on average. However, this study doesn’t provide proof that the two factors are directly related. We hope to explore this more in the future,” Dr. Roager.
If it were to be confirmed scientifically that the two are correlated, the widely-publicized fecal matter transplant, which essentially shares a donor’s flourishing microbiota with a patient’s disrupted one, could be used to combat this natural tendency towards weight gain.
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Quote of the Day: “Weaknesses are just strengths in the wrong environment.” – Marianne Cantwell
Photo by: Xavier von Erlach
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?
For the first time since the species was discovered in the Galápagos Islands, baby Galápagos pink iguanas have been seen in the wilds of those majestic islands.
First described in 2009, the species was immediately recognized as facing a serious risk of extinction. Only between 200-300 iguanas are thought to exist on Wolf Volcano on Isabella Island.
But after a ten-month expedition by the Galápagos National Park Directorate of Ecuador, and the Galápagos Conservancy of the U.S., it’s confirmed that the species is still building nests, and still procreating; revealed by dozens of hidden cameras.
The cameras also confirmed the major threat to the pink iguanas are non-native feral cats, knowledge that while tragically garnered, will go a long way towards drafting a strategy that can save the reptile.
“Excellent news for our country! Pink iguana hatchlings and juveniles were discovered for the first time after years of research,” cheered the Ecuadorian Minister of the Environment. “This is thanks to a collaboration between the GNPD and the Galápagos Conservancy. Congratulations to everyone who contributed to this discovery!“
A monitoring station has been set up on the remote Wolf Volcano to keep scientific eyes on these vulnerable reptiles.
RELATED: Endangered Frogs See ‘Population Explosion’ After 422 Ponds Were Built in Switzerland
“The discovery of the first-ever nest and young pink iguanas together with evidence of the critical threats to their survival has also given us the first hope for saving this enigmatic species from extinction.” Paul Salaman, president of Galápagos Conservancy, said in a statement. “Now, our work begins to save the pink iguana.”
The expedition was funded by Initiative Galápagos, a program in 2021 to reverse all species declines on the famous islands.
Last year GNN reported the first ever major surveys of the animal on Isabella Island.
The challenges of conserving them are partly the terrain, for Wolf Volcano is as unwelcoming as a wolf or a volcano. The iguanas nest at 5,600 feet above sea level, where there is little shade, and the temperatures can rise to 100 °F, and 160 °F at the level of the ground. At night however, the temperature plummets to 50 °F with a strong, constant and freezing wind.
MORE ON THE GALAPAGOS: Iguanas Successfully Reintroduced to Galapagos Island After They Were Last Seen By Darwin 184 Years Ago
The steep, mountainous ground is littered with cacti, and there are more ticks on Isabella than any other island. Finally, the iguanas can easily bite a finger off if they get the opportunity, so handling them is kept to a minimum.
Islands, not least of which being the Galápagos, have benefitted more than perhaps any other ecosystem on Earth from conservation measures.
As disrupted as they have been from introduced species, they are about the only places on Earth where restoring the original ecosystem can be 100% successful, and GNN has reported that on many islands this has absolutely been the case, through eradication of invasive species, and strict protections.
WATCH the story below…
SHARE This Good News Amid The Gloom Of The “Sixth Mass Extinction” Talk…
Some Florida kids got to see their favorite garbage man again after a four year absence when city officials saw an old video of them all playing together.
For years Tony Parker from the City of Orlando garbage collection would arrive in front of the Wierenicz household and there’d be three tawny-haired youngsters waiting for him.
Four years ago however, his route was changed and the children were heartbroken.
“Just for grins,” mom Carla Wierenicz posted an old video of Tony running up and hugging her 3-year-old kids on Instagram which went viral. As a result, the city scheduled a special stopover for Parker at their house so he could see them again.
“Every day, they would come out and if they missed me, their mother had to get in the car and circle the neighborhood until they found me,” Parks reminisced.
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On Thursday the four friends did all the things they used to do, like climb inside the cab and honk the horn, or have races down to the edge of the street. Knowing he would get to see his old friends, Parker also brought them City of Orlando toy dump trucks and t-shirts.
The friendship was created when the 3-year-olds triplets became so filled with wonderment at the mechanical arms of the truck that Carla had to take them out so they could learn how it worked.
RELATED: Author Spends Lifetime Searching for Woman Who Taught Him to Read, and Then She Surprised Him
That day, Parker was supposed to only be picking up garbage, but in reality he picked up someone many of us hope to find in life.
“I picked up joy, I picked up happiness, I picked up memories,” he said.
WATCH the story below…
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Headache-inducing plastic waste such as printer cartridges and plastic bags are being turned into aggregate material for asphalt road mixtures around the country.
Plastic roads have built up a head of scientific steam recently, with scientists and regulators seeing roads as a decent place to reutilize plastic that is difficult to recycle in a cost-effective manner.
Pilot programs are ongoing in Missouri, Pennsylvania, Virginia, California, and Hawai’i, with transportation regulators monitoring performance and durability of the roads, and environmental regulators on the lookout for potential microplastic contamination.
All in all plastic roads could be a big part of future societies, as the programs all show good results, and for the moment at least, no microplastic pollutant runoffs in several states.
Last year GNN reported that a stretch of Australian highway was completed with millions of used facemasks, while another in America has taken to adding shredded tires.
A stretch of road in Hawai’i between Kilaha Street and the beginning of Fort Weaver Road near Cormorant Avenue is testing a recycled polymer mixture in its asphalt that contains the equivalent of 150,000 water bottles.
MORE GOOD TRANSPORTATION: Scientists Invent De-icing Coatings to Cut Airline Delays by Lasting Longer Without Toxic Runoff
Virginia officials are testing plastic in six different stretches of roads around Richmond. Results were monitored between summer of 2021 and summer of 2022.
Pennsylvania are testing two quarter-mile road stretches within Ridley Creek State Park using a mixture that contains 150,000 plastic bags.
A shoulder of Highway 99 in Elk Grove near Sacramento, California, is being paved with an asphalt mixture that contains 10% recycled plastic from printing ink cartridges. After looking and performing better than expected, a spokesperson for the CA DoT told the Pew Trust, they have expanded its coverage for further testing.
Likewise, this year’s $3.8 million budget for paving roads in Missouri included a $200,000 extra for the utilization of plastic in the asphalt mixtures.
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While many were enjoying their Christmas holiday, 10 skiers in Austria were feared dead after a video went viral of an avalanche overtaking them on the slopes.
News came out the following day however that all 10 are alive and well. The Austrian Press Agency reported that 4 of the skiers were injured, one seriously so, and that a final search operation of the area took place Monday.
Seeing the video one skier took of the event, rescue workers feared the worst as they moved out from the mountainous towns of Lech and Zurs in the Austrian Alps.
Call it a Christmas miracle or sheer dumb luck, but all of the skiers survived, and are now recovering at a hospital at Innsbruck.
WATCH the video below…
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Quote of the Day: “Seeing the best in your situation is the key to happiness.” – Marie Forleo
Photo by: Maria
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?
The Lesson: Numbers don’t speak untruths, and for a female minority in a bro-business like Hollywood movie production, they’re sexy that way. Saga Elmohtasen has produced hundred million dollar productions, but regardless of how successful she is, she doesn’t let it go to her head, remembering that it’s her roots and natural attitude that lead her to be successful.
Notable Excerpt: “I don’t take any of my work seriously, with all due respect, but I’m serious about my work. Do you see the dichotomy here? At the end of the day I’m a daughter, I’m a sister, I’m an auntie, I’m way more than a producer, and I don’t take any of it seriously but I’m so dang serious about the job. Being able to sever those two has been a lifesaver.”
The Guest: Saga Elmohtaseb is a seasoned Hollywood producer, consultant and professor. With a passion for film, Saga has worked on box office hits such as The Devil Wears Prada, A Good Year,Eragon, Just Go With It, Jack & Jill, and Iron Man 2.
Saga is the president of Hollywood-Consulting.com where she works closely with clients on productions from development to completion. She has been a professor at Chapman University’s Dodge School of Film & TV for over 6 years now and teaches film & TV.
The Podcast: Livin’ Good Currency explores the relationship of time to our lives. It focuses on learning how super-successful people align their purpose with their passions to do good for themselves and others daily, and features a co-host who knows better than anyone the value of time (see below). How do you want to spend your life? This hour can inspire you, along with upcoming guests, to be sure you are ‘Livin’ Good Currency’ and never get caught running out of time.
The Hosts: Good News Network fans will know Tony (Anthony) Samadani as the co-owner of GNN and its Chief of Strategic Partnerships. Co-host Tobias Tubbs was handed a double life sentence without the possibility of parole for a crime he didn’t commit. Behind bars, he used his own version of the Livin’ Good Currency formula to inspire young men in prison to turn their hours into honors. An expert in conflict resolution, spirituality, and philosophy, Tobias is a master gardener who employs ex-felons to grow their Good Currency by planting crops and feeding neighborhoods.
Episode Resources:
Are you ready to start your health journey today? Go to viome.com/goodcurrency to get $50 off Viome’s Full Body Intelligence test or bundle, the most advanced at-home health test currently available to consumers. Use Promo Code:
Recent excavations in Israel will soon open to the public a tomb that’s venerated as the resting place of Jesus’s midwife, Salome.
Found in 1982 by antiquities robbers, excavations have always been ongoing, but recent breakthroughs have proved the site to be far more grandiose than previously expected, and much of the tomb will soon be open to pilgrims and tourists alike.
A mosaic-floored courtyard spanning 350 square meters (almost 4,000 square feet) counted chief among the latest finds, and it was decorated with soaring arches and intricate stone carvings.
The team from the Israeli Antiquities Authority also found what appears to be a merchant’s stall for selling small oil lamps to pilgrims—the kinds that archaeologists have dug up by the dozens inside the tomb, and that would have lighted their penitent footsteps in the dark interior.
The earliest chamber dates to the Second Temple Period, between 500 BCE and 70 CE.
“According to a Christian tradition, Salome was the midwife from Bethlehem, who was called to participate in the birth of Jesus,” said IAA archaeologist Zvi Firer.
MORE ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS: Historians Stunned: Uzbekistan Nomads Supplied a Third of the Bronze Used Across Ancient Mediterranean
“She could not believe that she was asked to deliver a virgin’s baby, and her hand became dry and was only healed when she held the baby’s cradle.”
The outermost rooms of the tomb date to the Byzantine period, or between 300 to 600 CE, making it a little avant-garde for Salome’s time, but Firer has a theory.
In the tomb’s excavations which turned up relics as recently as last Tuesday, stone funerary boxes called ossuaries were uncovered in the older chambers, which Firer believe could have had the name Salome or “Schlomitt” on them, which fooled the early Christian pilgrims into believing it was the midwife of legend.
These were common names for Jewish people living in the area during the Second Temple Period.
However there are some inscriptions in Greek that seem to dedicate the whole complex to “Holy Salome” so perhaps there’s more to the legend after all.
The site, located in the Lachish region in central Israel, is soon to be part of a 60 mile tourist trail running along the historic spine of Israeli history, a sort of Valley of the Kings, but for the Jews rather than the Pharaohs.
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Good News Network’s top animal stories and moments from 2022 is a celebration of the majesty of our planet, the incredible four-legged or winged pals we share our homes with, and of the heroes who dedicate their lives to ensuring future generations can connect with endangered animals the way we can.
Whether featuring a snapshot of nature in action or a moment of human-to-animal connection, animals are never far from the front page. 2022 was no exception.
Cats are always going viral for these or those antics. In February GNN reported that Kay McCall and her husband were moving into a new apartment last year in Ferny Hills, near Brisbane, when they met a ginger cat who hopped over the fence looking for a head pat and chin scratches.
It became an enjoyable daily encounter, but as the visits continued they began to notice an accumulation of toys in their yard.
It wasn’t long before they caught him in the act. It turned out, the orange visitor was bringing more than affection and neighborliness.
Vets Ericka and Jay Johnson first met while doing a wild tortoise survey 20 years ago, so felt it was only right for their beloved Sulcata tortoise, Tom Shelleck, to be part of their wedding celebrations.
The 41-year-old said that strawberries were dotted down the aisle for ‘always hungry’ Tom to follow before the pair tied the knot last year at Tohono Chul Botanical Gardens in Arizona.
The mom-of-one said that everything ran smoothly and he even became the ‘center of attention’ on her big day.
Marine biologists in Quebec had the pleasure of studying a fascinating phenomenon: a narwhal traveling, eating, and living with a pod of young male beluga whales as they cruise down the province’s famous St. Lawrence river.
Drone footage indicates this unique black sheep was a male, and well-fed, indicating that he’s been adopted into the pod.
Biologists are fascinated to see if the adopted narwhal has integrated enough to breed, and produce a hybrid known colloquially as a “narluga,” though GNN feels an opportunity has been missed to call them “narwhales.”
Back in April GNN reported that a sloth had formed an adorable relationship with its keeper and refuses to get out of bed until they’ve had their morning cuddles—and a zoo tour.
Amelia the zookeeper’s nerves around working with sloths are what she believes encouraged Gordon the sloth to show affection towards her in an attempt to make her feel at ease.
Gordon is now at the point where he’ll pick up a bucket and sponge as if helping Amelia clean his cage.
The Exmoor Zoo in the UK received a teenage shoebill stork this year, a tremendous species that’s rare and threatened. She recently arrived from the Pairi Daiza Zoo in Belgium where she was a newborn star in their international breeding program.
The unique-looking bird is one of only eleven shoebills that are currently in captivity around the world.
The 14-year-old bird called Abou has been greeting her keepers with displays of bowing and spreading her wings—a common courtship ritual.
But she’ll have to wait until the breeding program produces a male, so the pair can be matched and produce much-hoped-for offspring.
A Canadian wildlife conservation society called “GROWLS” had a nest cam on a bald eagle’s nest over July which captured a family of eagles choosing not to eat a red-tailed hawk chick.
Pamichen, a GROWLS member, captured 14 minutes of incredible nest cam footage of the nail-biting phenomenon, when on several occasions it seems for all the world like the eagles are going to just start ripping this little fluffy red-tailed hawk baby to pieces.
But hour after hour, eaglet and baby hawk just continue to shift around in the nest, eating scraps of leftover food. Just before dark, “it really [seemed] like they were going to go in for the kill,” Pamichen can be heard saying in the video. But as darkness falls, the two babies crawl under mama’s wings, and the next afternoon, she even feeds her hostage.
In the first of two stories about pets stepping out to go partake in human society, July saw GNN report that an English family was left stunned when their dog escaped only to return later that day with a ribbon won at a local dog show.
Peter and Paula Closier became sick with worry when their five-year-old beagle-mix Bonne vanished on Sunday morning.
Soon after, the family’s fears were eased when Paula spotted a Facebook post by John Wilmer, who was running late for the dog show and asked, ‘does anyone know this dog’?
John then decided to enter Bonnie into the competition. He thought “I might as well enter her into the ‘best rescue dog’ category.”
A wildlife photographer captured an amazing spectacle when a rare white Risso’s dolphin flipped out of the water.
Jay Spring was enjoying a Californian boat tour last month when he found himself lucky to be facing the right way as the distinctive creature breached.
“I could not believe what I was seeing and luckily I was looking the right way at the right time and was able to get some pictures of him,” he said.
As it turns out the whale watchers have a name for this individual, “Blanco”. He has leucism, a condition separate from Albinism, that results in an irregular distribution of melanin pigments. Spring was told there are no existing photographs of Blanco, and that his are the first ones on the internet.
The owl visits Ranna almost every day and sits on her balcony for hours. It even tries to hop on her lap and “chats” back to her when she hoots at it.
Granddaughter Shai Ward captured the wholesome footage when she visited the home in Phoenix, Arizona and saw the unique bond with the animal—and strongly believed he represented something truly special.
In September, GNN shared a wildlife photograph for the ages of a bonobo ape that appears to be cuddling a mongoose as if it were a pet.
The photo won “Highly Commended Image,” and captures a moment of gentleness in a Hobbsian world that is the Congo Rainforest.
“I was so surprised to see how he carried the mongoose with such care. I immediately started to follow him and document it,” photographer Christian Ziegler told the BBC.
A cat performed the most head-scratching stunt in Wales recently on class picture day, leaving a group of proud moms “in floods of laughter.”
10 and 7-year-olds Meghan and Chloe Roberts were all dressed up and excited to have their picture taken at Drury Primary School, but their excitement couldn’t compare with that of Ziggy, their orange and white cat who regularly visits the school.
When Ziggy the “honorary student,” felt it was his turn, the 4-year-old effortlessly jumped up on the photo chair, looked straight at the camera, got his snap, and promptly left, leaving mom Emma Roberts calling him “ridiculously embarrassing.”
Marine biologists working in the Azores in November recorded the largest sunfish ever at 6,049 pounds (2,740 kilograms).
After towing it ashore and availing themselves of the help of a forklift to hoist the behemoth bony fish onto a hanging scale, they found it broke the Guinness World Record for heaviest bony fish, and weighed more than an entire NFL football team’s roster.
José Nuno Gomes-Pereira, the biologist that spotted the giant fish and who described it in the Journal of Fish Biology, says its discovery is a sign of hope.
“It means that the marine ecosystem is still healthy enough to sustain these large animals,” he says.
A group of South Korean tourists narrowly avoided a ruined vacation, with good fortune swapping it for an unforgettable experience waiting out a blizzard and cooking with a New York family.
Traveling from Niagara Falls to Washington DC, a tour group of 10 South Koreans got stuck in a blizzard near Buffalo. Two of the group went to a local house to ask for a shovel to dislodge their vehicle.
It was Christmas Eve when Alex Campagna heard their frantic knocking on his door. Outside, he recounted on Facebook, was “the worst blizzard I’ve experienced” and knowing the folly of trying to carry on, he invited them all inside, putting them up on couches, air mattresses, and sleeping bags.
“As a Buffalonian, this is on another level, the Darth Vader of storms,” he told the New York Times.
Eager to repay his kindness, the guests cooked several South Korean meals like jeyuk bokkeum, stir-fried pork, and dakdori tang, a spicy chicken stew. As it turns out Campagna and his wife really like Korean food and actually happened to have some of the more extravagant ingredients on hand.
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The Times reports they stayed Friday and Saturday. They swapped stories, and even enjoyed some American football matches on Christmas Eve.
On Christmas day drivers came to pick up the tour group and took them to New York for some impromptu flights.
“We have enjoyed this so much,” said Choi Yoseob, a member of the group who described the experience as unforgettable and a “unique blessing.”
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