Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York via Facebook
Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York via Facebook
In a daring rescue, New York City Firefighters saved two women’s lives by rappelling down the side of a burning building.
The flames in a midtown Manhattan high-rise apartment building had a resident literally hanging by her fingertips from the windowsill, when a team of firefighters rappelled down in time to rescue her and are now being honored for their heroism.
Called a roof rope rescue, it involved four firefighters; Belvon Koranteng, who was the first firefighter on the rope, and Arthur Podgorski, who plucked the hanging victim and brought her through the window of the floor below.
The two were hooked up to ropes anchored in the apartment above. Their colleagues in the rescue included Darren Harsch, and Adam Nordenschild.
“There’s just nothing but smoke, and then the firefighters appear, and once they were there, they got a handle on it really fast,” Midtown East resident Daniel Schwartz told CBS News.
“Just phenomenal, I mean, to see that.”
Many of the residents reported not hearing any smoke alarms when a lithium-ion battery caused a fire in the building on East 52nd Street. However they were told to stay in their rooms until fire and rescue arrived and it was safe to evacuate, since they lived in fire-proof apartments.
A neighbor, Amy Bernstein, said she and others watched the rappel happen in real time, and that she wept when she saw they had succeeded.
“I can’t say enough about the firefighters of New York,” said Bernstein. “They were… the job they did was just amazing. You could see their focus. You could see their safety first, they were going to save this person.”
Uniformed Firefighters of New York City Facebook Page
Firefighter Podgorski spoke for his team at a news conference, explaining how it was a team effort, from his own task of hoisting the woman from the window, to the comrade who secured the ropes in the apartment.
Very much by default, firefighters are heroes—and the FDNY is certainly exceptional.
Panda diplomacy worked well in Taiwan this week, when a pair of Chinese giant panda specialists visited Taiwan to help with the treatment of a panda named Tuan Tuan.
It’s a rare moment of warmth between the cross-Strait neighbors, amid a recent rise in tensions, and the Chinese veterinarians will be there for some time to provide Tuan Tuan the best care possible.
MRI scans revealed that Tuan Tuan had a malignant brain tumor, and that the cancer was progressing. His Taiwanese care-givers suspected something like it, after he began to act very lethargic.
On Monday, the Consul General of China in Belfast, Zhang Meifang, said Tuan Tuan’s tumor was not as bad as was previously believed.
Zoo spokesperson Eric Tsao said the sides were pooling their knowledge and experience to provide Tuan Tuan with “the best treatment and the best daily care.”
Tuan Tuan and his mate Yuan Yuan were moved to the Taipei Zoo in 2008 during a particularly warm period of relations between the countries. China sends giant pandas to zoos all over the world to raise awareness of the extinction risk, and to improve relations with the host country, an activity that’s taken on the name “Panda Diplomacy.”
There are currently 500 pandas on loan living in zoos and sanctuaries around the world.
Giant panda Tuan Tuan suffering from a suspected malignant brain tumor is in better condition than previously thought and has been given palliative care, said the Taipei Zoo on Monday.pic.twitter.com/5xwj0EXPtx
Wu Honglin and Wei Ming, the visiting Chinese vets have vast experience working with pandas at the main breeding and research center in Sichuan Province, one of the panda’s native homes.
All of Switzerland’s threatened frog species’ populations ‘exploded’ when scientists began a simple pond-building campaign.
Particular among the web-footed beneficiaries were the European tree frog, whose numbers have quadrupled since 1999, as have the numbers of areas they can be found.
While protection laws in the Swiss canton of Aargau for their suite of frog, newt, and toad species were strong, scientists wanted to see if habitat restoration could kick start their continually-declining numbers.
In 1999, in coordination with the Aargau government, non-profits, volunteers, and landholders, a 20-year program of building 422 ponds across five regions of Aargau was started.
Most frogs need small ponds that naturally develop off the sides of the bends in slowly meandering rivers, features that have rapidly disappeared in Switzerland’s high road/railway density and intensively managed farmland.
Of the eight endangered species, 52% increased their regional populations and 32% were stabilized.
“Habitat loss is one of the main problems, and just by addressing that we could see the difference it made, and begin the recovery of these species,” lead author of the study Dr. Helen Moor told BBC News. “The key message is that it pays to do something, even if it feels overwhelming.”
One of the species that had a particularly strong rebound was the European tree frog. This tiny frog can travel as much as a couple of miles in search of habitat to lay its eggs.
Frogs need new ponds to migrate to, as predator species eventually make their way into existing ponds to pray on their tadpoles. What few ponds existed before the project were often occupied by these predators.
The scientists believe that this simple action of pond building can be used to help restore amphibian populations in human-dominated landscapes.
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These are Macon County Kennels, the largest no-kill rescue shelter in the U.S., and newly opened in Alabama to help combat a pet overpopulation crisis in the southeastern United States.
It was renovated from an old greyhound training center into a facility that has the capacity to save, rehabilitate, and adopt out up to 5,000 dogs per year.
Located in Macon County, the intention of the founders were to service a region encompassing eight states including Florida, and to help dogs find new homes across America.
“The opening of a second Big Dog Ranch Rescue location is something I’ve prayed for over the years,” Big Dog Ranch Rescue Founder and CEO Lauree Simmons said. “It’s a great day for us and, more importantly, it’s a great day for the dogs.”
Ironically, Big Dog Ranch Rescue hasn’t always had this big dog ranch. Since starting their work in 2008, they estimated they’ve saved 53,000 dogs from being euthanized.
Currently its three renovated buildings include space for 100 dogs and a veterinary center, but a further 13 kennels are still undergoing work.
The 33-acre campus also includes work centers for several admirable programs, including one that unites veterans suffering from PTSD with abandoned service dogs, and a senior dog center that will pair pooches who’ve lost their elderly owners with other senior citizens looking for a new friend.
TAKE a video tour of the beautiful campus below…
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A different sort of great pyramid was just erected in Egypt’s Western Desert, which rather than enshrining a pharaoh’s glory, draws attention to the issue of plastic pollution.
Constructed at the onset of what the builders hope will be a century of plastic cleanup, it also acts as a striking visual ahead of the annual meeting of the signees to the Paris Climate Accord (COP27) in Egypt.
Located, just outside Cairo, the immense structure took five days to build, weighs a whopping 20 tons, is taller than a three-story building, and is made using the equivalent of 1 million plastic water bottles collected from the Nile River.
Led by zero-waste company Zero Co and wine sellers The Hidden Sea, it seeks to fund large-scale clean ups for the next 100 years and drive accountability for the single-use plastic problem, an initiative called the 100YR CLEANUP.
“Despite its epic size, the pyramid shows just a fraction of what is an incredible crisis,” said Justin Moran, founder of The Hidden Sea, a wine company that removes 10 plastic pieces of rubbish from the ocean every time a bottle is bought.
“Powered by wine drinkers, The Hidden Sea has removed 18 million plastic bottles from the ocean so far; this demonstrates that consumers simply need a clear way to be part of the solution. This COP27, our message is clear. It’s time to draw a line in the sand and change how we manage the crisis. Those who have the ability, have the responsibility.”
To personally mark the launch of 100YR CLEANUP, Zero Co chief Mike Smith will camp out on top of the pyramid for three days to call for support from people and businesses to join the movement.
– 100 year cleanup
“We can’t fix the plastic problem alone, but we can give everyone the ability to take action,” said Mike Smith, the man atop the pyramid. “By working together with businesses, industry leaders and inviting the public to take direct action, we’ll be able to build a scalable solution to the problem and have a huge impact.”
Zero Co and The Hidden Sea aim to raise $1,000,000 for the 100YR CLEANUP over the next 12 months, which will remove 15 million water bottles worth of rubbish and drive the initiative’s mission.
By sponsoring the 100YR CLEANUP and buying a bundle of rubbish, individuals and businesses can contribute to future cleanups around the world. With sufficient funding, the team hopes to build full-time teams in Southeast Asia and Australia cleaning the planet 5 days a week, every week, every year, for the next 100 years.
Marine biologists working in the Azores have 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.
At around 10 feet in length (3.25 meters), the sunfish, also called a “mola,” was found near Faial Island in the Azores island chain by marine biologists of the Cetacean Stranding Network, who help dispose of large floating whale carcasses among other responsibilities.
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.
It is recorded as a bony fish, a classification that excludes sharks and rays, which is important not only because they have no bones, but because they are both extremely heavy genera.
As ocean-going fish that have no known regional habitat specifications outside of the polar regions, it’s not understood where molas spend most of their time, or what conditions they need to breed.
They are unpredictable in where they will appear at any given time of the year, but being that they tilt their massive bodies horizontally to sunbathe, they can be spotted very easily.
“I so love going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium because sometimes we have the sunfish shown on display in the million-gallon tank alongside the hammerheads and tuna. And then when the sunfish appears, people are just like, ‘Oh. Wow! Why?!’” says Tierney Thys, a marine biologist with the California Academy of Sciences and a National Geographic Explorer. “It’s an animal that just begs so many more questions.”
She wrote the first academic book on the molidae group which includes the giant or bump head sunfish, and the more common relative the mola mola, or ocean sunfish. She told National Geographic it’s a “colossal reminder” of good things.
“It’s a colossal reminder that our ocean still holds so many mysterious surprises,” said Thys.
Pictured Villagers are celebrating reopening their local pub The Rising Sun pub. Villagers are celebrating reopening their local pub after spending ten years raising 500K to buy it - and stop developers turning it into flats. See SWNS story SWLSpub. Locals have spent a decade fighting to save The Rising Sun from being converted into homes. The community group 'Save Our Sun' worked tirelessly with fundraisers and events to raise half a million pounds to buy it. They eventually raised the cash and bought it and renovating it themselves as it had lain empty for a decade and fallen into disrepair. The pub in Woodcroft in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire has now opened its doors as a boozer - and community hub. GP Michelle Hayes, chair of 'Save Our Sun' said: "The community is absolutely thrilled to see The Rising Sun open its doors again. "This is a testament, not only to the hard work of the committee and community who have come together to help with renovations. "They had belief in this project and are supporting the pub, making it something really special now it is open as a vital community hub."
– SWNS
Villagers are celebrating the reopening of their local pub after spending ten years raising 500K to buy it.
Locals have spent a decade fighting to save The Rising Sun from being converted by property developers into new homes.
The community group ‘Save Our Sun’ worked tirelessly with fundraisers and events to raise half the half million pounds to buy it, before beginning marathon renovation work themselves, as it had lain empty for a decade and fallen into disrepair.
The pub in Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, has now been reborn as a boozer but also a community hub.
“This is a testament, not only to the hard work of the committee and community who have come together to help with renovations,” said Michelle Hayes, chair of Save Our Sun, their fundraising non-profit.
“They had belief in this project and are supporting the pub, making it something really special now it is open as a vital community hub.”
The pub had closed in October 2011 and was purchased by a developer in 2012.
Resident Lynne Fletcher, who lived around 60 yards away from the pub at the time of its closure, said that the real estate agents said it was being sold as a pub, and so the community at first wasn’t worried.
“The first indication something was wrong was when a neighbor asked a workman how long before it would be before it re-opened again,” said Fletcher. “He told him ‘It’ll never open as a pub again mate’.”
Residents began battling with planning applications and appeals and the Forest of Dean District Council declared The Rising Sun as a community asset in 2013.
– SWNS
After years of battling, the new owners, who had bought the pub to convert into two semi-detached houses, eventually agreed to sell it to the Save Our Sun group at the end of last year.
The community sold shares at £100 each and managed to raise over £300,000 through fundraising events with a grant from the government of £175,000 topping it up so they could buy the pub earlier this year.
Volunteers then worked for months to restore the pub, which had fallen into disrepair after being closed for over a decade, and The Rising Sun finally opened this week.
The villagers have been celebrating the success of their hard work and have already enjoyed an open mic night at the pub.
“It was a great little pub and it’s where everybody got to know each other,” said Fletcher.
“The pub will also be a community hub for volunteer groups, such as collecting the isolated and elderly for coffee mornings, parent and toddler groups, and job skills and clubs. We also have a community room upstairs,” added Hayes.
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Wildlife Co-ordinator Toby Davies, with the Bearded tooth fungi - SWNS
Wildlife Co-ordinator Toby Davies, with the Bearded tooth fungi – SWNS.
A historic English garden recently became home to a fungus so rare in the UK that a gardener erected a cage to protect it from knowledgeable foragers who claim it can help fight dementia and cancer.
Spotted by a volunteer at The Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall, they identified the big shaggy ball as a “bearded tooth fungus” (Hericium erinaceus).
They then discovered another example of the fungus in the gardens’ bug hotel known as “Buggingham Palace.”
Staff received advice from local and national fungi experts on the mushroom and of its potential for both culinary and medicinal use, as the bearded tooth is none other than the now well-researched lion’s mane mushroom.
Common in many popular supplements, lion’s mane contains dozens of useful nutrients. Studies on lion’s mane have shown they are particularly beneficial for the activity of the brain due to their contents of amycenone.
In 2015, Japanese researchers used amycenone to restore healthy cognitive function in three patients with mild neurocognitive disorders resulting from neuromedical treatment, and several other research teams have used lion’s mane to restore nerve function in brain-damaged mice.
Furthermore, lion’s mane is often marketed as being able to aid in the treatment of depression. At least in regards to inflammation-related depression, this claim has been demonstrated in mice that were poisoned with an endo-lipopolysaccharide. The LPS induced inflammatory cytokines like IL-10 and TNF-A, both of which the mushroom suppressed.
SWNS
In addition they, like many medicinal mushroom species, contain compounds that have been shown to have anti-cancer, antiviral, and anti-inflammatory properties. They also contain beta-glucans as their principal carb component—the most therapeutic kind of dietary fiber we know of.
Back at The Lost Gardens, the football-sized lion’s mane has been caged off to protect it from people who may want to forage the mushroom for these properties.
“Usually this mushroom is found in dense woodland where members of the public wouldn’t see it,” said Toby Davies, the wildlife coordinator at the gardens. “I put the cage up—the main emphasis was partially because Buggingham Palace borders a playground and the other thing is that it’s edible.”
“Nine out of ten people wouldn’t know what it is, but the cage is mainly there to prevent people from tampering,” he said.
In the wild, it’s so rare in Britain that it’s protected under Schedule 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act, making it illegal to intentionally pick, uproot or destroy. Schedule 8 is the highest level of protection.
“Most of the time, when there’s these fungi around, there’s only 15 reports across the whole country—here we’ve got two within the same vicinity of one another.”
“We saw it initially maybe a week and a bit ago, it was spotted by one of our volunteers and he was the first to spot it and show it to me and at that point we didn’t know how significant it was.”
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Quote of the Day: “If responsible people don’t address real problems in a straight forward way irresponsible people are going to exploit them.” – Richard Reeves (It’s election day in the U.S. tomorrow. Find your polling place.)
Photo by: Element5 Digital
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Youtube - University of Cambridge / Inoculation Science
Youtube – University of Cambridge / Inoculation Scienceresea
Briefly exposing social media users to the tricks behind misinformation boosts awareness of harmful online falsehoods, says new research—and Google is set to deploy an anti-disinformation campaign based on the findings.
Short animations placed in YouTube’s Ad slot gave viewers a taste of the strategies behind misinformation, according to the huge online experiment led by the University of Cambridge.
Working with Jigsaw, a unit within Google dedicated to tackling threats to open societies, a team of psychologists from the universities of Cambridge and Bristol created 90-second clips designed to familiarize users with manipulation techniques such as scapegoating and deliberate incoherence.
This “pre-bunking” strategy preemptively exposes people to tropes at the root of malicious propaganda, so they can better identify falsehoods online—regardless of subject matter.
Researchers behind the Inoculation Science project compare it to a vaccine: by giving people a “micro-dose” of misinformation in advance, it helps prevent them falling for it in future — an idea based on what social psychologist’s call “inoculation theory.”
The findings, published in Science Advances, come from seven experiments involving a total of almost 30,000 participants—including the first “real world field study” of inoculation theory on a social media platform.
The team reports that even a single viewing of one of the film clips increased awareness of misinformation.
The videos introduce concepts from the “misinformation playbook,” illustrated with relatable examples from film and TV such as Family Guy or, in the case of false dichotomies, Star Wars (“Only a Sith deals in absolutes”).
“YouTube has well over 2 billion active users worldwide. Our videos could easily be embedded within the ad space on YouTube to ‘pre-bunk’ misinformation,” said study co-author Prof. Sander van der Linden, Head of the Social Decision-Making Lab at Cambridge, who led the work.
“Our research provides the necessary proof of concept that the principle of psychological inoculation can readily be scaled across hundreds of millions of users worldwide.”
Watch their video about ‘scapegoating’, then see another one below…
Lead author Dr. Jon Roozenbeek from the Cambridge Lab describes the team’s videos as “source agnostic,” avoiding biases people have about where information is from, and how it aligns—or not—with what they already believe.
“Our interventions make no claims about what is true or a fact, which is often disputed. They are effective for anyone who does not appreciate being manipulated,” he said.
“The inoculation effect was consistent across liberals and conservatives. It worked for people with different levels of education, and different personality types.”
YouTube’s parent company, Google, is already harnessing the findings. At the end of August, Jigsaw will roll out a pre-bunking campaign across several platforms in Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic to get ahead of emerging disinformation relating to Ukrainian refugees. The campaign is designed to build resilience to harmful anti-refugee narratives, in partnership with local NGOs, fact checkers, academics, and disinformation experts.
“Harmful misinformation takes many forms, but the manipulative tactics and narratives are often repeated and can therefore be predicted,” said Beth Goldberg, co-author and Head of Research and Development for Google’s Jigsaw unit.
“Teaching people about techniques that manipulate them, like ad-hominem attacks, can help build resilience to believing and spreading misinformation, before harmful narratives take hold,” Goldberg said.
The team argue that ‘pre-bunking’ may be more effective at fighting misinformation than fact-checking each untruth, which is impossible to do at scale—and has the potential to feed conspiracy theories.
“Propaganda, lies and misdirections are nearly always created from the same playbook,” said co-author Prof. Stephan Lewandowsky from the University of Bristol. “We developed the videos by analyzing the rhetoric of demagogues, who deal in scapegoating and false dichotomies.”
“Fact-checkers can only rebut a fraction of the falsehoods circulating online. We need to teach people to recognize the misinformation playbook, so they understand when they are being misled.”
Six initial controlled experiments featured 6,464 participants, with the sixth experiment conducted a year after the first five to ensure earlier findings could be replicated.
Data collection for each participant was comprehensive, from basic information—gender, age, education, political leanings—to levels of numeracy (the ability to understand and work with numbers), conspiratorial thinking, hours spent on news and social media, gullibility, and a personality inventory, among other variables.
Factoring all this in, the team found that inoculation videos improved people’s ability to spot misinformation, and boosted their confidence in being able to do so again. The clips also improve the quality of “sharing decisions”: whether or not to spread “damaging” content.
Two of the animations were then tested as part of a vast experiment on YouTube, with clips positioned in the pre-video advert slot that provides an option to skip after five seconds.
Google Jigsaw exposed around 5.4 million American YouTubers, and almost a million watched for at least 30 seconds. The platform then gave a random 30% of users that watched a voluntary test question within 24 hours of their initial viewing.
The clips aimed to inoculate against tactics such as hyper-emotive language and use of false dichotomies—and the follow-up questions were based on fictional posts made to test for detection of these tropes. YouTube also gave a “control” group of users who had not viewed a video the same test question. In total, 22,632 users answered a question.
Watch the emotive language clip below, then continue reading…
Despite the intense distractions on YouTube, ability to recognize manipulation techniques at the heart of misinformation increased by 5% on average.
“Users participated in the tests around 18 hours on average after watching the videos, so the inoculation appears to have stuck,” said van der Linden.
Researchers say that such a recognition increase could be game changing if dramatically scaled up across social platforms— which would be inexpensive to do. The average cost for each view of significant length was the tiny sum of $0.05.
Added Roozenbeek: “If anyone wants to pay for a YouTube campaign that measurably reduces susceptibility to misinformation across millions of users, they can do so, and at a minuscule cost per view.”
Using research from 18 countries, a new study concludes that adults with better mental health are more likely to report having spent time playing in and around coastal and inland waters, such as rivers and lakes as children.
The findings were replicated in each of the 18 countries, say the authors studying ‘blue spaces’.
Mounting evidence shows that spending time in and around green spaces such as parks and woodlands in adulthood is associated with stress reduction and better mental health. However, we know far less about the benefits of blue spaces, or the role childhood contact with these waters has in later life.
The team used data from over 15,000 people across 14 European Countries and 4 other non-European regions (Hong Kong, Canada, Australia and California)—all gathered from the BlueHealth International Survey, a cross-sectional survey co-ordinated by the University of Exeter’s European Centre for Environment and Human Health.
Respondents were asked to recall their blue space experiences between the ages of 0-16 years including how local they were, how often they visited them, and how comfortable their parents/guardians were with them playing in these settings, as well as more recent contact with green and blue spaces over the last four weeks, and mental health over the last two weeks.
The research found that individuals who recalled more experiences in childhood around blue spaces tended to place greater intrinsic value on natural settings in general, and to visit them more often as adults—each of which, in turn, were associated with better mental wellbeing in adulthood.
“In the context of an increasingly technological and industrialized world, it’s important to understand how childhood nature experiences relate to wellbeing in later life,” said Valeria Vitale, Lead author and PhD Candidate at Sapienza University of Rome, lead author of the paper published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, and funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program.
“Our findings suggest that building familiarity and confidence in and around blue spaces during childhood may stimulate an inherent joy of nature and encourage people to seek out recreational nature experiences, with beneficial consequences for adult mental health,”
Dr Leanne Martin, Co-author and Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Exeter acknowledges that water settings can be dangerous for children, and “parents are right to be cautious”.
“This research suggests, though, that supporting children to feel comfortable in these settings and developing skills such as swimming at an early age can have previously unrecognized life-long benefits.”
“The current study is adding to our growing awareness of the need for urban planners and local bodies responsible for managing our green and blue spaces to provide safe, accessible access to natural settings for the healthy mental and physical development of our children,” said Dr Mathew White, Co-author and Senior Scientist at the University of Vienna.
One of the most popular posts this week on the massive Reddit community website evoked all the feels that come with a simple act of kindness—especially when the compassion is shown by a homeless man.
The spontaneous helping hand was captured in a photo by a Reddit user who described the incident for folks on the MakeMeSmile sub-reddit, who gave her 86,000 thumbs up.
She was stranded in Chicago with a flat tire, wearing a skirt and heels, when a homeless man came to her rescue and changed her tire.
“I only had $60 on me, but I very gratefully gave it to him for saving me,” she said.
She was going to be late for an important dinner, and surely would have missed it if she had to wait for a service to arrive at the corner of Federal St & Ida B. Wells Dr.
“He really saved me,” 💜 she stressed, adding, “I’m no mechanic…”
“Those lug nuts were on so tight. I really don’t think I could have done that. He really struggled with them himself.”
By user on Reddit
“He was really sweet. Called me “a lady” and even opened my car door for me.
He was very much a gentleman.”
In the 500+ comments that followed, people talked about similar experiences where homeless citizens stepped in to help.
Dwoodruf commented, “Had a blow out in the not-so-nice area in Oakland and the homeless were thrilled to help me out. This memory makes me smile.”
Itsyounotmeithink recalled, “I was driving in the snow years ago and slid into a snowbank a homeless guy came over and asked if he could help me get out. He pushed my car out of the snowbank—it was very hard to do and he spent a long time helping me get out… I was so grateful i gave him my last 20 dollars he didn’t even want it but i insisted he take it.”
One suggested there was “a solid chance the dude didn’t even expect anything. Humans love feeling useful and it’s really really hard to feel anything but worthless when you’re homeless.”
Stryker511 suggested that she should “spin by that location again with some food, gift certificates, & socks,” and she loved the idea.
“That is such a good idea. You are absolutely right… I’m a chef, and have given train conductors, homeless people, and Uber drivers stuff I was bringing home from work.”
She summed it up by saying, “It was an experience I won’t ever forget.”
DO YOU HAVE Any Similar Stories About Homeless Helpers? Tell us in the Comments, and Share the Love on Social Media…
Just in time for Halloween, NASA released a photo of the sun “smiling”.
Their Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the cheery image, sharing it in a Tweet in late October.
The ‘smile’ we see here are made up of three coronal holes, solar fluctuations during which fast bursts of solar wind are released, NASA explained.
“Seen in ultraviolet light, these dark patches on the Sun are known as coronal holes and are regions where fast solar wind gushes out into space.”
It reminds us of the image captured by the Hubble telescope that captured a giant smiling emoji made of stars.
Found by an amateur astronomer, the unique picture was submitted the image in NASA’s Hidden Treasures of Hubble competition. She zoomed into a galaxy cluster that appeared to smile down on Earth, with the grin formed by the distortion of light from strong gravitational lensing.
Say cheese! 📸
Today, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory caught the Sun "smiling." Seen in ultraviolet light, these dark patches on the Sun are known as coronal holes and are regions where fast solar wind gushes out into space. pic.twitter.com/hVRXaN7Z31
Quote of the Day: “I must think, question, seek facts, and not trust blindly.” – Anais Nin
Photo by: Brian McGowan
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The Lowe’s hardware chain presented an Angel Award to employees in California who rallied around a customer that took a bad fall in the parking lot.
Deborah Hayes told GNN that her elderly mother was shopping in the Modesto store when the accident occurred, and called the incident a “wonderful story of people helping others.”
The 80-year-old lost her balance and fell on the concrete, hitting her head.
“There was blood everywhere,” she wrote in a thank-you letter to Lowes.
“I was immediately surrounded by a truly wonderful group of people, largely your staff and another wonderful shopper.”
The unnamed Good Samaritan was invited back to Lowe’s some time later for a surprise Angel Award ceremony where she was presented with a lovely gift basket from the staff. She had taken the senior’s house keys, volunteering to bring her shopping bags home and take care of her dog.
Under an arch of white balloons employees gathered to recognize one of their co-workers whose kindness also went above and beyond.
The company presented Belia Villa with flowers, a crystal plaque, and a $500 check.
Belia Villa (left) and unnamed Good Samaritan (right)
Deborah’s mother, who had fully recovered after getting stitches, was also on hand and given a gift basket. She voiced her gratitude to the two women who came to her aid—especially Belia—while store workers applauded.
Shopping in actual stores is en vogue again as 43% of Americans admit they miss the chaos of picking up in-person Black Friday deals.
A poll of 2,003 U.S. adults found 95% plan to participate in Black Friday and/or Cyber Monday events this year, with a third planning to shop both online and in stores.
Not having to wait in lines makes online sales for both days appealing, but the survey showed that a 63% majority consider in-person Black Friday shopping to be a tradition.
More Gen Z respondents than millennials cited immediate fulfillment as their primary driver to shop these events in person (81% vs. 49%).
Overall, 42% said in-store Black Friday shopping holds more importance for them than it did before the pandemic, including nearly half (49%) of male respondents.
But the poll revealed there are some parts of e-commerce that people wish they could bring into a brick-and-mortar store—such as being able to see what aisle an item is in (51%) and using promo codes or digital coupons (47%).
There are still barriers to in-store shopping though, like lack of convenience due to weather conditions and long lines (34%), seeing better deals online (34%), and health and safety concerns (33%).
“The pandemic has certainly made many people nostalgic for the in-person Black Friday experience, but it’s also heightened their expectations,” said Janelle Estes, Chief Insights Officer at UserTesting, which commissioned the random double-opt-in survey conducted by market research company OnePoll.
Despite ongoing inflation, nearly a third (31%) expect to spend more money on Black Friday and Cyber Monday than in previous years. The average person spent $440 three years ago and are ready to buy $557 worth of on-sale items in 2022.
“With 42% saying they plan to shop in the metaverse this year, brands must continuously work to become more ‘phygital’, bridging the gap between the physical and digital customer experience,” Janelle added. “That includes maintaining consistent quality both in-store and online.”
BLACK FRIDAY 2022: IN-STORE SHOPPING MOTIVATORS
-Instant gratification (i.e. avoiding backorders and shipping delays) – 46%
-Being able to secure items ahead of time – 42%
-Better customer experience in-store than online – 39%
-Better deals in-store than online – 37%
-Not having to fight over items with other people – 37%
-Not having to wait in a long line of people – 37%
-Having better sales or deals in person – 36%
-Having it organized better – 36%
-Curbside shopping – 28%
DO YOU Plan on Shopping Thanksgiving Weekend? Share Your Comments Below or on Social Media…
A woman loves cleaning so much that she gave up her job and is now traveling the world scrubbing homes for free, helping women who need a huge hand.
Auri Katariina was a service manager at a cleaning company in Finland in the summer of 2021, when she decided to quit and follow her unique passion.
“My dream is to clean for free all over the world, and help people whilst doing something I absolutely love,” said the 29-year-old, who has become a bit of a social media sensation, by sharing her cleaning tips.
“I’ve always loved cleaning, and I began posting videos online of me just cleaning my family and friends home’s two years ago.
“Then one day, a woman asked me for help because she was struggling so much and her home was so messy. She had three kids and her husband had just taken his own life, so she was finding it really difficult.”
Auri, who says she’s “in heaven” whenever she cleans, was more than happy to help—in fact, she was “excited” to help.
“I went on a weekend and cleaned her home for two days. By the end she was crying and her kids were hugging me and thanking me. I could see the transformation in the house and how happy they were and it was the best feeling ever.”
The young woman from Tampere has gone as far as the USA and UK to help people who are in desperate need of decluttering and cleaning.
Auri Katariina / SWNS
Now, thanks to her huge TikTok following of 7.8 million fans, and the 2.1Mil on Instagram who watch her viral videos that share cleaning tips—and, before-and-after photos—a corporate sponsor has reached out to cover her expenses.
She decides where to clean from reading requests she gets online, but chooses only the dirtiest, grimiest homes belonging to people most in need.
“I only clean for free. You can’t buy my services and I won’t ever charge anyone to clean their home.
For the first six months she covered all travel and product expenses herself, about 300 euros per visit. Then Scrub Daddy, a cleaning sponge brand, became a sponsor.
Now, Auri goes to clean strangers’ homes once a week, for two days, and creates content for her social media channels, including lists of some of her top tips—some of which have racked up 24 million views.
“When I go in, I always start with just taking all the rubbish out and decluttering all the surfaces. From there, I usually clean the hallways first so I can walk through, but honestly it doesn’t matter where you start—just start!”
Some of her viral cleaning tips
Her biggest trick when cleaning ovens or stoves is to use cling film: “It’s absolutely magical.”
“If you have a dirty stove, put oven cleaner and cling film on it, wait overnight and the stains will melt away – the same goes for inside your oven.”
“A lot of the time, it’s not about a fancy product that you use, it’s about the time and the tools. If you have limescale in your bathroom, a lot of people ask what product is best to use, but really the most important thing is a strong tool like a scraper and a metal scourer.
Most of the cleaning agents she recommends are simple and natural.
“I wash my toilet and shower with just dish soap—it’s the best product ever. It removes grease, and in the shower you of course have grease from your body so it can remove all of that.
For your home office, Auri says less is more. “All you need for dust is a microfiber cloth and water, it removes 99% of everything, you don’t need any product.”
Her tool kit mostly just contains only a few basic things: vinegar, dish soap, oven cleaner, power paste from Scrub Daddy, a scourer, a scraper, a dish brush (or old tooth brush)—which is fantastic for tiny crevices—a duster, microfibre cloth, and a Scrub Daddy Sponge, which appropriately is in the shape of a smiley face.
She said that some jobs take longer than the usual two days. “There was one home which took four days because the girl had lived there for six years, but was just too depressed to clean.
“She was such a lovely girl, but she was so depressed she had even shaved her head so she didn’t have to take a shower. Her bathroom was totally black, but I cleaned all day and it was so great by the end.
“People that I help are often really struggling, but they want to change, so I come and help them take the first step. Many people send me messages after six months or a year, showing me their homes that are still clean, which is great.
Auri feels passionately that cleaning should be a fun activity, rather than a chore. Watch her perform some magic in this video of a hideous bathroom mess:
Advice if you don’t like cleaning
“When I clean, I start with looking around the house and just seeing what’s dirty – I don’t do the same thing every time, because then it gets boring, and then during the week if I see something that needs cleaning I’ll do it then. What I recommend is to put a 15 minute timer on and do as much as you can. It’s okay to clean poorly, you don’t always have to vacuum the whole floor, just do the living room.
“People stress too much about cleaning, it’s not that serious if you have stains or have forgotten to clean something—your house doesn’t always need to be extremely clean like it is in magazines.”
1. Put clingfilm over cleaning products and leave it overnight to remove tough dirt.
2. Use dish soap to clean your toilet and shower.
3. Clean little and often—don’t feel pressured to clean everything at once.
4. First job is to always take out the rubbish then go from there
5. Focus on using good tools rather than fancy products
CLEAN UP Your Social Media Newsfeed by Sharing the Kindness and Tips…
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY – Week of November 5, 2022
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
“Fear is the raw material from which courage is manufactured,” said author Martha Beck. “Without it, we wouldn’t even know what it means to be brave.” I love that quote—and I especially love it as a guiding meditation for you Scorpios right now. We usually think of fear as an unambiguously bad thing, a drain of our precious life force. But I suspect that for you, it will turn out to be useful in the coming days. You’re going to find a way to transmute fear into boldness, bravery, and even badassery.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
For decades, the Canadian city of Sudbury hosted a robust mining industry. Deposits of nickel sulphide ore spawned a booming business. But these riches also brought pollution. Sudbury’s native vegetation was devastated. An effort to re-green the area began in the 1970s. Today, the air is among the cleanest in the province of Ontario. In the spirit of this transformation, I invite you to embark on a personal reclamation project. Now is a favorable time to detoxify and purify any parts of your life that have been spoiled or sullied.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
The literal meaning of the ancient Greek word aigílips is “devoid of goats.” It refers to a place on the earth that is so high and steep that not even sure-footed goats can climb it. There aren’t many of those places. Similarly, there are very few metaphorical peaks that a determined Capricorn can’t reach. One of your specialties is the power to master seemingly improbable and impassable heights. But here’s an unexpected twist in your destiny: In the coming months, your forte will be a talent for going very far down and in. Your agility at ascending, for a change, will be useful in descending—for exploring the depths. Now is a good time to get started!
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Evolved Aquarians are often blessed with unprecedented friendships and free-spirited intimacy and innovative alliances. People who align themselves with you may enjoy experimental collaborations they never imagined before engaging with you. They might be surprised at the creative potentials unleashed in them because of their synergy with you. In the coming weeks and months, you will have even more power than usual to generate such liaisons and connections. You might want to make a copy of this horoscope and use it as your calling card or business card.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
I surveyed the history of literature to identify authors I consider highly intuitive. Piscean-born Anais Nin was my top choice. She used language with fluidity and lyricism. She lived a colorful, unpredictable life. No one better deserves the title of Intuition Champion. And yet she also had a discerning view of this faculty. She wrote, “I began to understand that there were times when I must question my intuition and separate it from my anxieties or fears. I must think, observe, question, seek facts and not trust blindly to my intuition.” I admire her caution. And I suspect it was one reason her intuition was so potent. Your assignment, Pisces, is to apply her approach to your relationship with your intuition. The coming months will be a time when you can supercharge this key aspect of your intelligence and make it work for you better than it ever has before.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
In the coming weeks, I encourage you to work as hard as you have ever worked. Work smart, too. Work with flair and aplomb and relish. You now have a surprisingly fertile opportunity to reinvent how you do your work and how you feel about your work. To take maximum advantage of this potential breakthrough, you should inspire yourself to give more of your heart and soul to your work than you have previously imagined possible. (PS: By “work,” I mean your job and any crucial activity that is both challenging and rewarding.)
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
Here’s my weird suggestion, Taurus. Just for now, only for a week or two, experiment with dreaming about what you want but can’t have. And just for now, only for a week or two, go in pursuit of what you want but can’t have. I predict that these exercises in quixotic futility will generate an unexpected benefit. They will motivate you to dream true and strong and deep about what you do want and can have. They will intensify and focus you to pursue what you do want and can have.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
Your most successful times in life usually come when all your various selves are involved. During these interludes, none of them is neglected or shunted to the outskirts. In my astrological opinion, you will be wise to ensure this scenario is in full play during the coming weeks. In fact, I recommend you throw a big Unity Party and invite all your various sub-personalities to come as they are. Have outrageous fun acting out the festivities. Set out a placemat and nametag on a table for each participant. Move around from seat to seat and speak from the heart on behalf of each one. Later, discuss a project you could all participate in creating.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
A Cancerian reader named Joost Joring explained to me how he cultivates the art of being the best Cancerian he can be. He said, “I shape my psyche into a fortress, and I make people feel privileged when they are allowed inside. If I must sometimes instruct my allies to stay outside for a while, to camp out by the drawbridge as I work out my problems, I make sure they know they can still love me—and that I still love them.” I appreciate Joost’s perspective. As a Cancerian myself, I can attest to its value. But I will also note that in the coming weeks, you will reap some nice benefits from having less of a fortress mentality. In my astrological opinion, it’s PARTY TIME!
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Leo poet Antonio Machado wrote, “I thought my fire was out, and I stirred the ashes. I burnt my fingers.” I’m telling you this so you won’t make the same mistake, Leo. Your energy may be a bit less radiant and fervent than usual right now, but that’s only because you’re in a recharging phase. Your deep reserves of fertility and power are regenerating. That’s a good thing! Don’t make the error of thinking it’s a sign of reduced vitality. Don’t overreact with a flurry of worry.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Virgo author Siegfried Sassoon became renowned for the poetry he wrote about being a soldier in World War I. Having witnessed carnage firsthand, he became adept at focusing on what was truly important. “As long as I can go on living a rich inner life,” he wrote, “I have no cause for complaint, and I welcome anything which helps me to simplify my life, which seems to be more and more a process of eliminating inessentials!” I suggest we make Sassoon your inspirational role model for the next three weeks. What inessentials can you eliminate? What could you do to enhance your appreciation for all the everyday miracles that life offers you?
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
You Libras have a talent that I consider a superpower: You can remove yourself from the heart of the chaos and deliver astute insights about how to tame the chaos. I like that about you. I have personally benefited from it on numerous occasions. But for the next few weeks, I will ask you to try something different. I’ll encourage you to put an emphasis on practical action, however imperfect it might be, more than on in-depth analysis. This moment in the history of your universe requires a commitment to getting things done, even if they’re untidy and incomplete. Here’s your motto: “I improvise compromises in the midst of the interesting mess.”
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
Quote of the Day: “Our goals are the same as those of the UN’s founders, who sought to replace a world at war with one where the rule of law would prevail… where conflict would give way to freedom from violence.” – Ronald Reagan (Excerpt from an address by President Reagan to the United Nations General Assembly)
Photo by: Colin Lloyd
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