Quote of the Day: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” – Buckminster Fuller
Photo by: Almos Bechtold
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 cities across the world, volunteers are taking the elderly and people with disabilities out for spins on special tricycles to enjoy the great outdoors.
It’s called Cycling Without Age, and the group is finally up and riding again in Scotland, following the relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions—and they are delighted to be reengaging their scientifically-proven method for enhancing well-being in seniors.
Cycling Without Age (CWA) began in Denmark in 2012, when two good-hearted people (including Ole Kassow of Copenhagen) wanted to help the local elderly and less-able individuals get back on their bicycles. They designed a ‘trishaw’ with a two-person bench at the front where passenger could sit and enjoy the view.
Now there are 2,700 chapters worldwide using well over 3,700 trishaws—and anyone can see the obvious benefits on the faces of people in the carriages.
The Scottish government immediately supported the nonprofit as it chartered its service in 2017. Today it’s available for free in almost every part of the country. 27 local authorities are participating in the project, which has already provided rides to 43,500 Scots—thanks to thousands of volunteer peddlers.
Passengers and pilots alike are back enjoying sea and mountain views in some of the most beautiful regions Scotland has to offer.
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In an effort to quantify the value of CWA, the Ageing Lab at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh worked independently to measure the effects of a ride day versus a non-ride day on dozens of participants who had taken at least four rides. Asked to describe their mood, stress, and energy levels using a scientific scale, they showed a strong improvement on ride days.
“They give them the right to wind in their hair,” said a representative.
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Although the service incurs zero cost to the riders, the bikes reportedly cost $13,000 each, but that hasn’t slowed down the movement. From Chicago suburbs to Bolivia, from Littleton, Colorado, to Togo and Malaysia, CWA is combatting loneliness and isolation in 52 countries, one mile and kilometer at a time.
(WATCH the heartwarming video below.)
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A landscaper in Cheyenne, Wyoming, uploaded a new video demonstrating his skill at creating a domino effect using cinder block bricks on the job site—and it’s racking up thousands of views.
Nestor Gallardo touted his video as “mesmerizing’—and based on the number of times we replayed it, we’d say that’s accurate! The ending was a flipping surprise that paid off.
Nestor is the owner of Big Bird Landscaping LLC, and he describes the final step of the domino run, calling it the ‘backdrop’.
Each block tips over the one after it, as in any domino run. However, the LAST brick falls flat, which changes the angle and allows the brick behind it to fall flat, as well—setting off a backwards chain reaction.
“It’s geometry at it’s finest,” wrote Skywatcher17 in the comments.
“How cool it looks—and Sounds!” said Nestor.
See the two short clips below and judge for yourself…
ALSO WATCH: Dad Hilariously Struggles to Keep Triplets From Climbing Furniture (Watch)
KEEP the Fun GOING—Send This to the Next Person on Social Media…
Of more than 1,300 bat species on our planet, this might be the most comical-looking.
So says the chief scientist at Bat Conservation International when describing the Hill’s horseshoe bat, thought to be extinct for 40 years.
“It’s astonishing to think that we’re the first people to see this bat in so long,” said Dr. Jon Flanders, Director of the organization, in a statement last week.
Flanders joined a multi-national team of experts on an expedition to survey a dense cloud forest in Rwanda, where they were delighted to find the ‘lost species’.
The rediscovery marked the culmination of survey efforts that began in 2013. The team’s dedication paid off during a ten-day and night hike into Nyungwe National Park.
“We knew immediately that the bat we had captured was unusual and remarkable,” said Dr. Winifred Frick, BCI’s Chief Scientist. “The facial features were exaggerated to the point of comical. Horseshoe bats are easily distinguishable from other bats by characteristic horseshoe shape and specialized skin flaps on their noses”.
Careful measurements of the bat before they released it back into the wild were an early tip-off that this could be the lost species they came to find. Dr. Flanders then traveled to visit museum archives in Europe to compare the only known specimens to verify that what they had captured in the African forest was, in fact, the first evidence in 40 years that Hill’s horseshoe bat still exists.
Catching this elusive species also allowed the team to collect additional information to ensure it is easier to find in the future – including recording the first-ever echolocation calls that Hill’s horseshoe bat emits as it hunts for insects.
“Knowing the echolocation calls for this species is a game-changer,” said Dr. Paul Webala, Senior Lecturer at Maasai Mara University, and one of the team’s lead scientists.
The pair of Hill’s horseshoe bats were found back in 2019, but scientists are just divulging the details now, having confirmed the species. In the meantime, the Nyungwe Park Rangers have been setting out detectors that ‘eavesdrop’ on the bats during their nightly flights through the forest.
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The rangers conducted audio surveys with Wildlife Acoustics bat detectors in 23 locations over nine months resulting in recording a quarter-million sound files. Analysis of the sound files revealed Hill’s horseshoe bats were heard at eight locations, all within a small area.
“All the work so far confirms that this is a very rare species with a very small core range,” said Dr. Frick.
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BCI has published records of the rediscovery in their first dataset shared openly, ON the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
“Now our real work begins to figure out how to protect this species long into the future,” says Flanders, who will be collaborating with park management, the government, and Rwanda Wildlife Conservation Association, which joined the expedition, to strengthen the existing conservation effort.
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Using a unique hydrogel, scientists in Saudi Arabia have successfully drawn water out of the dry air for growing spinach—while producing electricity from the solar panels that power it all.
The system offers a sustainable, low-cost strategy to improve food and water security for people living in dry-climate regions.
“A fraction of the world’s population still doesn’t have access to clean water or green power, and many of them live in rural areas with arid or semi-arid climate,” says Peng Wang, a professor of environmental science and engineering at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. “Our design makes water out of air using clean energy that would’ve been wasted and is suitable for decentralized, small-scale farms in remote places like deserts and oceanic islands.”
The system, called WEC2P, is composed of a solar photovoltaic panel placed atop a layer of hydrogel, which is mounted on top of a large metal box to condense and collect water. Wang and his team developed the hydrogel in their prior research—a material that can effectively absorb water vapor from ambient air and release the water content when heated.
The researchers used the waste heat from solar panels when generating electricity to drive absorbed water out of the hydrogel. The metal box below collects the vapor and condenses the gas into water.
Additionally, the hydrogel increases the efficiency of solar photovoltaic panels by as much as 9% because it absorbs the heat and lowers the panels’ temperature.
The team conducted a plant-growing test by using WEC2P in Saudi Arabia for two weeks in June, when the weather was very hot. They used the water solely collected from air to irrigate 60 water spinach seeds planted in a plastic plant-growing box.
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Over the course of the experiment, the solar panel, with a size similar to the top of a student desk, generated a total of 1,519 watt-hours of electricity, and 57 out of 60 of the water spinach seeds sprouted and grew normally to 18 centimeters. In total, about 2 liters of water were condensed from the hydrogel over the two-week period.
“Our goal is to create an integrated system of clean energy, water, and food production, especially the water-creation part in our design, which sets us apart from current agrophotovoltaics,” (also known as agrivoltaics) says Wang.
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To turn the proof-of-concept design into an actual product, the team plans to create a better hydrogel that can absorb more water from the air.
“Making sure everyone on Earth has access to clean water and affordable clean energy is part of the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations,” Wang says. “I hope our design can be a decentralized power and water system to light homes and water crops.”
The proof-of-concept design was described in the March 1 peer-reviewed journal of Cell Reports Physical Science.
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Quote of the Day: “Any real ecstasy is a sign you are moving in the right direction” – Saint Teresa of Avila
Photo by: Victoria Quirk
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?
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 March 12, 2022
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
Singer-songwriter Jill Scott has earned one platinum and two gold records. She approaches her craft with diligence and intensity. On one occasion, she was frying a burger at her boyfriend’s house when she sensed a new song forming in her imagination. Abandoning the stove, she ran into the next room to grab pen and paper. Soon she had transcribed the beginning of a melody and lyrics. In the meantime, though, the kitchen caught on fire. Luckily, she doused it. Later Jill testified, “His cabinets were charred, and he was furious. But it was worth it for a song.” I don’t think you’ll have to make as big a sacrifice as hers in the coming days, Pisces. But you should respond robustly whenever inspiration arrives.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
Aries author Isak Dinesen defined “true piety” as “loving one’s destiny unconditionally.” That’s a worthy goal for you to aspire to in the coming weeks. I hope you will summon your deepest reserves of ingenuity and imagination as you cultivate a state of mind in which you adore your life just as it is. You won’t compare it negatively to anyone else’s fate, and you won’t wish it were different from what it actually is. Instead, you will be pleased and at peace with the truth of exactly who you are right now.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
As author Mary Ruefle points out, “In the beginning, William Shakespeare was a baby, and knew absolutely nothing. He couldn’t even speak.” And yet eventually, he became a literary superstar—among history’s greatest authors. What happened in between? I’m not exaggerating when I attribute part of the transformation to magic. Vast amounts of hard work and help and luck were involved, too. But to change from a wordless, uncoordinated sprout to a potent, influential maestro, Taurus-born Shakespeare had to be the beneficiary of mysterious powers. I bring this up, Taurus, because I think you will have access to comparable mojo during the next four weeks.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
As talented and financially successful as Kanye West is, the Gemini singer-songwriter experiences a lot of emotional suffering. But no one lives an ideal life, right? And we can learn from everyone. In any case, I’ve chosen quotes by Kanye that are in rapt alignment with your astrological omens. Here they are: 1. “I’m in pursuit of awesomeness; excellence is the bare minimum.” 2. “You’re not perfect, but you’re not your mistakes.” 3. “I’m not comfortable with comfort. I’m only comfortable when I’m in a place where I’m constantly learning and growing.” 4. “Everything I’m not makes me everything I am.”
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
“Any real ecstasy is a sign you are moving in the right direction,” wrote philosopher Saint Teresa of Avila, who was renowned for her euphoric spiritual experiences. So is there any such thing as “fake ecstasy,” as she implies? Maybe fake ecstasy would be perverse bliss at the misfortune of an enemy, or the trivial joy that comes from realizing your house keys aren’t missing. Real ecstasy, on the other hand, might arise from a visceral sense of the presence of God, or the elation you feel when you commune with your favorite animal. Anyway, Cancerian, I predict that in the coming days, you will have an extra rich potential for the *real* kinds of rhapsodic delight and enchantment.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Leo actor Jennifer Lawrence portrayed a rugged, fierce, resourceful champion in The Hunger Games film trilogy. In real life, however, she has few resemblances to that stalwart hero. “I have the street smarts and survival skills of a poodle,” she has confessed. But I’ve got potentially good news for her and all the rest of you Leos. The coming months will be a favorable time for you to cultivate the qualities of a rugged, fierce, resourceful champion. And right now would be an excellent time to launch your efforts.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Each of us periodically has to deal with conflict. There come times when we must face the fact that a specific situation in our lives isn’t working well and needs to be adjusted, fixed, or transformed. We might prefer to pretend the problem doesn’t exist. We may be inclined to endure the stressful discomfort rather than engage with its causes. But such an approach won’t be right for you in the coming days, dear Virgo. For the sake of your mental and spiritual health, you have a sacred duty to bravely risk a struggle to improve things. I’ll provide you with advice from novelist John Fowles. He said, “I must fight with my weapons. Not his. Not selfishness and brutality and shame and resentment.” Fowles goes on to say that he will offer generosity and gentleness and no-shame and forgiveness.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
A blogger named MysteryOfWhat expressed appreciation for her errors and wrong turns. “I love all my mistakes!” she exclaimed. “I had fun!” She has a theory that she would not have been able to completely fulfill her interesting destiny without her blunders and her brilliant adjustments to those blunders. I won’t encourage you to be quite so boisterously unconditional in celebrating your fumbles and miscues, Libra. My inclination is to urge you to honor them and feel grateful for them, but I’m not sure I should advise you to shout out, “I love all my mistakes! I had fun!” But what do you think?
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Scorpio poet Norman MacCaig wrote, “Ask me, go on, ask me to do something impossible, something freakishly useless, something unimaginable and inimitable like making a finger break into blossom or walking for half an hour in twenty minutes or remembering tomorrow.” I hope people say things like that to you soon, Scorpio. I hope allies playfully nudge you to stretch your limits, expand your consciousness, and experiment on the frontier. To encourage such a development, you could do the same for your beloved allies: nudge them to stretch their limits, expand their consciousness, and experiment on the frontier.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
“Look at your body not as a source of physical attraction but as a shrine,” wrote teacher Sobonfu Somé. Personally, I have no problem if you regard your body as a source of physical attraction—as a gorgeous, radiant expression of your life energy, worthy of inspiring the appreciation of others. But I agree with Somé that you should also treat your body as a sacred sanctuary deserving of your reverence—especially now. Please boost your intention to provide your beloved organism with all the tender care it needs and warrants.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
“It’s surprising how much memory is built around things unnoticed at the time,” writes author Barbara Kingsolver. Yes! I agree. And by providing you with this heads-up from her, I’m hoping that the subtly potent events unfolding for you in the coming weeks *will not* go unnoticed. I’m hoping you will be alert for seemingly small but in fact crucial developments—and thereby give them all the focus and intelligence they deserve. Later, you’ll remember this delicately pivotal time with amazed gratitude.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
What’s more important: to learn or to unlearn? The answer, of course, is they are equally important. But sometimes, the most crucial preparation for a new learning phase is to initiate a surge of unlearning. That’s what I’m recommending for you right now. I foresee you embarking on a series of extravagant educational experiences in a couple of weeks. And the best way to ensure you take maximum advantage of the available lessons is by dumping useless knowledge and irrelevant information and numbing habits.
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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Volkswagen unveiled their new ID. Buzz in Hamburg, calling it “Europe’s first all-electric bus”.
From its iconic roots in the 1950s, the latest CO2 friendly version is affectionately known as a “Bulli” (resurrecting a popular German nickname for the 2011 VW Bus).
“It’s the proportions that make the ID. Buzz so unique,” says Volkswagen chief designer Jozef Kabaň. He made a direct link back to the original classic vehicle: “In the T1 you are practically sitting on top of the front axle – there’s no front overhang.” Even after the safety and technology features are loaded up front, the ID. Buzz has “super short overhangs,” says Kabaň.
Another feature that has always been typical of the model line is its V-shaped front panel—sans the charismatic round headlights of old, though.
Five people have ample room for traveling and for their luggage. Like any van, the second row of seats can be folded down, doubling the storage capacity.
“In the 1950s, the Volkswagen Bulli stood for a new feeling of automotive freedom, independence and great emotion,” said Ralf Brandstätter, Chairman of the Board of Management. “The ID. Buzz picks up on this lifestyle and transfers it into our time: emission-free, sustainable, fully networked”—and adaptable for future autonomous driving.
The model line is being produced at Volkswagen’s main plant in Hanover Germany. The majority of the electric drive system modules will also be made in Germany “to the highest quality standards,” according to the media release, and the vehicles will exit the production line as “zero-emission vehicles.”
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The company says the vehicle’s manufacture and shipping has a carbon-neutral footprint, and the entire interior uses recycled synthetic materials, free of leather.
Available across Europe this Fall (with orders starting in May), the Buzz will come with:
“The position of the battery, integrated deep down in the sandwich floor, and the lightweight electric drive system result in a good distribution of weight and a low vehicle centre of gravity. Both factors optimize the handling and agility,” said the release.
They say it also has an “unusually small” turning circle of 11.1 meters.
Expect a starting price of around $40,000.
The line also offers a larger cargo van, with double the storage space, called the ID. Buzz Cargo. SEE both the vans in the video below…
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Jeff Hertzog was recently contacted by a stranger who searched tirelessly so she could return his grandfather’s Purple Heart war medal.
She is not just any stranger, however. She turned out to be a second cousin, and the act of kindness brought together members of their families who had never met.
The Purple Heart was awarded to Webster E. Hertzog, who died in battle in Belgium in 1944. The above photo was the last picture taken of him.
“My father didn’t know him well, as my grandparents divorced before he enlisted in the Army.”
The medal, awarded by the U.S. military to any soldier injured or killed in battle, was presented to Hertzog’s parents—and it was passed to various relatives over the last 78 years until it ended up with Edith Gettis, the soldier’s brother’s daughter.
The 84-year-old and her daughter, Dawn Cambria, spent time trying to track down the grandfather’s firstborn son, in order to get the award into the hands of the proper family.
After searching through Ancestry.com and other social media avenues, Dawn found Jeff and reached out to her “new second cousin”.
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Jeff and his wife Kathleen finally got to meet Dawn—and her mother Edith when she arrived to hand him the Purple Heart.
“We then learned that we all had a lot in common, and will continue getting together in the future,” Jeff told GNN.
The meeting “proves it’s a small world,” says Jeff.
“Dawn’s husband knows many friends of mine. His family was also the owner of a swimming pool association that my family belonged to in the 1990’s.”
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“I will be ever grateful for this kindness and the meeting it inspired. It was truly a blessing—one which I will never forget.
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After dispatching mental health teams, instead of police officers, to certain 911 emergency calls, the city of Denver is proclaiming their pilot program a huge success—and expanding it significantly.
Since June 2020, the Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) has deployed medical and behavioral health clinicians to respond to over 2,200 low risk calls reporting trespassing, intoxication, or mental health crises involving poverty, homelessness or addiction.
In all that time, STAR teams have never called for police back-up due to a safety issue, according to their January report.
In January, the City Council unanimously allocated a $1.4 million contract for the STAR program’s expansion, paying for five additional white vans and hiring 7 clinicians, 4 paramedics, and two emergency medical technicians.
The Denver Post reports that STAR teams have driven hundreds of miles, assisted suicidal people and schizophrenics; they’ve also handed out water and socks and connected people to shelter, food and resources.
STAR’s advisory team, consisting of 15 volunteer citizens, hope that with six vans, they can respond to more than 10,000 calls a year. Funding for the expansion was bolstered by a $1.4 million grant from the Caring For Denver Foundation.
“This innovative approach—meeting people where they are, with the right services, at the right time—is a game-changer for Denver,” said Bob McDonald, DDPHE Executive Director and Public Health Administrator for the City of Denver.”
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Importantly, it is also saving money for the city. If the STAR vans can help someone in crisis, that frees up police to handle a robbery or domestic violence call.
“STAR is minimizing unnecessary arrests and unnecessary costs—whether that be jail costs or emergency room costs,” Councilwoman Robin Kniech said.
Denver residents can specifically request STAR assistance by calling 720-913-STAR (7827) or by calling the non-emergency number 720-913-2000.
“When STAR pulls up, people in crisis can be assured that two non-judgmental, client-centered, supportive people who are willing to listen are getting out of that van to help,” said Chris Richardson, LCSW, the Mental Health Center of Denver’s Associate Director of Criminal Justice.
Other cities in Colorado, including Pueblo, Colorado Springs, and Fort Collins, have called Denver with intentions to start similar emergency services to dispatch unarmed health professionals.
Nearby Aurora was among the first to replicate the model, launching their Aurora Mobile Response Team in September.
Data collected from 759 of the residents served so far shows that nearly three-quarters had been medically diagnosed with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety, or major depression.
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“It’s the future of law enforcement,” Denver police Chief Paul Pazen said in a 2020 interview with the Denver Post. “We want to meet people where they are and address those needs and address those needs outside of the criminal justice system.”
Watch a local news report from KUSA-TV 9…
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Quote of the Day: “If you do not expect the unexpected you will not find it, for it is not to be reached by search or trail.” – Heraclitus
Photo by: Johannes Plenio
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?
Scientists have developed an artificial intelligence system that can analyze eye scans taken during a routine visit to an optician or eye clinic and identify patients at a high risk of a heart attack.
Doctors have recognized that changes to the tiny blood vessels in the retina are indicators of broader vascular disease, including problems with the heart.
In the research, led by the University of Leeds, deep learning techniques were used to train an AI system to automatically read retinal scans and identify those people who, over the following year, were likely to have a heart attack.
Deep learning is a complex series of algorithms that enable computers to identify patterns in data and to make predictions.
Writing in the journal Nature Machine Intelligence, the researchers report in their paper—Predicting Infarction through your retinal scans and minimal personal Information—that the AI system had an accuracy of between 70% and 80% and could be used as a second referral mechanism for in-depth cardiovascular examination.
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The use of deep learning in the analysis of retinal scans could revolutionize the way patients are regularly screened for signs of heart disease.
Professor Alex Frangi, who holds the Diamond Jubilee Chair in Computational Medicine in the School of Computing at the University of Leeds and is a Turing Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute, supervised the research. He said, “Cardiovascular diseases, including heart attacks, are the leading cause of early death worldwide and the second-largest killer in the UK. This causes chronic ill-health and misery worldwide.
“This technique opens-up the possibility of revolutionizing the screening of cardiac disease. Retinal scans are comparatively cheap and routinely used in many optician practices. As a result of automated screening, patients who are at high risk of becoming ill could be referred for specialist cardiac services.
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“The system could also be used to track early signs of heart disease.”
The UK Biobank provided data for the study.
Chris Gale, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Leeds and a Consultant Cardiologist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, was one of the authors of the research paper.
He said, “The AI system has the potential to identify individuals attending routine eye screening who are at higher future risk of cardiovascular disease, whereby preventative treatments could be started earlier to prevent premature cardiovascular disease.”
During the deep learning process, the AI system analysed the retinal scans and cardiac scans from more than 5,000 people. The AI system identified associations between pathology in the retina and changes in the patient’s heart.
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Once the image patterns were learned, the AI system could estimate the size and pumping efficiency of the left ventricle, one of the heart’s four chambers, from retinal scans alone. An enlarged ventricle is linked with an increased risk of heart disease.
With information on the estimated size of the left ventricle and its pumping efficiency combined with basic demographic data about the patient, their age and sex, the AI system could make a prediction about their risk of a heart attack over the subsequent 12 months.
Currently, details about the size and pumping efficiency of a patient’s left ventricle can only be determined if they have diagnostic tests such as echocardiography or magnetic resonance imaging of the heart. Those diagnostic tests can be expensive and often only available in a hospital setting, making them inaccessible for people in countries with less well-resourced healthcare systems—or unnecessarily increasing healthcare costs and waiting times in developed countries.
Sven Plein, British Heart Foundation Professor of Cardiovascular Imaging at the University of Leeds and one of the authors of the research paper, said: “The AI system is an excellent tool for unravelling the complex patterns that exist in nature, and that is what we have found—the intricate pattern of changes in the retina linked to changes in the heart.”
Source: Leeds University
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In a twist for solar energy, a Filipino inventor has created resinous panels that harvest solar energy out of recycled vegetables, and it can work even when it’s cloudy, rainy, or out of direct sunlight.
It turns out that there are extremely sensitive chemicals in vegetables that turn UV light from the sun into visible light which can in turn be used to generate electricity from photovoltaic cells.
When placed between the glass of a double-glazed window, the different colored panels push sunlight into the edges of the window pane where PV cells then turn it into electricity—enough to charge two smartphones, but if used to clad an entire building, it can power major systems as well as delight onlookers with its Andy Warhol-like usage of bright colors.
Made from upcycled vegetable waste, the innovation won its creator, 29-year-old Carvey Ehren Maigue, the 2020 Dyson Foundation Sustainability Award. Maigue called it AuREUS, as its multi-colored nature looks like the Aurora Borealis.
Unlike the bulky solar panels we all think off, AuREUS is a vegetable polymer sheet, and can be bent, molded, and clamped, onto pretty much any shape. Furthermore, they don’t need UV light to strike them directly, harvesting as plants do from the UV light through clouds. If placed on a roof entirely in shadow, they can still generate energy if the UV light was bouncing off, say, a nearby skyscraper or field.
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“We are also looking to create curved plates, for use on electric cars, airplanes and even boats,” Maigue told the Dyson Foundation in a 2020 interview. “AuREUS has the chance to bring solar energy capture closer to people. In the same way computers were only used by the government or the military and now the same technology is in our smartphones, I want solar energy harvesting to be more accessible.”
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He says that there’s nothing stopping the base polymer from being used even to make thread for clothing, allowing people to generate electricity as they walk around.
Designed to be as low-impact as possible, Maigue sought not just vegetable waste, but also crops destroyed in storms and typhoons. The panels come in red, orange, yellow, green and blue, with a suitable and natural blue coloring agent remaining undiscovered.
(WATCH the EuroNews video for this story below.)
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As a business owner, being your own boss certainly has its perks, but 33% of female small business owners were motivated to start their own businesses to inspire other women.
That’s according to a new random double-opt-in survey of 1,013 female small business owners, including 505 who identified tmselves as white and 508 as people of color.
One in three (36%) respondents said they currently have a female mentor or role model in the business world—particularly women of color, who were almost 1.5x more likely to have a mentor than their white counterparts. (42% vs. 29%).
And three out of four mentored respondents (75%) credited that mentor with the success of their business.
Women of color also expressed a stronger interest in “inspiring other women” with their business (39% vs. 26%), and 82% said they want their success to show others that it’s possible to overcome stigmas.
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Conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Office Depot, the survey also asked women about the challenges they faced when opening their businesses.
Overall, respondents cited lacking funds (47%) and trying to maintain a work-life balance (38%) as the toughest hurdles to overcome.
Eighty-four percent said they’ve wanted to start their business as long as they could remember, with 80% launching their venture based on a hobby or activity they were already passionate about.
Sixty-one percent even worked a day job so they could save up enough money to open their business, including more women of color (71% vs 51%).
Of the 417 respondents who started their business in the past two years, 61% say the pandemic played a big factor in their decision.
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“The growing number of women who have turned their passion projects into successful small businesses is incredible,” said Zoë Maloney, executive vice president and chief human resources officer for The ODP Corporation. “Seeing female entrepreneurs come together to empower and mentor one another while developing the next generation of powerful female leaders is so inspiring and impactful.”
Respondents said that helpful assets like cash grants (38%) or marketing materials (29%) would have helped get their business off the ground.
Still, nearly three-quarters of all respondents said they feel that it’s easier for a woman to become a successful business owner today than 10 years ago (73%).
And most said owning their business has been an overall positive experience (81%), citing being their own boss (66%) and watching their business grow (40%) as the fruits of their labor.
MOST REWARDING PARTS OF BEING A BUSINESS OWNER
Being your own boss – 66%
Watching your business grow – 40%
Putting an idea into action – 36%
Work-life balance – 25%
Inspiring other women – 24%
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It’s rare to find a narwhal as far south as Canada’s St. Lawrence river, but it does occasionally happen.
But when a narwhal travels so far south, and returns every year amid a pod of beluga whales, “rare” hardly fits the billing.
Marine biologists in Quebec have had the pleasure of studying this fascinating phenomenon: a narwhal traveling, eating, and living with a pod of young male beluga whales as they cruise down the province’s famous river. Drone footage indicates this unique black sheep is a male, and well-fed, indicating that he’s been adopted into the pod.
“There are a lot of social interactions between the narwhal and the others,” said Robert Michaud, president and scientific director of the Group for Research and Education on Marine Mammals (GREMM). “He is one of the crew; he is one of the buddies in there.”
GREMM has been studying this pod of belugas, who have returned every year since 2016, and believe that they are now reaching sexual maturity, when they will venture out to find a pod of females to court. Michaud is 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.”
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In 2019, an Ontario/Denmark team of researchers confirmed the existence of narlugas through analysis of a skull received by a hunter-gatherer in Greenland. Lacking the long horn of the narwhal (which is actually a canine tooth) yet possessing characteristics of both animals, it gave some forensic evidence to known first-hand accounts of hybrids between the species.
“It was a first generation hybrid, meaning the parents were a beluga and a narwhal. Particularly a narwhal mom and a beluga dad,” Paul Szpak from Trent University Ontario, told CBC in 2019. The narluga was bigger than both animals, similar to the way a “liger,” the result of a tiger and a lion breeding, is also bigger than both.
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The St. Lawrence narwhal has a lot to learn if it’s to secure itself a beluga-lover, since the whales communicate with a vast array of vocalizations unknown to their horned cousins. However it’s not clear to Michaud whether or not the narwhal knows itself to be a narwhal, or knows itself to be a beluga.
“What does a narwhal know about narwhals, and would he now know about belugas? Well, these are fascinating questions,” Michaud said on the CBC radio show The Current.
(WATCH the crew cruise in the Baleines En Direct video below.)
Featured image: Baleines En Direct/YouTube
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Quote of the Day: “Life is short. Kiss slowly, laugh insanely, love truly and forgive quickly.” – Paulo Coelho
Photo by: Kurt Stocker, CC license
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
More than 100,000 daffodils planted in a town as part of a generous gift from a Canadian banker in his will are finally beginning to bloom.
The valley of bulbs were planted after a dying wish by Keith Owen, who planned to retire in Sidmouth in Devon, southwest England.
He was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2007 and decided to leave his life savings of £2.3m ($3 million) to a local voluntary conservation society.
He contacted the Sid Vale Association (SVA) and told them he wished for his money to be used to “support local projects, which made use of voluntary labour, and in particular to sustain the ambience and way of life, recognised in Sidmouth and its surroundings.”
Now the 153,000 bulbs planted across the town are finally beginning to bloom.
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Ed Harrison of the Sidmouth Civic Society said, “Every year it brings back happy memories of this man who did this amazing thing for the town.”
Snowdrops, daffodils, and crocus bulbs were among the 153,000 flowers worth £166,000 planted at over 50 sites.
The daffodils were planted on Peak Hill in Sidmouth.
Mr Owen died on December 3, 2007 in Victoria Hospital in Sidmouth.
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The millionaire was born in 1938 in nearby Totnes, and went to school at Montpelier Preparatory School in Paignton.
In 1976, after 20 years of RAF service with the British armed forces, he retired with the rank of Squadron Leader and set up home in Ottawa, Canada.
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A dog photographer who captures hilarious pictures of pooches trying to catch cubes of cheese has been busy raising money to buy pet food for food banks.
56-year-old Carolyne Cowan recently snapped pictures of 41 dogs lunging for cheese at a charity ‘catchathon’ event.
Mom-of-two Carolyne pictured everything from Rottweilers and Greyhounds to little Border Terriers.
Her husband Alasdair diced up 10kg of cheese to throw at the pooches while Carolyne snapped away, taking around 50 pictures per pet.
Hilarious behind-the-scenes footage shows impatient Rottweiler Zeus getting set up to catch the cheese.
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Carolyne started the event in 2018 and put it on for 14 months, raising £15,000 ($20,000), but was forced to pull the plug on it when the pandemic hit.
Carolyne, who owns Carrie Southerton Photography, said of their recent event, “It was a crazy day but we have never laughed so much ever.
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“The owners had a ball, it was brilliant.
“There were only six dogs who didn’t or couldn’t catch the cheese.
“Some were being princesses and just looking at Alasdair after he threw the cheese with great distain, as if to say, how dare you throw something at me.
“But you get the hilarious outtakes with the ones who don’t catch so it was great fun and the dogs loved it.
“We started a fundraising page because someone in America contacted us saying they could be there but would like to donate.
“So we are hoping to get up to our target through that.”
To donate visit the GoFundMe page here.
Take a look at some of those cheese fans in the pictures below…
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107 years ago, Endurance, the ship of legendary Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton went down in the Weddell Sea. On the 100th anniversary of the captain’s burial, it was found.
The ship now sits as a monument in a state of preservation rivaling or exceeding the finest maritime archaeological discoveries.
“We are overwhelmed by our good fortune in having located and captured images of Endurance,” said expedition leader Mensun Bound. “This is by far the finest wooden shipwreck I have ever seen. It is upright, well proud of the seabed, intact, and in a brilliant state of preservation. You can even see ‘Endurance’ arced across the stern, directly below the taffrail.”
Not a single plank, from what the explorers could see, had been disturbed by time or eaten by parasites. Only the damage from when the boat struck the ocean floor, and the hole which caused it to sink in the first place, were visible.
Bound was joined by Dr. John Shear, and together they set out with their colleagues and crew aboard S.A. Agulhas II a South African icebreaker ship to find the wreck. The expedition was called Endurance22 and funded by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust.
“The discovery of the wreck is an incredible achievement,” added Shears. “We have successfully completed the world’s most difficult shipwreck search, battling constantly shifting sea-ice, blizzards, and temperatures dropping down to -18C.”
Saturday, when the wreck was found, was the 100th anniversary of Shackleton’s funeral, and the Agulhas II, on route to its port in Cape Town, will stop at the famous captain’s gravesite on South Georgia to pay their respects.
Historian Dan Snow was working with the explorers and described that when Endurance was found the presence of excitement aboard was palpable. “You could hear doors slamming, you could hear people running down the corridors, it was something in the air,” he told the BBC.
“Scott for scientific method, Amundsen for speed and efficiency but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton,” said Sir Raymond Priestley, a contemporary of Shackleton’s, in 1956.
During Shackleton’s previous expedition to Antarctica, he found the South Magnetic Pole, and also became the first person to summit Mount Erebus, the volcano-mountain of Antarctica.
Following up on this success, Shackleton departed England on Endurance in 1914. Upon reaching the Weddell Sea, the ship became stuck in the ice for so long that it froze fast to it. The crew attempted to stay by the boat’s side as it floated with the ice, but on 21 November 1915, the wreck finally slipped beneath the surface.
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After floating on sea ice until April, Shackleton ordered his men into three lifeboats, where they eventually reached Elephant Island, an inhospitable environment. From there, some of the crew set off in the largest of the lifeboats towards South Georgia, a 720 nautical mile journey. They made it, and sent back help for the men remaining on Elephant Island, despite being delayed by the weather three times. Not one soul was lost in the disaster.
At 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) below the ice-bound sea, Endurance was described as “looking like a ghost ship,” where it sat beyond the reach of any sunlight. While filter feeders had colonized the wreck, no wood-boring worms were found, but the translucent anemones found almost added to its beauty.
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Much of the paint and wood stain could even be seen through the robotic submersible’s camera, which found crockery, a boot, both anchors, and astoundingly even the ship’s steering wheel, as it explored.
Seeing the name Endurance above the five pointed star which is supposed to resemble Polaris was the most special moment, according to Bound.
“I tell you, you would have to be made of stone not to feel a bit squishy at the sight of that star and the name above,” he told the BBC. “You can see a porthole that is Shackleton’s cabin. At that moment, you really do feel the breath of the great man upon the back of your neck.”
CHECK OUT: ‘Most Important Prehistoric Discovery in a Century’ Revealed by British Museum
Species like brittle stars, stalked sea squirt, anemones, and urchins were all filter feeding but not contributing to deterioration.
The ship lies in waters under the International Treaty of Antarctica, and therefore must not be disturbed. No artifacts will be brought to the surface, and it will now be considered a monument.
(WATCH the BBC video showing the ship after all these years.)
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From March 2nd to March 3rd, people from around the world booked 61,000 nights in Ukrainian cities via Airbnb, likely not one ever planning to check-in, or reschedule.
It’s part of a creative social media campaign to channel funds into besieged cities where something like aid drops or supply trucks can’t reach, and it has seen $1.9 million raised for Ukrainians in just those 48 hours.
In the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, Volodymyr Bondarenko had 10 people book into his room in a single day. “This was surprising, it’s very supportive at the moment,” 36-year-old Bondarenko told CNN early Friday. “I told many of my relatives and friends that I plan to use this money to help our people who need it at this time.”
Airbnb has said it is offering temporary housing in neighboring countries to up to 100,000 Ukrainians who are fleeing. It’s also waiving guest and host fees in the country to support individuals donating.
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“We are so humbled by the inspiring generosity of our community during this moment of crisis,” said Haven Thorn, a company spokesperson. He asked those willing to help by hosting Ukrainians or donating to their efforts to visit Airbnb’s website to find additional ways to support or information.
One way anyone can help is by opening their home to Ukrainian refugees as an Airbnb host, for which the company will cover you with Aircover, a one million dollar hosting insurance policy. Airbnb also partners with non-profits and charities to help contribute to the guests’ basic needs.
The hospitality service isn’t the only community-based service that is helping out. Etsy has decided to cancel the current balances owed to Etsy by all sellers in Ukraine, which includes listing fees, transaction fees, advertising fees, and more—a roughly $4 million relief package.
An online portal in Ireland for hosting refugees crashed Monday night after receiving more than 4,000 pledges.
Organized by the Irish Red Cross, medium- to long-term accommodation pledges of 6-12 months stay flooded in. Secretary General of the Irish Red Cross, Liam O’Dwyer, said he was “astonished” by the number of housing pledges.
The Temporary Protection Directive was activated in Ireland, as by all EU member states in response to the Ukraine Crisis. It sets prevailing norms for the treatment of displaced persons in order to ensure no EU country is singled out for mass influxes of refugees based on favorable social policies.
It establishes access to basic medical care, temporary housing, access to the labor market, and education and social welfare.
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