Quote of the Day: “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” – Eleanor Roosevelt (born 137 years ago)
Photo: by Mateus Campos Felipe
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Researchers studying naturally occurring antibiotics have isolated one which eradicated the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, potentially offering a revolutionary treatment for the pathogen in both humans, and the natural environment.
Hygromycin A, which the scientists found in a screen of soil microbes, was found to clear the infection of B. burgdorferi, the bacteria found in tiny worm-like parasites which cause much of the worst effects of the disease, without harming the rest of the microbiome in live mice and human cells.
A debilitating disease that can put some people out of action for years, Lyme disease affects 500,000 Americans annually, costing an excess of $3 billion in medical care, and much more from lost labor hours. It drives a variety of pathologies, some minor, some major, and is treated principally by non-selective antibiotics which wreck havoc on the beneficial bacterial communities we all carry on our skin and in the gut.
After infecting mice with B. burgdorferi, hygromycin A, was administered twice a day for five days. Using a PCR test which stimulates rapid replication of even single cells, the treatment proved to clear every last trace of the infection.
Furthermore, in vitro tests on human cells found that even at completely unnecessarily-high doses, its therapeutic index was up there with some of the safest over-the-counter medicines.
Hygromycin A targets these worm-like spirochetes, which along with Lyme disease, also cause other diseases. Another spirochete cleared by hygromycin A is called T. pallidum, which not only causes syphilis, but has been a notable recipient of antibiotic resistance.
Broad-spectrum antibiotics, along with killing our beneficial microbes, were shown in the paper to be strongly linked with blooms of harmful bacteria cropping up in the dead spaces left by an antibiotic like amoxicillin or doxycycline. They have also led to antibiotic resistance in many common pathogens.
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By contrast, hygromycin A treatment resulted in a rise of harmless species like lactobacillus.
“Lyme disease is on the rise and, in many locations, limits our ability to enjoy outdoor activities,” the authors write. “A more permanent solution would require eradicating the source of the disease. We show that baits containing hygromycin A clear B. burgdorferi infection in mice, the principal host of the pathogen.”
However the good news didn’t stop there for the team, as they began to reason that because hygromycin A selectively targeted spirochetes, the tiny parasites mentioned earlier, it could be possible to inoculate entire ecosystems against Lyme disease, since hygromycin A is also a naturally-occurring soil microbe, and therefore already has an established place in the terrestrial web of life.
They referenced a study which looked at how a parasite bait containing the common broad-spectrum doxycycline was spread across an area and eradicated the Lyme disease-causing pathogen in 87% of mice, and 94% of ticks.
“This is far above levels required to reduce infection below the… the percentage of infected ticks and mice needed to sustain the infectious cycle in the wild,” the authors note.
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“Doxycycline, however, is an essential part of our shrinking antibiotic arsenal, and spreading it on large territory is unfeasible due to the risk of selecting for resistant micro-organisms. Hygromycin A, with its limited activity against non-spirochetal organisms, would make an ideal reservoir-targeted antibiotic against B. burgdorferi.“
Not only could they be on a path of eliminating Lyme disease in humans, but perhaps in the natural environment as well, which along with numerous other enormous benefits, would allow people in prone areas to wear shorts and t-shirts on a summertime hike again, which merits some celebration.
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Four brave women in South Africa have successfully overturned a set of antiquated marriage laws that denied women equal property rights.
Around 400,000 elderly black women will now have equal access to matrimonial property, thanks to Elizabeth Gumede, Thokozani Maphumulo, Matodzi Ramuhovhi, and Agnes Sithole, and the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) in Durban.
Land ownership and property rights are integrally connected to the power of self-determination. This is particularly important for a class of persons historically oppressed by society and the law—elderly black women.
In April, the Constitutional Court struck down a piece of legislation which unfairly discriminates against such women. The Court ruled that a section of the Matrimonial Property Act 88 of 1984 is unconstitutional and invalid to the extent that it maintains and perpetuates discrimination in marriages of black couples entered into before 1988, automatically denying them community property.
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The LRC represented Ms. Agnes Sithole and the Commission for Gender Equality in the case, which vindicated the rights of approximately 400,000 elderly black women in South Africa.
The above case is the third in a trilogy of legal challenges brought by the Legal Resources Centre in the cases Gumede, Ramuhovhi and Sithole, challenging the laws. The affected women belong to a generation of black women who were born, raised and married under apartheid – during a time when laws actively prevented their access to freedom of movement, education, and the right to hold property.
Women bore the laborious and expensive task of applying to a court for redistribution of property if the marriage ended, but the court cases and the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act (RCMA) Amendment Bill recently passed by parliament reverses this discrimination.
In 2008, the LRC represented Ms. Gumede who was married in 1968 which was therefore governed by the apartheid-era law that stipulated the husband to be the owner of all family property. Her divorce would have left Ms. Gumede vulnerable and homeless in her old age.
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In 2017, the LRC represented Ms. Maphumulo, who faced eviction from her home upon her husband’s death.
On 2 March 2021, the RCMA Amendment Bill was passed by parliament to give effect to the Gumede and Ramuhovhi orders. The amendment will ensure that the default position for all customary marriages will be in community of property, unless stipulated otherwise in an antenuptial contract.
Finally, in the Sithole case, 72-year-old housewife Ms. Sithole, the judgment “unpacks societal dynamics such as patriarchy, gender stereotyping, and inflexible application of oppressive cultural practices which perpetuates intersectional discriminatory consequences for black women,” according to a statement from the LRC.
The LRC has relentlessly fought for this financial freedom for historically oppressed women. Access to land and property are essential to securing financial freedom, as well as individual agency and autonomy. The potential of women to own and control land will foster their power of self-determination; eliminate dependence; and enable them to participate meaningfully in society.
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“The trilogy of cases have secured a community of property regime for black women, strengthening their right to security of tenure and financial freedom by ensuring that a husband and his wife/wives equally share the right of ownership and other rights to family property and house property without discrimination.”
(File photo by Nkululeko Mabena)
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Ever picked up a time-saving ‘life hack’ from an online video? Today might be a good day to start because a new study suggests that those little tips and tricks save people almost four hours of effort every week.
That’s according to a survey of 2,002 Americans, 41% of whom have described life hacks to be useful efficiency shortcuts.
One-quarter of those familiar with life hacks even claim having six hours per week to spare after using the shortcuts.
Conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Minute Rice, the survey also found that the most popular life hacks were those focused around cooking or the kitchen, with 54% saying they use them regularly.
Cooking hacks that ranked high included batch cooking meals for the whole week (41%), boiling potatoes with skins on for easier removal (40%) and using microwaveable rice (39%).
Six in 10 respondents say they watch life hack videos on the internet, with 42% of people saying they’ve shared their own life hack tips online at some point.
Like all skills, some life hacks require practice; respondents revealed that it takes them an average of three attempts to get a life hack right.
33% have learned tips for make-up, 33% have organized their kitchen better, and another third have found tips to make gardening more enjoyable.
“Anything that gives us time back in our day, from cooking hacks to back-to-school hacks should be embraced. Because when we save time on daily life tasks, we can slow down and enjoy time with those who matter most,” said Erica Larson, Senior Brand Manager of Minute Rice.
30 Most Successful Life Hacks
1) Drying a wet smartphone in rice
2) Adding baking soda to boiling water to help remove egg shells easier
3) Laying a wooden spoon across a pot to keep it from boiling over
4) Cleaning jewelry with toothpaste or Dawn dish soap
5) Cleaning stains with baking soda and vinegar
6) Putting tea bags in shoes to remove the smell
7) Using WD40 to clean the headlights on my car
8) Keeping extra trash bags in every trashcan to keep from having to go get them to replace
9) If vacuum cord keeps coming out of the outlet, push prongs closer together to make it tighter
10) Putting cold water on an onion to stop the tears in your eyes
11) Peeling ginger or hardboiled eggs with a spoon
12) Putting a potato on a broken light bulb to remove it
13) I polish my boots with banana peel and it makes them shinier
14) Adding tomatoes to hot water for easy pealing
15) Transform plastic bottle to flower vases
16) Nail polish on keys to identify them
17) Putting the Saran wrap in the freezer so it doesn’t stick together when you use it.
18) Shaking a hard boiled egg in a mason jar to peel it
19) Using old tissue box to store plastic bags
20) Using a carabineer to attach dog leash to my waste or poop bags to the leash.
21) Using a potato masher to break up frying hamburger
22) Using candle to fix a difficult zipper
23) Using pot lid to get cheese sauce out of packet.
24) Using the spring from my pen, on my phone charger at the stress point
25) Using vinegar/baking soda to polish silver.
26) Using Vinegar to clean shower head
27) Wrapping lettuce in a few pieces of paper towels to keep it fresh longer
28) Removing candle wax using ice cubes
29) Cleaning stains with lemon and vinegar
30) “I always use unflavored string floss to slice food items like block cheese, cakes, and dough like homemade cinnamon rolls. It’s a lot cleaner and more precise. It doesn’t tear up the food and makes a very nice presentation, especially for guests. I actually keep floss in my kitchen for this purpose.”
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America, I am sending you good wishes from a small Bangladeshi village on the 20th anniversary of your great tragedy. I knew nothing about you before 2001, when 9/11 shook you, and turned the world around. Twenty years later, I know much more about you—your people, and history—and want to say thank you.
I first heard about America when I was in junior high school. Our geography teacher showed us a world map, his finger stopped on the line that read USA. “This is America,” he said. We were curious why the teacher mentioned specifically ‘America,’ but he did not explain it to us any further.
Then in 2001, when I was about to finish the 10th grade, we watched the horror of 9/11 on a black and white TV in our village, and I saw America for the first time. While watching the huge plume of smoke and the towers falling down, I saw the Americans. It was the first time I heard them speak, something compelled me to speak like them and I started learning English.
We had no satellite television channels other than the government run TV station. We had no paved roads and electricity let alone internet, so learning English was tough.
After I found a radio set with my uncle, I tried to connect it with some English broadcasting channels. Thus, I discovered Voice of America. By listening to VOA’s ‘Learning English’ programs, I developed my English a bit.
I wrote a letter to VOA asking for some books. They sent me some booklets and magazines and a beautiful photo of Washington DC. I bought some grammar books and started reading English dailies in Bangladesh. As my English developed, I started to learn about America and its people.
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In 2010, our village was electrified. There were color TV sets with multiple channels. I bought a smartphone and connected with the internet provided by a phone company. I opened a Facebook account and tried to reach over to the Americans. Although many of them did not respond, some were friendly and answered me, including a Virginian.
My new Virginia friend and his kindhearted wife sent me a great many books and small gifts. The gifts were often related to American history, culture, and literature. The books played a vital role in my life. I read Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which helped me learn of the American Civil War.
The couple included some fine works of great American writers, including Washington Irving and John Steinbeck. While reading The Grapes of Wrath I felt like I was moving with the Joad family to California. That Steinbeck story added another American history lesson to my list—the Great Depression. I posted some of my already-learned history notes in a Facebook Group and reached out to some more Americans.
I corresponded with my Texas friend though Facebook Messenger. He told me about the Texas-Mexico war at the Alamo. I came to know that everything is BIG in Texas through photos he sent me. Rodeos, ranchos, and rattlesnakes were part of our discussion almost every day.
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He also sent me books, magazines, pens, and school stationery that enriched my knowledge about cowboy culture. When I hold the colorful pens, I feel a sense of my own American dream while studying, teaching, and writing stories about his country.
Then, I moved to California virtually, when I met a friend from the ‘Grizzly Bear State’. From the Spanish settlers to the gold rush, my California friend brought me more US history lessons. Through our conversations, I discovered a wild America, far from Bangladesh. He introduced me to the giant Sequoia forests, Death Valley National Park, roadrunners, California quail, and the sun and surf of the beaches.
I was unstoppable and met more Americans. One of them served in the U.S. Army. My Army friend brought me world history—the Vietnam War, Korean War, Gulf War, Cuban missile crisis, and more. He was stationed in Iraq during the war there. We corresponded about his experience fighting for his country, while leaving everybody back on the US shores. It seemed the life of a soldier is very hard.
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If America did not exist, I would not be who I am today. Now, from my tiny village, I can explore the American wilderness, walk the trails among sequoias, and argue with my friends about why Native Americans are called Indians. Now I understand Martin Luther King Jr.’s role during the civil rights movement and can share my thoughts about him with other people around the world.
I want to thank all these good citizens who brought America—its people, culture, and history—to me here in Bangladesh. I thank you very much, dear friends, and thank you, America!
Rezaul Karim Reza is a freelance writer based in Rangpur, Bangladesh, whose works have appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, Reader’s Digest, and History Is Now Magazine.
(Edited from the original essay published in the CS Monitor)
Quote of the Day: “The supernatural is only the natural of which the laws are not yet understood.” – Agatha Christie
Photo: by Sharon McCutcheon
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 beginning October 8, 2021
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
“Some people are crazy drunk on rotgut sobriety,” wrote aphorist Daniel Liebert. I trust you’re not one of them. But if you are, I beg you to change your habits during the next three weeks. According to my reading of the astrological omens, you have a heavenly mandate to seek more than the usual amounts of whimsical ebullience, sweet diversions, uplifting obsessions, and holy amusements. Your health and success in the coming months require you to enjoy a period of concentrated joy and fun now. Be imaginative and innovative in your quest for zest.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Scottish Poet Laureate Jackie Kay, born under the sign of Scorpio, writes, “It used to be that privacy came naturally to everybody and that we understood implicitly what kind of things a person might like to keep private. Now somebody has torn up the rule book on privacy and there’s a kind of free fall and free for all and few people naturally know how to guard this precious thing, privacy.” The coming weeks will be a good time for you to investigate this subject, Scorpio—to take it more seriously than you have before. In the process, I hope you will identify what’s truly important for you to keep confidential and protected, and then initiate the necessary adjustments. (PS: Please feel no guilt or embarrassment about your desire to have secrets!)
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
“All our Western thought is founded on this repulsive pretense that pain is the proper price of any good thing,” wrote feisty author Rebecca West (1892–1983). I am very happy to report that your current torrent of good things will NOT require you to pay the price of pain. On the contrary, I expect that your phase of grace and luck will teach you how to cultivate even more grace and luck; it will inspire you to be generous in ways that bring generosity coming back your way. As articulated by ancient Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu, here’s the operative principle: “Opportunities multiply as they are seized.”
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
“If you don’t ask, the answer is always no,” declares author Nora Roberts. In that spirit and in accordance with astrological omens, I urge you to be bold and lucid about asking for what you want in the coming weeks. In addition, I encourage you to ask many probing questions so as to ferret out the best ways to get what you want. If you are skilled in carrying out this strategy, you will be a winsome blend of receptivity and aggressiveness, innocent humility and understated confidence. And that will be crucial in your campaign to get exactly what you want.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
“Few persons enjoy real liberty,” wrote poet Alfred de Musset. “We are all slaves to ideas or habits.” That’s the bad news. The good news is that October is Supercharge Your Freedom Month for you Aquarians. I invite you to use all your ingenuity to deepen, augment, and refine your drive for liberation. What could you do to escape the numbness of the routine? How might you diminish the hold of limiting beliefs and inhibiting patterns? What shrunken expectations are impinging on your motivational verve? Life is blessing you with the opportunity to celebrate and cultivate what novelist Tim Tharp calls “the spectacular now.” Be a cheerful, magnanimous freedom fighter.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
The brilliant Piscean composer Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) wrote, “I wish I could throw off the thoughts that poison my happiness, but I take a kind of pleasure in indulging them.” What?! That’s crazy! If he had been brave enough and willful enough to stop taking pleasure in indulging his toxic thoughts, they might have lost their power to demoralize him. With this in mind, I’m asking you to investigate whether you, like Chopin, ever get a bit of secret excitement from undermining your own joy and success. The coming weeks will be a favorable time to dissolve that bad habit.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
Aries poet Anna Kamieńska said her soul didn’t emanate light. It was filled with “bright darkness.” I suspect that description may apply to you in the coming weeks. Bright darkness will be one of your primary qualities. And that’s a good thing! You may not be a beacon of shiny cheer, but you will illuminate the shadows and secrets. You will bring deeper awareness to hidden agendas and sins of omission. You will see, and help others to see, what has been missing in situations that lack transparency. Congratulations in advance!
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
“There is something truly restorative, finally comforting, in coming to the end of an illusion—a false hope.” So declared author Sue Miller, and now I’m sharing it with you, Taurus—just in time for the end of at least one of your illusions. (Could be two, even three.) I hope your misconceptions or misaligned fantasies will serve you well as they decay and dissolve. I trust they will be excellent fertilizer, helping you grow inspired visions that guide your future success. My prediction: You will soon know more about what isn’t real, which will boost your ability to evaluate what is real.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
Afghan-American novelist Khaled Hosseini writes, “People mostly have it backward. They think they live by what they want. But really what guides them is what they’re afraid of—what they don’t want.” Is that true for you, Gemini? The coming weeks will be an excellent time to meditate on that question. And if you find you’re motivated to live your life more out of fear than out of love, I urge you to take strenuous action to change that situation! Make sure love is at least 51 percent and fear no more than 49 percent. I believe you can do much better than that, though. Aim for 75 percent love!
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
“Sometimes dreams are wiser than waking.” Oglala Lakota medicine man Black Elk said that, and now I’m passing it on to you. It’s not always the case that dreams are wiser than waking, of course, but I suspect they will be for you in the coming weeks. The adventures you experience while you’re sleeping could provide crucial clues to inform your waking-life decisions. They should help you tune into resources and influences that will guide you during the coming months. And now I will make a bold prediction: that your dreams will change your brain chemistry in ways that enable you to see truths that until now have been invisible or unavailable. (PS: I encourage you to also be alert for intriguing insights and fantasies that well up when you’re tired or lounging around.)
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
“Don’t hope more than you’re willing to work,” advises author Rita Mae Brown. So let me ask you, Leo: How hard are you willing to work to make your dreams come true, create your ideal life, and become the person you’d love to be? When you answer that question honestly, you’ll know exactly how much hope you have earned the right to foster. I’m pleased to inform you that the coming weeks will be a favorable time to upgrade your commitment to the work and therefore deepen your right to hope.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
“To be truly visionary, we have to root our imagination in our concrete reality while simultaneously imagining possibilities beyond that reality.” This shrewd advice comes from author bell hooks. I think it should be at the heart of your process in the coming days. Why? Because you now have an extraordinary potential to dream up creative innovations that acknowledge your limitations but also transcend those limitations. You have extra power available to harness your fantasies and instigate practical changes.
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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An incredible dog whose owner didn’t know he was blind for over nine months has been declared a “medical mystery” by a veterinary expert.
Border Collie Dave “never puts a foot wrong” and can even navigate around puddles despite his blindness—leaving vets completely baffled.
Jane Downes, 69, says that her pooch has always come when called and happily plays with other dogs despite his undeveloped retinas leaving him completely blind.
Believed to be five or seven years old, Dave had been with Jane for almost a year before she made the discovery.
“No one’s got any answers. It’s just a conundrum and really strange.”
“He’s a blind dog that can see. Maybe it’s a sixth sense, who knows?”
Jane bought Dave from an animal rescue centre in February 2020, when no issues were raised regarding his sight—even after a check-up at the local vet.
Jane, from Waterbeach, Cambs, said, “He jumped into the back of the car and I brought him home.”
“On a couple of occasions he walked into things but I put that down to him being a sheepdog who more than likely lived in a barn rather than a house.”
When Dave stumbled over a step at a pet shop in Cambridge, the owner suggested to Jane that her dog might be blind, so she took him to a specialist vet.
Turns out, Dave had been sightless from birth.
After the revelation, Jane called on the help of Cambridge University’s David Williams, a top veterinary ophthalmologist, who organized two obstacle course challenges for Dave.
He told a local newspaper: “I see a lot of blind dogs and they all bump into objects in a way that Dave didn’t—so at present he is a medical mystery. Just because I’ve been doing this for 33 years, it doesn’t mean I’ve seen everything, and this I can’t explain.”
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Dave now enjoys running around at home with his new brother Sammy, a two-year-old Border Collie, who joined the family last year.
“He chases other dogs around, even though he can’t see them,” says Jane.
“He had everyone fooled—even me as his owner I was fooled for nine months.”
WATCH the video…
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Next week, McDonald’s is making school day mornings a little brighter for educators and showing their appreciation with a free breakfast Thank You Meal.
Teachers, administrators or school staff can simply head to any participating McDonald’s during breakfast hours from Oct. 11-15 and show a valid work ID for a free breakfast.
“Together with our Owner/Operators, we’re proud to serve the people who make our communities a better place, and this is an important time to say thank you to some of our everyday heroes,” said Joe Erlinger, President, McDonald’s USA. “We were honored to give away 12 million free Thank You Meals to first responders and healthcare workers last year and now, with educators going above and beyond, we’re excited to recognize them in a way only McDonald’s can.”
They can get one Thank You Meal per day, which comes with an entrée breakfast sandwich—either an Egg McMuffin, a Bacon, Egg and Cheese or Sausage Biscuit—and also hash browns, with a hot or iced coffee or soft drink.
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Last year McDonald’s launched the “Thank You Meal” program to recognize first responders and healthcare workers at the height of the pandemic. This year, they wanted to honor another essential group “as a small token of appreciation”.
“As a former teacher, this Thank You Meal means the world to me, and I know it will touch my customers and my employees,” said Stefanie Cabrera Bentancourt, a McDonald’s Owner/Operator in Miami, Florida. “Educators are the backbone of our communities. They’ve done so much for us, and it’s an honor to join my fellow Owner/Operators across the country to celebrate them.”
They are also inviting the public to honor a special educator in their lives, by sharing on Twitter, TikTok, or Instagram how they inspired you by using #ThankYouMeal through Oct. 15.
Local Owner/Operators will then be surprising some of the teachers with a breakfast delivery to their school.
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“We’ll celebrate select educators across the country in big and small ways,” said a company statement that mentioned how they had donated supplies and financial help in the past.
SHARE This on Social Media With Educators So They Can Get a Free Breakfast…
A brand of salami known as Galileo is celebrating 75 years of making the cured meats by welcoming salami fans into their family with a chance to win a unique culinary experience in a seaside region of Italy.
But don’t worry, you don’t have to speak Italian.
All you have to do is simply share a photo of yourself on Instagram using the hashtags #GalileoFamily and #Sweepstakes and tag @GalileoSalame.
If you follow the rules of the contest, you are automatically entered for a chance to win a weeklong trip for two to Italy to explore the history and culinary riches of the seaside region of Le Marche, known for its agricultural products, vegetables, meats, grapes, olives and truffle hunting.
“For the better part of a century, we’ve been curing authentic Italian salame with the idea of family and tradition,” said Jeremy Kross, Brand Manager at Galileo, a company that was started in 1945 by Frank Sorba in San Francisco. “The ‘Welcome to the Family’ program celebrates our Italian heritage and, of course, the deliciousness of salame.”
The winners will learn about the history of the Galileo brand and explore incredible destinations there like Ancona, a city and seaport that sits along Italy’s Adriatic coast; Mount Conero, known as a “small piece of heaven” on the Adriatic Sea with some of the clearest water; and finally, San Marino, said to be the world’s oldest surviving republic.
While in Sant’Angelo in Vado, the winners will visit La Tavola Marche, a unique hands-on culinary experience where guests can immerse themselves in Italian culture and food. The company says that crafting Italian meats in the Bay Area where the temperate climate is like that of northern Italy, makes it the ideal location in America to cure salami.
There’s no purchase necessary, but you do need a public Instagram account. Simply post an Instagram photo of yourself and use the hashtags #GalileoFamily and #Sweepstakes and tag @GalileoSalame. Don’t use the likeness of any famous person, though, as it states in the official rules here.
The trip for two will last for seven days, six nights, and is valued at $7,500 U.S. The contest ends on October 21, after which they will do a random drawing to determine the winner.
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Give Your Friends the Chance to Win A Trip to Italy By Sharing On Social Media…
Quote of the Day: “Let the disappointments pass. Let the laughter fill your glass.” – Jackson Browne (turns 73 today)
Photo: by Wil Stewart
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?
An enormous amount of the world’s emissions are generated by our food systems, so an agricultural technology firm in Lithuania moved to tackle the largest definitive source by introducing the world’s first totally-green tractor.
Big engines, massive torque, big heavy tires, and hardly ever leaving third gear means fossil fuels from farm machinery are a massive contributor to agricultural emissions, and AUGA Group’s biomethane-electric hybrid tractor will go a long way towards reducing them.
AUGA is Europe’s largest vertically integrated organic food producer, and the AUGA M1 is the first of its kind, designed as a hybrid to ensure that farmers can run from sunup to sundown.
“Three years ago, when we first calculated our emissions, we saw that as much as 30 per cent of them come from the use of fossil fuels on farms,” stated AUGA CEO Kęstutis Juščius.
“There were simply no solutions to change it. That is why we have taken the lead in developing technologies that will allow us to create a new standard for sustainable agriculture and drastically reduce pollution throughout the food value chain. The first result of this work is a biomethane and electric tractor.”
Rather than run only on biomethane as other green tractors, the addition of an electric motor powered by internal combustion from the biomethane and battery storage to save power during low-demand tasks, allows for many hours of additional use.
Biomethane was specifically targeted as a desired fuel source as it’s one of the greenest biofuels. The cool part about it is that it’s generated from livestock waste which farmers may need to dispose of. Livestock waste is a large contributor of methane: a more potent, but largely harmless greenhouse gas.
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One of the reasons it’s largely harmless is that unlike CO2, if one reduces methane emissions by an amount, say 10,000 tons, the concentrations of methane in the atmosphere immediately shift to reflect that reduction, while a similar reduction in CO2 has no effect whatsoever on its atmospheric greenhouse concentrations.
Therefore by turning the manure into biomethane fuel, it’s having a direct pound for pound reduction in emissions.
In order to maximize the effectiveness of the biomethane fuel, the M1 is designed to accommodate larger, specialized canisters, which the company offers a refueling service for.
The tractor is set to enter production in its native Lithuania next year and will come with a top speed of around eight miles per hour. Running for twelve hours, it produces net zero emissions, while just one M1 on a farm will reduce a farmer’s carbon footprint by 100 tons per year.
MORE: In World First, Top Beef Supplier Approves Methane-Busting Feed Additive That Reduces Gas by 55%
“Our invention makes it possible to create a wide range of tractor applications and make it accessible to all farmers who want to work sustainably,” added Juščius. “We are not developing technology just to solve our own emissions and deliver on the promise of becoming a CO2-neutral company by 2030. Our goal is bigger—we will strive to make this tractor and other technologies that are still being developed available to farmers all over the world and help solve the global problem of pollution in the agricultural sector.”
(WATCH the video about this story below.)
FARM OUT the Good News to Your Mates…
While quilting bees generally conjure images of grandmas piecing together scraps of fabric to create family heirlooms for future generations, crafting the colorful, cozy bed covers has become an outlet for incarcerated men not only to express their creativity but to give something positive back to the communities from which they came.
Over the past 10 years, more than 2,000 personalized quilts assembled by the inmates of Missouri’s South Central Correctional Facility have been donated to children in the state’s foster care system or auctioned off to fund local charitable organizations.
“When I learned that I could help bring a smile to a child’s face, I was all in,” Fred Brown said in an interview with The Washington Post. “Right now, I’m working on a puppy quilt that will go to a 13-year-old boy. I don’t know anything about him, but I have a feeling he’s going to love this quilt.”
William White, an upholsterer by trade, felt a special affinity for the project and joined soon after he began serving his sentence in 2015. Along with his other prison chores, White volunteers to spend seven hours a day, five days a week quilting with his peers.
“The guys were making these beautiful quilts to give away to foster kids, and I knew it was something I wanted to be a part of,” he told WaPo. “I have six kids, and sewing had always been my passion. And now, here was a way for me to give back.”
MORE: Baking Bad: Ex-Cons Are Mentored as Bakers and Now Their Bread is in the Best Restaurants
Based on the precept of “restorative justice” which stresses rehabilitation rather than punishment, according to the group’s coordinator, case manager Joe Satterfield, keeping the prisoners’ minds and hearts engaged while letting them feel like they’re making useful contributions to the community has been a game-changer, even for those who may spend the rest of their lives behind bars.
“You can see a change in their attitude, Satterfield told NPR’s St. Louis affiliate. “A light flips on like, Oh, this is a new avenue. I can actually be a part of something.”
Knowing firsthand the feeling of being forgotten by society, the inmates who participate in the quilting circle strive to personalize each quilt for foster care kids to let them know someone cares; that they’re not “throwaways.”
“You see the names of these kids in foster care; you see a 1-year-old or 2-year-old, and it kind of breaks your heart,” volunteer Rod Harney, who learned to sew in a seventh-grade Home Economics class told NPR. “But that lets us know we’re human still. You can’t express enough how it feels to do it.”
“Even though I’m incarcerated,” William White said, “I can still do something beautiful.”
RELATED: Former Prisoners Turn Waste Into Beautiful Furniture, Re-Building Their Lives At the Same Time
The South Central Correctional Facility quilting program relies on donated fabric and other sewing items. If you’re interested in learning more or making a donation, reach out to Joe Satterfield at [email protected].
RELEASE the Good News So Others Can Know and Share It Too…
It’s almost time to look up, because the Orionids are coming to the Northern Hemisphere from October 16-24.
You’ll be able to see the shooting stars without the need for a telescope or binoculars. But to see them at their very best, you’ll want to wake up early: from 4:00-5:00 A.M Daylight Savings Time, according to Farmer’s Almanac, you should be able to see anything from 10 to over 30 meteors each hour.
What is it, precisely, that you’re watching in the night sky? That’d be trails of cosmic dust from Halley’s Comet sparking up against Earth’s atmosphere at speeds fasters than forty miles per second.
And the hours before dawn are when, “Earth encounters the densest part of Halley’s debris stream,” NASA explains.
Peaking on the 21st, the meteor shower will appear to radiate from the Orion constellation in the southwestern sky.
MORE: 900-Year-old Mystery That Puzzled Stargazers is Now Solved – It’s A ‘Zombie’ Star
Near the Orionids’ peak, there’ll be a Full Hunter’s Moon brightening the night up a little too much for eager meteor watchers.
Nevertheless, if you have a Dark Sky Preserve near you, or just have a favorite dark patch in the city—get the blankets and flasks of hot tea ready, and check out one of the astronomy highlights of the year.
LET This Starry Story Sparkle in More News Feeds…
A young singer can turn himself into a one-man choir by recording himself performing the roles of up to 20 choristers and looping them over each other at the same time.
20-year-old Luca Wetherall records himself singing various roles in classical songs—from a low bass to a high soprano—in his bedroom at Oxford University.
The countertenor then overlaps them all to create the illusion of a room full of singers performing 19th-century choral compositions.
The music scholar has been uploading the renditions on TikTok in a bid to introduce younger people to choral music—and has racked up more than ten million views.
The second-year student from Aigburth, Liverpool, said, “I was watching people singing pop songs on TikTok and I wanted to put choral music out there too.
“I decided to start recording in my student bedroom from scratch, trying to figure out how to make it sound professional by myself.
“Choral music has this stereotype of being boring, old, and outdated—people often don’t actually listen before they judge.
MORE: This Mozart Sonata Calms the Brain to Help Reduce Seizures in People With Epilepsy
“This way I think people can look on it with fresh eyes and see it for what it really is.”
Luca starting singing with his elementary school choir, and become a choral scholar at Liverpool Cathedral before securing a music scholarship at Merton College.
When live performances were shelved during the pandemic, Luca began recording himself singing from his university bedroom.
Normally performing alongside dozens of other singers in a choir, Luca experimented with overlapping many different recordings of himself to form a one-man choir.
RELATED: 11-year-old Girl Drummer, Nandi Bushell, Finally Joins Foo Fighters on Stage – LOOK
If you’d like to hear more, Luca’s debut EP—The Blue Bird—will be released on October 11.
(WATCH the beautiful video of his work below.)
SHARE This Choral Genius in Your News Feeds…
An unfortunate postscript to what was a brilliant evening for his team, Green Bay Packers’ running back Aaron Jones lost a necklace containing a portion of his father’s ashes in the End Zone grass.
A reporter still at work in the very empty Lambeau Field noticed that at 1:45 AM on Tuesday morning, one of the first team trainers—Bryan “Flea” Engel—was still on the field searching for the necklace.
Jones had a huge game against the Detroit Lions on Monday night when he scored four touchdowns in a 35-17 rout.
He revealed to reporters afterwards that he had lost the necklace which had a football pendant containing some of his father’s ashes. His dad, who was always in the stands when his son played, had died earlier this year at age 56 from complications with COVID-19.
“He’d be happy. He’d be like, ‘If you lose it anywhere, lose it in the end zone,'” Jones quipped while in high spirits during a postgame interview.
The pendant was black, which likely didn’t help in spotting it easily, but nevertheless Mr. Engel ended up finding the football equivalent of a needle in a haystack, bringing the brief ordeal to a heartwarming end.
It’s almost 2 a.m. and someone (I think it’s head trainer Bryan Engel, but my eyes aren’t great right now) just came back out to look for the necklace holding Aaron Jones’ father’s ashes that he lost on his second TD catch in that part of the end zone. pic.twitter.com/zJ7V1m2GsX
— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) September 21, 2021
Jones expressed his gratitude the next day: “Thank you to him. He was out there until 1:45. It shows how much they care about us,” ESPN reported.
“He’s been helping me a lot since my dad passed, so he’s, like, been there for me,” said Jones. “Our support staff is great here. They really care about the people.”
Found at 1:45am Thank you to our trainer Bryan ”Flea” Engel I’m forever grateful 🙏🏾♥️🕊 pic.twitter.com/ylTlZ5Jpfr
— Aaron Jones 3️⃣3️⃣ (@Showtyme_33) September 21, 2021
Indeed, they care about their players, as evidenced later in the week when long-time Packers equipment manager Gordon ‘Red’ Batty sewed a small pocket in his jersey—right above where Aaron Jones’ heart will be—to hold the football charm containing the ashes.
Perhaps it’s fitting something like this should happen at Lambeau, home of the only NFL football team in America that is publicly owned by the fans. Green Bay is a tiny city, but even after 13 league championships, including four Super Bowl wins, they’ve never left their home field in favor of the glitz and glamor of a major American metropolis.
– Featured image: @mattschneidman/Twitter
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Quote of the Day: “You may say I’m, a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one.” – John Lennon, Imagine (released 50 years ago)
Photo: by Jr Korpa
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?
Mature oak trees will increase their rate of photosynthesis by up to a third in response to the raised CO2 levels expected to be the world average by about 2050, new research shows.
The results are the first to emerge from a giant outdoor experiment, led by the University of Birmingham in which an old oak forest is bathed in elevated levels of CO2. This latest study adds to the field that looks at the use forests as effective carbon sinks, and potentially gives climate researchers a new tool in the fight against climate change.
Over the first three years of a ten-year project, the 175-year-old oaks clearly responded to the CO2 by consistently increasing their rate of photosynthesis.
Researchers are now measuring leaves, wood, roots, and soil to find out where the extra carbon captured ends up and for how long it stays locked up in the forest.
The increase in photosynthesis was greatest in strong sunlight. The overall balance of key nutrient elements carbon and nitrogen did not change in the leaves.
Keeping the carbon to nitrogen ratio constant suggests that the old trees have found ways of redirecting their elements, or found ways of bringing more nitrogen in from the soil to balance the carbon they are gaining from the air.
The research was carried out at the Free-Air CO2 Enrichment (FACE) facility of the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research (BIFoR), in close collaboration with colleagues from Western Sydney University who run a very similar experiment in old eucalyptus forest (EucFACE). BIFoR FACE and EucFACE are the world’s two largest experiments investigating the effect of global change on nature.
Birmingham researcher Anna Gardner, who carried out the measurements, said, “I’m really excited to contribute the first published science results to BIFoR FACE, an experiment of global importance. It was hard work conducting measurements at the top of a 25-meter oak day after day, but it was the only way to be sure how much extra the trees were photosynthesising.”
MORE: Jane Goodall Enlists Fans to Help Plant a Trillion Trees Around the World by 2030
Professor David Ellsworth, EucFACE lead scientist, said “Previous work at EucFACE measured photosynthesis increased by up to a fifth in increased carbon dioxide. So, we now know how old forest responds in the warm-temperate climate that we have here in Sydney, and the mild temperate climate of the northern middle latitudes where Birmingham sits.”
RELATED: Italy is Protecting its Giant Trees Forever – Monumental Trees that Can Live for Centuries
Professor Rob MacKenzie, founding Director of BIFoR, said of the study, published in Tree Physiology, “It’s a delight to see the first piece of the carbon jigsaw for BIFoR FACE fall into place. We are sure now that the old trees are responding to future carbon dioxide levels. How the entire forest ecosystem responds is a much bigger question requiring many more detailed investigations. We are now pushing ahead with those investigations.”
According to the Independent, he stated that this research could help with the forging of effective climate policy. “Of the [UK] prime minister’s top four climate targets—coal, cars, cash, and trees—trees are, perhaps surprisingly, the least well-understood as a climate control lever.”
“Our work adds to the small body of results from laboratories-in-the-forest that are essential to guide climate policy.”
Source: University of Birmingham
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A dying dog was able to play in the snow for a final time after a Utah ice rink delivered buckets of snow to her home—bringing joy to the winter-loving pup in its final hours.
Marianna Wilson and Elijah Saltzgaber were heartbroken when they made the difficult decision to put down dog 11-year-old Maggie after a battle with cancer.
All her life Maggie loved to be in the snow, and the pair weren’t prepared to let her go without giving her one last weekend of wintery pleasure.
This included lots of her favourite meals, camping, and belly rubs—but they had no idea how they wound get hold of some snow in September.
Until Salt Lake County Ice Center answered their pleas and transported buckets of ice shavings over to their home for Maggie to play in once last time.
A spokesperson said: “It’s not always about skates and hockey pucks at County Ice Center.
MORE: Dog That Was Stuck in a 30-Foot-Deep Cavern For Two Weeks is Rescued and Joyfully Reunited (WATCH)
“Today was a bitter sweet day, as we had an opportunity to help make a difference for a very special dog, Maggie.
“This morning we filled bins, buckets, and the back of the van with ice shavings from the rink.
“Maggie enjoyed her last morning with her two favorite things, snow and her owners.”
RELATED: Dog is Given Her Own Billboard So She Might Finally Get Adopted and Leave the Shelter After 2 Years
Here at GNN, we’re so glad Maggie was given such a special final day—and all thanks to local good samaritans.
(WATCH the video from SWNS below.)
RAISE a PAW for a Sweet Story and Share This With Friends…
An important lesson in the moral education of children could be as close as the book in their hands. Stories matter. And they can play a role in shifting the importance of particular moral values in young audiences, according to the results of a new study.
“Media can distinctly influence separate moral values and get kids to place more or less importance on those values depending on what is uniquely emphasized in that content,” says Lindsay Hahn, PhD, an assistant professor of communication in the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences.
Hahn is first author of the new study, which adds critical nuance to a body of literature that explores how media content affects children. While many previous studies have focused on broad conceptualizations, like prosocial or antisocial effects that might be associated with specific content, Hahn’s study looks at how exposure to content featuring specific moral values (care, fairness, loyalty, and authority) might influence the weight kids place on those values.
Do children reading about particular moral characteristics absorb those traits as a building block for their own morality?
The findings suggest so, and further support how this indirect approach to socializing children’s morality can supplement the direct teaching of moral principles kids might receive through formal instruction.
“Parents, caregivers, and teachers are often wondering how media can be used for good,” says Hahn, an expert in media psychology and media effects. “How can it be used for good things? How can it discourage bad habits? How can it educate?”
Answering those questions begins with a better understanding about how to use media.
“When parents are considering what media they might want to select for their children, they can take into account what particular moral value is being emphasized by the main character, and how the main character is treated because of those actions,” she says.
For the study, Hahn and her colleagues took the main character from a young adult novel and edited the content to reflect in each version the study’s focus on one of four moral values. A fifth version was manipulated in a way that featured an amoral main character. Those narratives were shared with roughly 200 participants between the ages of 10 and 14.
This is a favorable range for media research because it’s more difficult to introduce narrative comprehension in younger kids, while equally challenging to hold the attention of older adolescents, who become bored with rudimentary storylines, according to Hahn.
The team then created a scale designed to measure the importance kids place on moral values to determine how participants might be influenced by specific narratives.
“Measuring these effects can be difficult,” says Hahn of the research, published in the Journal of Media Psychology. “That’s why, in addition to testing our hypothesis, another purpose of this research was to develop a measure of moral values for kids. Nothing like that exists yet, that we know of.”
That measure, notes Hahn, can facilitate future research on media effects in young audiences.
Source: University at Buffalo
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