Quote of the Day: “Seize the moments of happiness–love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly.” – Leo Tolstoy (War and Peace)
Photo: by JOSHUA COLEMAN
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 response to global warming concerns across the planet, the world’s largest beef exporter has approved the sale of a feed additive that cuts methane emissions from beef and dairy cattle.
Regulators in Brazil and Chile have granted full market authorization for Royal DSM’s Bovaer to be given to cows as well as sheep and goats, the company said recently in a statement.
The methane-reducing additive obtained this first approval after a 10-year collaboration called Project Clean Cow, and its success in 48 scientific trials on farms in 13 countries across 4 continents—peer-reviewed studies (such as this one in 2020 at UC Davis) that were published in scientific journals
“A beef trial with Bovaer at Sao Paolo State University (UNESP) in Brazil conducted in 2016-2017, showed enteric methane emission reductions up to 55%, which highlights the potential for radically more sustainable cattle farming in Latin America to further lower their carbon footprint,” said Mauricio Adade, president DSM Latin America.
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And the additive comes “without adverse effects on performance”, says São Paulo State University Professor Ricardo Reis.
”The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) stated that a rapid reduction of methane emissions could reduce the spread of global warming in the near term and have a positive effect on air quality,” said DSM’s Mark van Nieuwland. “We know the agricultural and livestock sectors recognize this opportunity for change and are eager to act.”
Just a quarter teaspoon of Bovaer per cow per day consistently reduces burped methane emission by approximately 30% for dairy cows and even higher percentages (up till 90%) for beef cows. After suppressing methane production in the stomach, it is broken down into compounds already naturally present in the cow’s stomach.
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12-year-old Wanessa Bąkowska has been pouring her sensitivity through paints and onto canvas since she adopted as a little girl with Down syndrome.
From Lipka, Poland, the 6th grade student has also been enchanted with all things royal, and recently decided to make a painting for the queen. With her tutor’s help in translating to English, she wrote a letter and sent it off to the palace:
“Your Majesty, my name is Wanessa and I am 12 years old. I live in Poland, in the small town of Lipka.
“I have wonderful teachers and many friends. I have mum Karolina, dad Rafał, brother Alan and sister Nutka. I love them very much.
“I am a person with a disability and Down Syndrome. Nevertheless, I paint pictures. I would like to give you one of them, Your Majesty. The title of this painting is ‘Earth’. Greetings from Poland.”
She posted on Facebook about sending the painting, saying in Polish:
“I like breaking stereotypes and I like to pretend to myself that the impossible doesn’t exist… Although in real life I will not have such an opportunity, I visited the royal court through a letter I wrote to Queen Elizabeth… Beloved dreams are there to make them come true, even if they seem unreal.”
Well, the ‘unreal’ did come true on September 6, as they received a reply from the royal court in their mailbox.
The Queen’s response, dictated by an assistant, spoke of how ‘touched’ she was with the effort she put into the painting, describing it as “splendid”.
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The letter said Her Majesty was thankful to the 12-year-old for her “thoughtfulness for taking the time to write” and wished her success in the future.
Pictures of the official reply was posted to her daughter’s Facebook page with the words, “Dreams are made to be fulfilled. Today I got a reply to my letter from Queen Elizabeth.”
Her mom shares the canvases from her talented young daughter to social media at ‘Pictures Painted With Heart’ (Obrazy malowane sercem), which has over 2000 followers.
There you can see details about how Wanessa uses every day objects, like plastic cups, balloons, beads, and plastic wrap, to move paint in unique and ethereal ways.
She’s creating more complex and beautiful works every week.
In fact, the Labirynt gallery in Pila hosted an exhibition of her works and one of her paintings was even shown in the National Theatre in Warsaw last year.
“We didn’t expect an answer. Nobody was set on it,” Karolina Bąkowska told the Polish news outlet, Fakt. “Regardless of whether the lady of the court responded to it on behalf of the queen, or someone else, it was a huge surprise for us, and above all for Wanessa.”
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As a little boy, Nick Priest loved playing video games with his dad, Joe, who was a wiz at all things tech and gaming. They started off with Nick holding a controller and pretending to play, and moved on to Lego games and Mario Galaxy.
Joe was diagnosed with cancer when Nick was three, and after that, they played more than ever. The last time he made it down to the basement for gaming, Joe was so weak that he couldn’t even walk—he had to go down the stairs, step by step, on his rear end—but it was worth it and the pair had a blast.
When he passed away, Nick was just six, but the boy didn’t just lose his dad, he lost his gaming partner. When friends or family would visit and play with him, it took his mind off his sadness and brought back happy memories of playing.
Nick told his mom then that no kid should ever be without someone to play video games with. That’s when the Power of Play was born.
He started working on the project as a freshman in high school, at Salesianum School Wilmington, Delaware. Now a junior, he rallies teens to bring the “power of play” (particularly video games) to kids who are affected by cancer or other illnesses
At first, Nick recruited volunteers to go to the local children’s hospital, Alfred I. Dupont Hospital for Children, to play games with kids one-on-one. Then COVID-19 hit, making in-person events impossible.
Determined to keep going, he raised $1,000 that he used to buy 2 Playstation 4 gaming systems and a few controllers. Then, he interviewed a girl who had gone through childhood cancer and her mom, and they told him how isolating and lonely cancer treatment can be, even before COVID.
Nick learned that kids in treatment are often unable to leave their rooms or are in isolation rooms, meaning even if there were a gaming system to play, there wasn’t anyone to play with. And although most of these young patients have phones and tablets, they usually aren’t allowed to use the hospital’s WIFI to link up with each other to stream and play.
RELATED: Study During Lockdown Shows Playing Video Gaming–Even For Hours–Can Help Your Mental Health
He brainstormed to find a way his volunteers could play with kids online and a way that kids in the hospital could play with each other. He told hospital officials about his idea, and together, they developed a system where the kids on a floor can communicate with each other while playing.
“Hospitals have a lot of privacy laws and regulations,” Nick told GNN, “It took a long time but we finally got there!”
“No, video games do not cure any disease, but as my dad always used to say, ‘Laughter is the best medicine!’”
RELATED: Nintendo is Partnering With a Nonprofit to Bring Gaming Consoles to Hospitalized Kids
The Power of Play team also helps those who have parents or siblings that are going through something tough.
Realizing that there were kids who weren’t in the hospital but still could benefit from playing video games, Nick and his NPOP volunteers developed a Buddy System. Parents reach out to NPOP and share the games their child likes and other interests, and then Nick assigns one of his teen volunteers—like Kylie or Jack who are both officers in the project (pictured above)—to be a buddy, based on their interests. For example, he buddied up a kid who loved football with a varsity football player.
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The kids and their buddies decide how often and when to play, but usually it is once every week or so. They log in and compete with each other and talk, just connecting and having fun.
The kids and buddies are really enjoying it, so NPOP really wants to expand and reach as many kids as they can. Currently, they have more volunteers than kids who want to play, because so many teens want to help.
Nick asked GNN to encourage readers to reach out, if they have a child or teen who could benefit from a gaming buddy, and to spread the word to anyone who NPOP may be able to help. NPOP’s website is nickspowerofplay.com and from there, parents can email and get the buddy process started.
“If I can bring smiles to children’s faces, and bring laughter into their hospital rooms, I will do whatever it takes to make that happen.”
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Nick told GNN that he is “very close” to getting his 501c3 nonprofit finalized, but he did set up a GoFundMe page for anyone who wishes to contribute to the purchase of more controllers and gaming systems.
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Have you ever wanted to live on a farm, but without having to do all the hard work or needing to drive an hour to reach a major city?
In San Francisco, a mixed-income apartment complex has gone up in the neighborhood of Santa Clara that comes with its own 1.5 acre farm, managed by a professional urban farming company, which also welcomes help from residents.
The Agrihood building consists of 361 units, 181 of which are priced below market rate— 10% are reserved for moderate income renters, and 165 for low-income seniors and veterans. The complex also contains 30 townhomes and features a central 1.5 acre organic farm that can produce 20,000 pounds of food every year.
Each week the produce is brought to an on-site location and sold at a deep discount for residents. The full list of produce is on Agrihood’s website, and includes superfoods, comfort foods, orchards, perennial foods, and native foods.
“Our goal throughout this endeavor has been to provide the affordable housing that we urgently need in Santa Clara through a truly creative, community-driven process,” writes the brochure.
“Not only are we providing a really unique living experience for the residents that live on the property, but we’re also taking a very deliberate approach to encouraging the health and wellness of our residents by incorporating the farm, hopefully, into their daily and weekly lifestyles,” Vince Cantore, who is vice-president of Core Companies, the firm leading the Agrihood project, told Fast Company.
Attempting to address the housing shortage in San Francisco, Agrihood is actually built on the site of what used to be one of the many orchards that covered Santa Clara in decades past.
RELATED: How One Developer is Turning Farm Storage into Soaring Yet Affordable Apartments
Urban farming and gardening is growing in popularity, with some cities, parks, or neighborhoods attempting to include community gardens, forest gardens, or urban farms into development plans.
It’s a critical way that urban areas can increase food security, reduce the carbon footprint that food racks up during transportation, and increase access to healthy food for low-income communities in food deserts.
LOOK: Town Near Rome is Selling Old Homes for $1, a Trend Across Italy in Many Beautiful Villages
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Quote of the Day: “A path is only a path, and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you.” – Carlos Castaneda
Photo: by ActionVance
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
A research team at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences has identified a potential cause of long-lasting symptoms experienced by COVID-19 patients, often referred to as ‘long-haulers’.
At the heart of the team’s findings is an antibody that shows up weeks after an initial infection and attacks and disrupts a key regulator of the immune system, said lead researcher John Arthur, M.D., Ph.D., professor and chief of the Division of Nephrology in the UAMS College of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine.
As many as 30% of COVID-19 patients experience lingering fatigue, brain fog and shortness of breath. The cause of long COVID-19 has eluded scientists, but the UAMS team’s discovery sheds important new light on the molecular-level mechanisms behind it.
“Everything that we’ve found is consistent with this antibody as the instigator of long COVID, so it’s an exciting development,” Dr. Arthur said.
The antibody creates problems for the immune system by attacking the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). The ACE2 enzyme helps regulate the body’s response to the virus by metabolizing a peptide that activates the immune system.
The attacking antibody interferes with ACE2’s work, which makes the antibody a prime suspect for the long-lasting illness.
The multidisciplinary research team was brought together quickly this spring to test the hypothesis that developed through discussions between Arthur and UAMS’ Terry Harville, M.D., Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Pathology and medical director of the Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics Laboratories.
Researchers tested plasma or serum for ACE2 antibodies in 67 patients in Arkansas and Oklahoma with known SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) and 13 with no history of infection. In 81% of blood samples from patients with a history of COVID-19, the samples had the antibody that attacked the ACE2. In participants with no history of COVID-19, no antibodies were created to attack the ACE2 enzyme.
“If we show that the whole hypothesis is right, that this interference of ACE2 really does cause long COVID, then it opens up many potential treatments,” said Arthur. “There are medications that should work to treat them.”
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The next step would be to test the drugs that might relieve the symptoms people are having.
The Little Rock scientists published their findings this month in the journal, The Public Library of Science ONE (PLOS ONE).
“This is true team science,” Arthur said. “We put together a great group of investigators that had never worked together to produce these very exciting results.”
Watch some local news coverage from THV-11 below…
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Our partner Rob Brezsny provides his weekly wisdom to enlighten our thinking and motivate our mood. Rob’s Free Will Astrology, is a syndicated weekly column appearing in over a hundred publications. He is also the author of Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How All of Creation Is Conspiring To Shower You with Blessings. (A free preview of the book is available here.)
Here is your weekly horoscope…
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY – Week beginning September 17, 2021
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
“There’s nothing wrong with reading a book you love over and over,” writes Virgo author Gail Carson Levine. Adding to that encouragement, I offer you the following authorizations: There’s nothing wrong with seeking a pleasure you love over and over; or doing a necessary task you love over and over; or performing an energizing ritual you love over and over; or expressing key truths you love over and over. And these permissions will be especially crucial for you to exult in during the coming weeks, dear Virgo: because it’s a time when mindful repetition will be one of your strengths and a key to stimulating the deepening experiences you need.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
“If I’m a bitch and a fake. Is there nobody who will love a bitch and a fake?” Libra author Graham Greene wrote that in his novel The End of the Affair. Here’s my extrapolation: I believe that every one of us, including me, is a bitch and a fake now and then. We all go through periods when we are not at our best, when we fail to live up to our own high standards. Is it possible that you have recently flirted with such a phase? If so, the cosmos has authorized me to absolve you. You are free to reclaim your full exquisite beauty. And if you haven’t been a bitch and a fake, congratulations. It means you have weathered a gnarly storm.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Poet Yves Olade writes, “I’ve started thinking of people as wounds that don’t heal.” To me, that idea is idiotically cynical. Moreover, I think it’s wrong for most of us. The truth is, humans have a natural instinct for healing. They are predisposed to attract experiences that might aid their recovery from difficulties—that might teach them the healing lessons they need. I believe this will be especially true for you in the coming weeks. (PS: Dr. Andrew Weil writes, “Any level of biological organization that we examine, from DNA up to the most complex body systems, shows the capacity for self-diagnosis, for removal of damaged structure, and for regeneration of new structure.”)
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
Research suggests that most people think everyone else has more fun than they do. But I’m guessing that only a small percentage of Sagittarians feel that way. You tend to be extra alert for fun, and you have intuitive skill at tracking down fun. In addition, you often take the initiative to precipitate fun. You understand you have a responsibility to generate fun, and you have a talent for generating it. All these capacities will serve you well in the coming weeks. I recommend you raise your mastery of the art and science of having fun to a new level. Be the Champion of Fun and Games for your entire circle.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
I’m not engaging in empty flattery when I say that you are unlike anyone else who has ever lived in the history of the world. Your absolute uniqueness is a fundamental fact. Maybe you don’t reflect on this truth very often. Perhaps you feel that it’s not helpful to think about or that it’s irrelevant to your daily decision-making. But I propose that in the next three weeks, you give it a central place in your understanding of your destiny. Allow it to influence everything you do. Make it a major factor in your decision-making.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Welcome back from the underworld, Aquarius. I hope your time wandering through the maze-like twilight brought you as many fascinating mysteries as confusing questions. I trust you took advantage of the smoky riddles and arresting dilemmas to fortify your soul’s wisdom. I suspect that although your travels may have at times seemed hard to fathom, they have provided you with a superb education that will serve you well in the immediate future.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
In Oscar Wilde‘s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, the lead character says to a friend, “You filled me with a wild desire to know everything about life.” Is there a person who might inspire you like that, Pisces? Maybe a person from your past with whom you’ve fallen out of touch? Or is there a person hovering on the outskirts of your life who could stimulate you to have such feelings? Now is a favorable time to seek these influences. I advise you to be bold in your quest to associate with allies who will stimulate your lust for life and teach you crucial lessons. (PS: For extra credit, make abundant use of another theme from Wilde’s book: “The search for beauty is the real secret of life.”)
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
“Books are mirrors: You only see in them what you already have inside you,” wrote author Carlos Zafòn Ruiz. Let’s take that a step further: “Other people are mirrors: You only see in them what you already have inside you.” And even further. “The whole world is a mirror: You only see in it what you already have inside you.” Have fun playing with these meditations, Aries. The coming weeks will be a fertile time to explore how thoroughly your experiences reflect the activity transpiring in your own brain.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
Some spiritual teachers say things like “I am not my body” or “This body is not me.” I don’t understand that. It’s an insult and disparagement. It’s dismissive of our bodies’ sublime beauty and our bodies’ inspired role in educating our souls. I agree that we are not ONLY our bodies. I agree that a part of us is eternal, not confined to flesh and blood. But hell yes, I am my body. You are your body. It’s a glorious aspect of who we are. It’s a miraculous creation that has taken millions of years to evolve into the masterpiece it is. So yes, you are your body, and yes, this body is you. I hope you love your body. Are in awe of it. Are pleased to be inside it. If anything is lacking in this department, now is an excellent time to make corrections.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
“I know someone who kisses the way a flower opens,” wrote poet Mary Oliver. I’d love for you Geminis to have that experience. The astrological omens suggest it’s more likely than usual to occur sometime soon. Other experiences with a better-than-average chance of unfolding in the coming days: allies who speak of intimate subjects in ways that resemble a flower opening; partners who co-create with you in ways that resemble a flower opening; spiritual helpers who offer guidance and help in ways that resemble a flower opening.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
“I lie to myself all the time, but I never believe me,” writes Cancerian author S. E. Hinton. Ha! As a Cancerian myself, I confess to the same crime. But I am looking forward to a shift in the coming weeks. I suspect we Crabs will be inspired to cut way back on the fibs we try to get away with. You know what that means, right? We’ll be more inclined to trust ourselves, since we’ll be more likely to tell ourselves the truth. Our decisions will be shrewd, and our self-care will be rigorous. Hallelujah!
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
My object in this horoscope is to stimulate your imagination in ways nobody else in your life will. You need an influence like me, from outside your inner circle, to administer friendly, playful shocks to jolt you out of habitual ways of thinking. Here we go. 1. If you were to stow seven parts of your soul in seven objects, what objects would they be? 2. If you could change one thing about your past, what would it be? 3. If you were a character in a fairy tale or a movie, who would you be? 4. If you could travel to a place that would teach you what you most need to know, where would it be? 5. If you had a magical animal as your special ally, what animal would it be? 6. If you could sing a song with uncanny healing power for someone you care about, what song would it be? 7. If you could improve your relationship with some part of your body, what would it be?
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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There’s never been an insult to convey a greater misconception than the phrase ‘bird-brained’, because our feathered friends routinely use their high levels of intelligence, and soar to surprising heights demanding admiration.
Take Bruce for example, the 8 year-old Alpine parrot from New Zealand. Bruce is missing the top half of his beak and is considered disabled, but that doesn’t stop him from doing all the things a normal parrot does.
He has adapted to use his tongue in place of the missing upper beak to lift tools, and, most notably, to grasp a pebble to clean dust and mites from between his feathers—something never before observed in the species.
Alpine Kea are the world’s only alpine-dwelling parrots, and they’ve been known to be ‘bird-brained’ in this new sense. They’re very pensive, and have even been shown to weigh up probabilities before making a decision.
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Bruce was found at Arthur’s Pass on the South Island in 2013 when he was a juvenile. Scientists at the South Island wildlife hospital assume he lost his beak during an encounter with a pest trap.
Now housed at the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve, he was first observed using a pebble in lieu of his beak for preening purposes back in 2019, a behavior so extraordinary that a group of scientists set out to observe him.
They found that in 90% of instances where he grabbed a pebble, he used it to preen himself, which constitutes tool usage in animals. In 95% of instances when a pebble was dropped, he retrieved or replaced it to continue grooming himself, seriously ruling out the ‘fooling around behavior’ exhibited by crows.
Amalia Bastos had the fortune of observing this “big personality” for the research, and she spoke to The Guardian about the experience.
“Because Bruce’s behavior is consistent and repeated, it is regarded as intentional and innovative,” Bastos said. “It is Bruce’s own unique tool-use, and this is the first scientific observation of that.”
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“He’ll pick up a piece of carrot and push it against a hard piece of metal or rock and use that to scrape with his lower bill, which again is a feeding behavior we haven’t seen in the other birds.”
The green and red birds have been documented to use sticks to clean themselves before, but lacking the dexterity the rest of his beak would have afforded him, Bruce has had to make do.
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SEE it in action in the video below… (NOTE: Audio is only music so feel free to mute.)
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On the 6th of September, the Mars Rover Perseverance drilled down into a briefcase-sized rock with its incredibly sophisticated sample and capture system, and then took a photo to commemorate the first Martian rock retrieved as part of its mission.
After a brief confusion, scientists and space enthusiasts finally saw the photo that conclusively showed a Mars rock captured in the sample tube, and were able to celebrate a truly historic moment.
Two days later it drilled a few inches to the left into the same rock and captured another sample.
Perseverance is exploring the bottom of an ancient lake bed known as Jezero Crater, where scientists believe the remains of ancient microbial life on Mars, should there be any, will be found.
“NASA has a history of setting ambitious goals and then accomplishing them, reflecting our nation’s commitment to discovery and innovation,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “This is a momentous achievement and I can’t wait to see the incredible discoveries produced by Perseverance and our team.”
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An August 7th attempt at drilling into the Martian regolith captured nothing, worrying scientists that their billion-dollar rover had flown the entire 3.5 years to Mars to return empty-handed.
“I have been on every Mars rover mission since the beginning, and this planet is always teaching us what we don’t know about it,” said the project manager for Perseverance, Jennifer Trosper. “One thing I’ve found is, it’s not unusual to have complications during complex, first-time activities.”
We know there was an atmosphere and water on Mars billions of years ago, and if those conditions had remained long enough, there’s a chance life could regenerate itself.
The next stop after gathering samples of Jezero will be the ancient lake’s fan-shaped delta, a class of landscape where life would explode with diversity and prosperity—at least on Earth. It holds one of the best chances we’ll have for finding microbial lifeforms. The delta could potentially contain clay, which rapidly entombs organic material. If there is any clay, there might be remains of life.
WATCH: China’s Rover Films Itself Driving on Red Planet, Making History
Another opportunity will be the carbonate rocks, which have been located in Jezero using Mars orbiter data, and which have been shown on Earth to exquisitely preserve organic structures such as seashells.
Perseverance is planned to study the geography of Mars as it travels along for a year or two, before depositing its samples back at the landing site, where a fetch rover, which could launch as early as 2026, will have to retrieve them.
It’s agonizing to think we are reporting on the collection of these samples now, but may have to wait 10 years for them to arrive back on Earth.
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Quote of the Day: “Here is a rule to remember, when anything tempts you to feel bitter: not ‘This is misfortune,’ but ‘To bear this worthily is good fortune.’” – Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Photo: by Sara Darcaj
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?
Cozying up in a warm fleece blanket after a day on the slopes is a lovely feeling; cozying the slopes themselves up in a fleece blanket, as it turns out, can also be an excellent way to keep snow and ice from melting high in the Swiss Alps.
While making something cozy under a blanket isn’t exactly how one would first think to keep something cold, it’s protecting Switzerland’s vulnerable glaciers from the summer sun by reflecting the rays away like ultra-white paint.
The 3,238-meter (10,623-ft) Mount Titlis has seen large portions of its glacial coverage disappear over the last few decades, and ski resort employees who rely on the glaciers to keep the snow thick and crisp for winter holidays work for 4-6 weeks securing blankets to give the ice rivers all the help they can get.
After the worst of the heat has passed, they spend another 4-6 weeks peeling the blankets off again.
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The polyester fleece blanket coverage on Titlis now extends 100,000 square meters, or roughly the same size as 14 football fields. This allows snow patches to keep the ice underneath cool year-round, and be deployed to barer slopes once winter returns.
The snow is even used to reinforce the piles of the ski lifts that are drilled into the ice, but which need the snow to support them.
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Known as “white gold,” the Swiss winter tourism market is worth $5.65 billion annually. The blankets are a bit makeshift, but ski resorts depend on the glaciers, and preserving them helps preserve, as John Muir pointed out, the entire mountain ecosystem.
(WATCH the Reuters video about this story below.)
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Big old trees. Are there any living things that speak to us the same way as big old trees?
Italy has ensured through law that every Italian and visitor to the country has the right of happening upon the oldest, gnarliest, and most storied trees in the nation, and thereby having that wonderful feeling of discovery and reverence we get from seeing an ancient tree.
The law of the monumental trees of Italy was passed way back in the 20th century, and protected 22,000 trees of various sorts—beech, oak, pine, olive, cypress—from harm.
The 1939 law described monumental trees as “immovable things that have remarkable characteristics of natural beauty,” which as Elisabetta Zavoli writing for National Geographic explains, gave a visual emphasis on what was already a vague categorization for the law.
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One of the most important aspects of monumental trees is not their beauty, but their effect as micro-ecosystems. Their hollows, scars, dead branches, and living ones all play host to a wide variety of species like insects, mushrooms, birds, and small rodents.
Signs of damage or decay, while hardly being pleasing on the eye, provide vital nutrients and shelter for the forest animals, such that in 2013 a better, more representational definition of a monumental tree was passed into Italian law.
It’s a good thing too, as many of the monumental trees Zavoli highlights didn’t become monumental for their beauty, but for their age. The olive tree in the village of Villastrada in Umbria could be 2,500 years old, but it isn’t exactly a looker. Its principal trunk has long since decayed, and other younger trunks have grown over its lifespan.
Another example is the Pontone beech tree in Abruzzo, which is actually seven beech trees fused together, wrapped in the same layer of bark.
Since 2013, over 3,000 new entries have joined the national monumental tree registry.
Some are treasured for their beauty, others for their age; yet more are valued for the legend and myth surrounding their lives.
The 800-year-old Cypress of Saint Francis is said to have been planted when, returning from a walk, Saint Francis of Assisi tried to burn the walking stick he had just used.
When it failed to catch fire, he decided to plant it instead, allegedly saying “If you do not want to burn, grow up!” The cones that fall every year from that tree, located in a convent, are gathered in the hopes that pilgrims who can manage to grow something from its seeds will have a blessed tree.
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Rather than give in to depression, one man chose to fight back in a way that not only changed his own life for the better—it gave a stranger he’d never met a second chance as well.
Gage Tappe had recently moved to Idaho and had part-time custody of one of his kids.
Alone and isolated, he admits he was at an “all-time low.”
Looking for something to help him cope with his sadness and feel more connected, Tappe signed up as a donor with the national bone marrow registry.
“I felt like my life wasn’t worth very much, so I hoped that I gave myself a chance to put some value to my own life by trying to help somebody extend theirs and continuing to stay on the list… and you have to be alive to do that,” Tappe TODAY correspondent Carson Daly. “It gave me a sense of value to myself that I didn’t previously have.”
Several months later, Tappe got a call to let him know he’d been identified as a match. Tappe says since he was raised to help others in need, in any way big or small, he just needed to know where and when his marrow could be harvested for the transplant.
The donation was made anonymously. The identity of the recipient didn’t matter to Tappe, the only thing he cared about was being able to have a meaningful and positive impact on someone’s life—but neither he nor the woman his bone marrow was going to could know just how life-changing his donation would turn out to be.
By the time Tia Jensen was diagnosed with leukemia in 2018, she’d already been dealing with the effects of multiple sclerosis for two decades.
For this latest health hurdle, she started a course of chemotherapy at the Seattle Cancer Center Alliance and added her name to the waiting list for a bone marrow donor.
After the successful transplant procedure, Jensen was stunned to learn that not only had her leukemia gone into remission, but thanks to her newly revitalized immune system, the multiple sclerosis she’d been battling for 20 years was in remission as well.
Ecstatic, Jensen wanted to reach out and thank her donor. Two years and many letters later, Jensen was eventually given Tappe’s contact information and the two struck up a correspondence. Though delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, they finally met in person on the set of The TODAY Show.
“I have been wanting to meet [him] for so long… I missed meeting Gage because of the pandemic. And I realized that because of Gage, there’s a lot of milestones that I won’t miss. I’m alive. I’m here. I’m going to get to be with my family, to be in the memories,” Jensen told TODAY’S Sheinelle Jones.
A grateful Jensen sees Tappe as a true role model. To honor him, and so that more patients might enjoy recovery stories with similar happy outcomes, Jensen has teamed up with Be the Match for an online donor registration event in hopes of inspiring others to follow his example of getting tested and stepping up to donate if and when they’re matched.
She has high hopes for the initiative.
“I think we forget too often how kind and big-hearted people are. And I am so grateful that [Gage] was willing to just be brave and take that step and share this kindness and marrow and give me a second chance at life,” she told Daly. “All this was done not knowing a thing about me, and I am just floored by the charity and the beauty in that.”
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Meet the teen who entered the US Open while ranked 150th in the world, won every set, and took the winning trophy (as well as a cool $2.5 million prize) home.
Born in Canada to a Romanian father and Chinese mother, Emma Raducanu and her family moved to London when she was two.
As a kid, she loved a range of sports, including golf, ping pong, motocross racing—and, of course, tennis.
Her new rank is 23rd in the world, but we have the feeling she’s going to soar on that front ever upwards.
Here’s her story, from the BBC:
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An Apple co-founder is launching a company to clean up space debris, and not a moment to soon, as NASA estimates there may have been 27,000 pieces of junk floating or hurtling around the Earth last year.
With thousands of additional satellites slated for placement around the Earth as part of future plans for universal internet connectivity, the job to tackle the growing orbital refuse must fall to someone.
The company, called Privateer Space, has nothing to do with piracy, and is in fact in “stealth mode,” and as such we know little about it. Steve Wozniak, an Apple co-founder of the I software, who has a net worth of $100 million, tweeted out a link to the Privateer website, which currently has nothing but a YouTube video on it.
Later, a press release sent out regarding a titanium 3D printer developed under a company called Desktop Metal featured a quote from Wozniak.
“’3D printing with titanium is incredibly valuable in industries like aerospace because of the material’s ability to support complex and lightweight designs,’ co-founder of Privateer Space, a new satellite company focused on monitoring and cleaning up objects in space,” the press release stated.
Far from the Musk/Branson/Bezos space race, the fact that at least one tech one-percenter is investing in space clean-up is huge for all of humanity.
Former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine asked Congress for $15 million solely for a space cleanup mission, tweeting that the ISS had to maneuver out of the way of dangerous space debris on three separate occasions last year.
The @Space_Station has maneuvered 3 times in 2020 to avoid debris. In the last 2 weeks, there have been 3 high concern potential conjunctions. Debris is getting worse! Time for Congress to provide @CommerceGov with the $15 mil requested by @POTUS for the Office of Space Commerce.
— Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) September 22, 2020
One of the major problems with space debris is that the smaller it is the more dangerous it becomes, as NASA reports.
“A number of space shuttle windows were replaced because of damage caused by material that was analyzed and shown to be paint flecks,” the agency wrote, noting that debris can travel as fast as 17,500 mph. “In fact, millimeter-sized orbital debris represents the highest mission-ending risk to most robotic spacecraft operating in low Earth orbit.”
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Wozniak has said that more information about his cleanup crew will be announced at the AMOS Tech 2021 conference, in Maui, which ended today.
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Quote of the Day: “The supreme accomplishment in life is to blur the line between work and play.” – Arnold J. Toynbee
Photo: by Alex @alx_andru – Gas Works Park, Seattle
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
A premature baby born the size of a bag of sugar and kept alive in a sandwich bag has defied the odds to start elementary school.
Darcey Clegg, who is now four years old, weighed just 1lb 5oz when she was born in September 2016 via an emergency c-section—three months early.
The little girl had to fight for her life in the neonatal unit at Royal Oldham Hospital, Greater Manchester, until she miraculously came home on 30th December after 64 days in hospital.
Now despite everything, she is getting ready to start school in September, and mom, 50-year-old Gill Glegg, couldn’t be prouder.
Gill, who works as a carer, said, “Darcey is amazing. She was so tiny in that little sandwich bag, I didn’t know if she would make it.
“It’s so emotional to see her start school. We’ve got her uniform and everything ready to go.”
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Gill’s pregnancy was smooth sailing until a scan at 28 weeks revealed her baby was not receiving enough blood and there was a placental abnormality. She was immediately rushed to Royal Oldham Hospital for an emergency operation.
“It was terrifying,” Gill said. “I wasn’t given much hope that she would make it. But she came out crying.”
Darcey was immediately taken to the neonatal intensive care unit to help her survive the crucial early months. She battled blood transfusions and had to build up strength before she could come home in time for New Year’s Eve.
“She was the best present,” Gill said.
Since then Darcey has defied the odds to be a normal healthy girl. “She started walking a bit late, but it was an amazing moment,” Gill said. “She is a dream.”
As for Darcey, she can’t wait to go to school, saying, “I can’t wait to go and play with lots of other kids.”
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In the classic Dr. Seuss children’s book, Horton Hatches the Egg, lazy bird Mayzie finagles hapless Horton the Elephant into sitting on an egg she’s too bored to hatch while she flies off to Palm Beach for a frivolous vacation.
Says Horton to Mayzie: “Me on your egg? That doesn’t make sense. Your egg is so small, ma’am, and I’m so immense.” But being the faithful elephant he is, he sits down to get the job done nonetheless.
When a similar scenario recently unfolded in the upstate New York town of Geneseo, a sizable Doberman Pinscher named Ruby—who was nursing six of her own puppies at the time—had no qualms about adding a tiny newborn kitten whose mother was nowhere to be found to her hungry brood.
Ruby’s owner Brittany Callan breeds Dobermans on her family’s farm. Even though the breed is best known for being consummate guard dogs, when she happened on the lost kitty, her thoughts turned to Ruby, whose pups were less than a week old.
After a careful introduction, the infant cat Callan had named Ramblin’ Rose settled in next to her adoptive siblings for a feed and Ruby was only too happy to accommodate the extra little mouth.
“[Ruby] took right to her and didn’t seem to mind at all,” Callan told Daily Paws, adding, “She grew up with small animals [and learned] to be nice and just lick them and be friendly with everything… She’s just an extremely, extremely compassionate dog.”
While the occurrence of interspecies nursing is rare, it’s certainly not unprecedented.
Back in 2012, two abandoned Siberian Tiger cubs were adopted by a Shar-Pei named Cleopatra at a Russian zoo in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Two years later, a determined farm feline from County Offaly, Ireland took on three motherless ducklings and raised them as kin along with her kittens.
CHECK OUT: Irish Farm Cat ‘Nurses’ Three Baby Ducklings
Unprecedented or not, Callan believes Ruby’s über-developed maternal instinct is something truly special. “She was meant to be a mother to anything,” Callan told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.
“We’ve had baby bunnies, guinea pigs, chickens, ducks… Ruby licks them like she’s cleaning them, like she’s their mother.”
Since taking over mom duties for Ramblin’ Rose, Ruby has started carrying the kitten around by the scruff of the neck and protectively separating her from her puppy litter mates when their behavior gets too rambunctious for the itty-bitty kitty.
Under Ruby’s loving care—with a little extra nutrition in the form of kitten formula administered by Callan—Ramblin’s Rose’s weight has gone from 4.37 ounces to 7.27 ounces in the span of one week.
When Horton’s egg finally hatches at the end of his tale, the creature that emerges is part bird and part elephant.
Her impressive growth rate notwithstanding, it’s not likely Ramblin’ Rose will catch up with her adoptive mom’s stature or take up barking—but she might just make someone a pretty fierce guard cat when she’s fully grown.
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Way back in the mists of time, before Guttenberg’s printing press, before the Chinese invented parchment paper, before clay tablets and papyrus, humans passed information along through stories.
It turns out those thousands of years of storytelling tradition may have actually altered our very biology, as a new paper published in Cell reveals that narrative stimuli, i.e. “Once upon a time,” or “My fellow Americans,” synchronizes the fluctuations of heart rates between the individuals listening.
Human hearts don’t beat in perfect rhythm. Depending on a person’s level of physical fitness, fluctuations and variability in the regularity of those beats at rest can actually measure almost entire seconds.
As strange as it sounds that a speaker and listeners’ hearts literally beat as one, further findings from the study reinforce the idea of storytelling as a biological determiner. For example, the matching of heart rates is determined by the attention paid by the listener to the speaker, and that this phenomenon predicts the memorization of the narrative content.
This isn’t the first time this incredible connection with stories has been demonstrated to have a biological impact on humans.
It’s been shown that the brains of people watching films together tend to “tick collectively,” suggesting why films can be so enjoyable as a group activity, and why the greatest films affect us the way they do—because they are literally changing our biology into “pay attention and remember” mode.
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In the heart rate experiment, subjects were presented with a 1 minute audiobook snippet of Joules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. They found that there was significant correlation of heart rate synchronicity between subjects. To control for error, they gave all the subjects different 1 minute sections, and as predicted, the heart rate synchronicity dropped significantly.
This explains why story time is such an effective teaching tool for kids.
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Distractions were found to disrupt this synchronicity, specifically when during the narrative stimuli, participants were asked to repeatedly count backwards.
Most people can probably remember a live performance that held them in a spell, when the instruments were perfectly mixed, or the orchestra was in perfect harmony with the conductor.
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It’s pretty astonishing to imagine what’s really going on in that concert hall: all the musicians are playing in perfectly synchronized rhythm according to the time signature of the piece, and all the notes are matched identically along an almost infinitely-sensitive scale of frequencies, while all the brains of all the audience members are “ticking over” the same, and all their hearts beat collectively down to razor-thin differences.
Essentially, all humans become one large organ of perfect order.
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