A Billionaire CEO Gives Ousted Hermit $180,000 to Rebuild His Cabin After it Burned Down

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Aug 26, 2021

A self-proclaimed hermit who became unintentionally famous after losing his home to a fire is about to get new digs thanks to generous donations to a GoFundMe campaign—and one whopping big check from a philanthropist.

81-year-old ‘River Dave’, whose real name is David Lidstone, had been living off-the-grid in the same secluded New Hampshire location for almost three decades. He didn’t own the property where he’d built his modest A-frame cabin on the banks of the Merrimack River, but says he had permission from the site’s previous owner to stay there.

Citing environmental and zoning violations, the current owner, however, took steps to have him removed. On the same day that Lidstone appeared in court charged with civil contempt for refusing to vacate, his cabin burnt to the ground.

While the cause was most likely accidental rather than arson, the result remained the same. River Dave—along with his cats and his chickens—was out of a home.

Estranged from his wife and family, for most of his 27-year tenure on the 73-acre plot of timberland, Lidstone kept to himself. He did, however, occasionally befriend a passing kayaker or boater, and those ties proved strong enough to form an unexpected lifeline.

Prior to the legal contretemps, longtime friend Jodie Gedeon hoped the situation between the landowner and Lidstone would come to a peaceful resolution. The owner’s lawyers thought otherwise, but after the fire, the point became moot.

With Lidstone now homeless, Gedeon and friend Sharon Copello quickly organized a GoFundMe page to help River Dave get back on his feet. As word of his plight spread, donations and offers of places to stay began to roll in.

MORE: Warren Buffett Gives Another $4.1 Billion to Charity as ‘World’s Most Successful Investor’

While the response was staggering and the initial $15,000 funding goal was quickly met, no one could have predicted what came next.

On August 11, New Hampshire resident and billionaire CEO of Palantir Technologies Alexander Karp reached out to Lidstone and wrote him a personal check to the tune of $180,000 for living and future expenses.

“I hope each of you are sitting down and have a tissue or two next to you as what I am going to share is part of the happy ending to come and I can’t imagine a dry eye anywhere after you read this,” Gedeon posted to her Facebook page of the generous donation.

Lidstone needed a few hankies himself.

“How can I express myself and my gratitude towards something like that? I start to tear up whenever I think about it,” Lidstone told the Concord Monitor. “For an old logger who always had to work, for anyone to give you that type of money, it’s incredibly difficult for me to get my head around.”

The monies raised for River Dave are being put into a trust for him. For reasons of privacy, he’ll be staying at an undisclosed location over the winter, and sometime next year, at a building site as yet to be named, construction for his new home will begin.

“I feel about as good as I ever have in my life,” a grateful Lidstone told AP, although admitted the recent outpouring of kindness and support has been something of a revelation to him. “Maybe the things I’ve been trying to avoid are the things that I really need in life… I grew up never being hugged or kissed, or [having] any close contact…

“I had somebody ask me once, about my wife: ‘Did you really love her?’ And the question kind of shocked me for a second. [I’d] never loved anybody in my life. And I shocked myself because I hadn’t realized that. And that’s why I was a hermit. Now I can see love being expressed that I never had before.”

Meanwhile, as the GoFundMe campaign winds down at the end of August, Gedeon hopes to keep paying the love forward.

CHECK OUT: English Footballer Marcus Rashford Donates Millions For Child Poverty, Becomes Youngest-Ever to Top ‘Giving List’

“We feel we can help Dave build a good life now and will forever be thankful,” she posted. “We also know how many other charities and people are in need of help. At the end of the month, we’re asking that the spotlight be passed on to others to bring awareness and opportunities to spread the love and continue to be the change!

“The world is a better place with each of you in it and we simply can’t thank you enough.”

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It’s ‘The Oscars’ for iPhone Photography: See the Stunning Winners for 2021

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Good News Network

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Aug 26, 2021

The winners of the 2021 iPhone Photography Awards have been unveiled, and they’re truly stunning.

Founded in 2007, IPPAWARDS has been celebrating the creativity of iPhone photographers since the phone first began to inspire, excite, and engage users worldwide.

Every year since then, the very best shots among thousands of images submitted get chosen.

MORE: Amazing Photos Show the Movements of Diving Kingfisher After Photographer Waited Two Years for Perfect Pics

Congratulations to all the winners and their astute observations, sometimes moving and subtle, other times witty and surprising… always insightful. Here are GNN’s favorites from 2021.

1. Portrait of a Snowy Girl in Ohio

2. The Magic of the Aurora Borealis in Russia

3. Powering the Positives in Australia

4. Side-Walking on Air in LA

5. A Lizard in the Netherlands

6. New Clothes for the Pole in China

7. A Blue Summer in Australia

8. Giant Arrivals in China

9. Making a Splash in Greece

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Football Fans Can Now Eat Their Coffee Cups After They’re Done Sipping

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Andy Corbley

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Aug 26, 2021

biobite facebook social media released biobite — BioBite/Facebook

Manchester City are the reigning champions of the English Premier League, and now they’re championing the cause of landfill waste by offering edible coffee and tea cups at their 55,000 seater Etihad Stadium.

After suffering a reversal at the hands of London’s Tottenham Hotspur F.C. on the opening weekend, seven days later they played their first home match of the season, drumming Norwich City 5-0 while producing 0 pounds of disposable hot drinks cups—a plague in a tea/coffee loving country where a staggering 2.5 billion disposable cups are used every year.

“For the first time on Campus, an ‘edible coffee cup’ will also be introduced. This fantastic and innovative solution provides an amazing solution to waste, just eat your cup,” reads a statement from the Etihad Stadium.

The cup is made by a Scottish startup called BioBite, and is essentially a 100-calorie vegan biscuit in the shape of a cup. Made with wafer in much the same way as an ice cream cone, the cup will stay leak-proof for 12 hours, and even more amazingly, crunchy for a full 45 minutes, which for the American readers is exactly and always one-half the duration of a ‘football’ match.

MORE: Amaranth is a Health Trend 8,000 Years Old That ‘Could Feed the World’

According to the company’s website, the cup is fully recyclable, but the taste of coffee-soaked wafer cup is actually delectable. The football club is also offering fully recyclable beer cups made of recycled paper and cardboard.

Maybe the solution

There are several problems with making a fully recyclable paper takeaway hot drinks cup, and it’s why there still isn’t one today in the largest beverage chains.

The combination of a heatproof inner lining and paper together make the cups very tricky to recycle, as the two very different materials must be separated.

Edible cups truly might be the best solution, provided firms like BioBite can bring the cost-per-unit down. 240 of their biscuit cups cost $111 before VAT, about 14 cents more than what Starbucks pays for the cup, the plastic lid, and the wood stirrer.

Other firms are closer to the mark, like Bulgarian edible coffee cup maker Cupffee, who make a 40 cent (including taxes) wafer cup with about the same properties as BioBites. For eco-conscious consumers, the lack of lid is not an issue provided they enjoy the coffee on foot. It’s well-suited to European city centers made for walking about, but rather inconvenient in most of America, set up as the country is for driving.

CHECK OUT: Build With Compost: Researchers Turn Food Scraps Into Materials Stronger Than Concrete

Another limiting factor is that a wafer is not exactly the fuel of a healthy society.

If there were a company that could make the wafers out of some kind of vegetable fiber, something many western diets are nutritionally deficient in, then you’re talking about a real revolution.

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U.S. EPA is Banning a Farm Pesticide Linked To Health Problems In Children

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Andy Corbley

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Aug 26, 2021

Lite-Trac_Crop_Sprayer CC license wikimedia commons — Lite-Trac, CC license

A pesticide that appears to damage the health of children and farm workers has been banned from future use in the U.S. by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) after facing a slew of lawsuits.

Sprayed on apples, strawberries, citrus fruit, corn, alfalfa, grapes, cotton, almonds, walnuts, and broccoli since 1965, the organophosphate pesticide called chlorpyrifos has been linked to intellectual impairment, loss of working memory, and reduced IQ in children, as well as damage to the prenatal development of infants’ brains. It also impacts the health of farm workers.

In 2020, California, a major agriculture state, banned chlorpyrifos, but the EPA ruled that there was not enough evidence to do the same federally—until legal challenges resulted in a court judge ruling the onus was on the EPA to present indisputable proof that the pesticide did not cause harm in children.

As it could not do so, as of August 20th the agency banned producers from using chlorpyrifos.

The environmental-focused organization Earthjustice says it will continue its quest to ban all organophosphate pesticides from farms, even if they are used in non-food applications. One reason is because the spraying of the toxin is airborne and can drift to non-intended targets.

MORE: Bees Have a New, Lifesaving ‘Vaccine’ to Make Them Immune to Pesti-Side Effects

For now, “Chlorpyrifos will finally be out of our fruits and vegetables,” said Patti Goldman, an attorney for Earthjustice. “Children will no longer be eating food tainted with a pesticide that causes intellectual learning disabilities,”

In 2017, more than half of the 10.4 million pounds of organophosphate pesticides sprayed on American soils were chlorpyrifos, meaning the ban will lead to the eventually decontamination of half of the total chemical burden—a huge victory for millions.

– Featured image: Lite-Trac, CC license

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“Don’t pretend you’re less powerful and beautiful than you are… Don’t act as if your unique genius is nothing special.” – Rob Brezsny

Quote of the Day

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Good News Network

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Aug 26, 2021

Quote of the Day: “Don’t pretend you’re less powerful and beautiful than you are… Don’t act as if your unique genius is nothing special.” – Rob Brezsny

Photo: by Frank Uyt den Bogaard

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?

Amazing Photos Show the Movements of Diving Kingfisher After Photographer Waited Two Years for Perfect Pics

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Good News Network

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Aug 25, 2021

These amazing pictures showing the movement of a diving kingfisher are the result of a photographer’s two-year wait for the perfect photo.

47-year-old Vince Burton used a slow shutter speed to capture the trail of the bird as it plunged into a pond at up to 25mph (40kmh).

The torpedo-like blue kingfisher can be seen hurtling beak-first towards the water as it hunts for fish to feed its young chicks near Norwich in Norfolk.

Accountant Vince used the latest photographic techniques to reduce his shutter speed and darken the background, capturing a striking image of the kingfisher’s dive without using photoshop.

He said: “I was working with this farmland site for four years. It’s taken me the best part of two years to get this shot.”

MORE: Smithsonian Says These Moths Are So Gorgeous, They Put Butterflies to Shame

“Normally one kingfisher holds the territory for a year and then welcomes a partner in from a neighboring territory.

“These images were taken while the kingfishers were raising their brood, which fledged a month later.”

Here at GNN, we’re so glad Vince got his perfect shots.

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Afghan All-Girls Robotics Team Offered College Scholarships, Says Oklahoma Mom Who Helped Them Escape Taliban

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Judy Cole

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Aug 25, 2021

afghan robotics team family photo Allyson Reneau — Allyson Reneau

There may be no force more powerful than maternal instinct. An Oklahoma mom, who’s come to think of some gifted Afghan girls as adopted daughters, has moved heaven and earth to help get the teens to safety since Taliban extremists retook Afghanistan.

Harvard graduate Allyson Reneau has 11 kids of her own, but there was still plenty of room in her heart for the members of Afghanistan’s all-girl robotics team, a.k.a. “the Afghan Dreamers.”

Reneau and the tight-knit group bonded back in 2019 when they met at a Washington D.C.-based Humans to Mars summit. (Having nine biological daughters probably helped.)

In the weeks building up to the recent Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, Reneau became increasingly concerned for the girls’ welfare. Unable to shake the fear the Dreamers were in imminent danger, Reneau became frustrated by the lack of cooperation at home in the U.S. to secure their safety.

Rather than wait, she decided to head to the sanctuary country of Qatar, hoping to use the connections she had there to help expedite a rescue. In conjunction with the Dreamers’ parent organization Digital Citizen Fund (DCF), and the Qatar Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Reneau was able to pull some strings and get the exit process rolling.

Soon enough, 10 robotics team members between the ages of 16 and 18 were boarded on a commercial flight. (Some members of the team and the girls’ families have yet to leave Kabul. Efforts to secure their relocation are ongoing.)

After receiving word from the girls to say they’d made it out of Kabul, Reneau was overcome with emotion.

MORE: The Internet Raises $6 Million in One Day to Rescue Afghans Targeted By Taliban

“I got a text from one of the girls that just said: ‘We did it.’ All the emotion from two weeks of work and running into a wall constantly, and burying your feelings, and bearing your feelings for the girls, it just hit me all at once,” Reneau told Business Insider.

DCF board member Elizabeth Schaeffer Brown says that while it took the combined efforts of several entities to ensure the girls’ release, she credits their own grit and self-determination as a key factor in the successful outcome.

“Ultimately the girls ‘rescued’ themselves,” Brown told NBC News. “If it were not for their hard work and courage to pursue an education, which brought them in contact with the world, they would still be trapped. We need to continue to support them and others like them.”

Since arriving in Qatar, the girls have been inundated with numerous scholarships from several prestigious U.S. universities, and Reneau is confident they will make the most of those opportunities.

“For the first time in their life, I really believe they have the freedom to choose and to be the architects of their own destiny and their own future,” Reneau told Insider. “It’s the freeing feeling to me to know that they will be able to go somewhere and get educated wherever they want.”

And isn’t that what every loving mom wants for her kids?

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This Road Trip Map Helps You Visit the 47 Iconic National Parks in the Shortest Time

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Andy Corbley

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Aug 25, 2021

Screen Shot google map image randy s.olsen website — Randal S. Olsen/Google Mapa

Smart algorithms are used to make calculations for data-driven science in a dizzying number of ways, but one man has used them to build a once-in-a-lifetime American experience.

Dr. Randy Olson has created an algorithm that planned the optimal and ultimate U.S. National Parks road trip, featuring the most expedient route to visit the original 47 National Parks in the continental United States.

The modern National Parks System was inspired in part by the increasing popularity of the automobile, and the U.S. interstate highway system was built to run through as many of the U.S. Parks as possible.

As one can see in the Ken Burns documentary The National Parks, by the 1960s, taking your Ford or Chevy on a trip across the West was the quintessential American vacation, and the crown jewel of the tourism industry.

The trip in total comes out to 14,498 miles (23,333 km), not counting rest stops, and will take about two months driving at what Olson described as a “breakneck pace,” though anyone looking for an enjoyable road trip will want to take in the scenery at each park, and realistically need more like 3-4 months to do such an adventure justice.

Olson, who is the Chief Data Scientist at FOXO Bioscience, described the trip as a “circle,” by which he meant you could jump on the route at any point and go either way to visit the next 46 Parks. It is not by any means a circle around the perimeter of the US.

MORE: Kevin Costner’s New Road Trip App Tells History Stories Tailored Exactly to the Places You Are Driving Through

For instance, when starting your travels by going westward from Minnesota’s northern lakes, the route plunges southward from North Dakota all the way down to the border between New Mexico and Colorado. It snakes westward into the Great Basin in Nevada, and climbs right back up again to Glacier NP on the border with Canada.

This massive detour is on account of one of the five or six mega states in the National Park System, Utah, and its central location. But beyond that the trip is well planned as one can start at any point and face the same amount of driving as if they’d started anywhere else.

The fun details

Olson’s blog post about his route was a popular topic with his readers, and they enthusiastically flooded the comment section with suggestions, calculations on gasoline costs, advantages of RVs vs traditional sedans for better gas mileage, and other details.

One commenter mentioned that cutting out the Florida parks, and Acadia National Park in Maine, would save a ton of time.

Another popular discussion was regarding other types of land units managed by the National Parks Service—such as National Scenic Riverways, National Monuments, National Lakeshores. These define the spirit of the NPS, which is not only to protect those lands that the nation values most, but those that individual communities value too.

Other suggestions for optimizing your trip include this detour through New York to Maine, which would run through the mountains instead of the interstate, or this resource for finding free campsites online managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management—which can save travelers many dollars in accommodations.

CHECK OUT: Americans Choose the Best Road Trip Tunes Of All Time — For Your Summer Playlist

Olson points out that you would need to have a flying car or airplane to efficiently visit the 12 parks located in America’s island territories, or in Alaska where there are eight parks, but his road trip does include the Channel Islands and Dry Tortugas, which require the use of boats for car and personal transport.

The list of 47 National Parks, in order:

Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona
Saguaro National Park, Arizona
Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas
Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico
Big Bend National Park, Texas
Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas
Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky
Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee
Everglades National Park, Florida
Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida
Biscayne National Park, Florida
Congaree National Park, South Carolina
Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
Acadia National Park, Maine
Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio
Isle Royale National Park, Michigan
Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota
Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota
Badlands National Park, South Dakota
Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, Colorado
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Colorado
Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado
Canyonlands National Park, Utah
Arches National Park, Utah
Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah
Zion National Park, Utah
Great Basin National Park, Nevada
Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Glacier National Park, Montana
North Cascades National Park, Washington
Mount Rainier National Park, Washington
Olympic National Park, Washington
Crater Lake National Park, Oregon
Redwood National and State Parks, California
Lassen Volcanic National Park, California
Yosemite National Park, California
Kings Canyon National Park, California
Sequoia National Park, California
Pinnacles National Park, California
Channel Islands National Park, California
Joshua Tree National Park, California
Death Valley National Park, California

One final tip

Besides a car and a camera, the most important thing you need is to get yourself the National Parks Passport, which allows you to collect stamps (like visas) at every visitor center, and the America the Beautiful Pass that, for a one-time fee, allows free entry into almost every NPS outpost—it’s $80 for one year.

Also, if you, like probably most of us, can’t create an algorithm on your own, RouteXL.com will optimize other road trips for you with up to 20 stops for free, and more stops for a fee.

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Buy Some Wind Power With Your Furniture? IKEA is Now Selling Renewable Energy

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Andy Corbley

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Aug 25, 2021

Ikea car park baltimore ikea releaed — Ikea

As the world’s premier home furnishings retailer, IKEA has for decades been forgetting to offer consumers the most important home furnishing of them all: electricity.

Being that the largest furniture retailer on Earth has a new pledge to cut emissions by 50% by 2030 and get to carbon neutrality by 2050, IKEA has decided to fill in that gap with clean energy, allowing customers to buy wind and solar electricity and infrastructure from IKEA.

Part of these emissions calculations represent a remarkable display of responsibility, as the group looks at sales of electrical appliances, and factor in the electricity used to power them before adding that figure to their climate targets.

“At IKEA, we want to become fully circular and climate positive by 2030, built on renewable energy and resources. We believe the future of energy is renewable and we want to make electricity from sustainable sources more accessible and affordable for all,” stated Jan Gardberg, New Retail Business Manager, Ingka Group.

Since 2016 the Ingka Group, which manages 367 of the 423 worldwide stores, has invested €2.5 billion ($2.76 billion) in renewable energy, including two solar parks in the U.S., a wind farm in Romania, and 534 wind turbines in 14 countries. They’ve also installed nearly a million solar panels on their stores, and market IKEA-brand solar panels to 11 world markets.

MORE: IKEA is Ditching All of Their Single-Use Plastics Throughout Stores

As well as powering their furniture fueled empire, this renewable energy can now be bought by customers.

Through the STRÖMMA offer, customers who live in Sweden can buy affordable, certified electricity from solar and wind, and use an app to track their own electricity usage. Customers who have already bought solar panels from IKEA can also track their own production in the app and sell back the electricity they don’t use themselves.

So far their home country is the only one in which IKEA customers can buy electricity, but considering the brand now owns 100 more wind turbines than stores, it won’t be long before they enter the utilities markets elsewhere.

Race to zero

IKEA have just joined up with H&M, Walmart, and Kingfisher Group to start the “Race to Zero” initiative, aimed at taking the lead in the retail industry towards reducing global warming to below levels outlined by the IPCC.

Like IKEA’s personal targets, the Race to Zero pledge involves halving emissions by 2030 and becoming neutral by 2050, a massive challenge for any company in retail where the industry thrives off of large-scale, cheap production and sales.

“At IKEA, we have committed to becoming climate positive by 2030 and as part of that, we are also committed to the 1.5°C goal in the Paris Agreement. This movement seeks to engage the retail sector and by working together and acting with speed, focusing on what makes real impact, we can truly make a difference. For people and the planet,” stated Jesper Brodin, CEO, Ingka Group I IKEA.

“Engagement in the Race to Zero Breakthroughs: Retail Campaign is an opportunity for retailers to help the retail sector accelerate a whole-economy transition for a healthy, resilient, zero-carbon future,” explains their website. “Retailers will receive sector-specific guidance, access to networks and a ready-made strategic template to achieve net-zero emissions.”

IKEA has been pushing back against emissions wherever they can be found, including through the purchasing of forests as CO2 absorbers, and the buying back of old furniture to prevent it from ending up in landfills.

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“Beauty is about being comfortable in your own skin. It’s about knowing and accepting who you are.” – Ellen DeGeneres

Quote of the Day

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Good News Network

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Aug 25, 2021

Quote of the Day: “Beauty is about being comfortable in your own skin. It’s about knowing and accepting who you are.” – Ellen DeGeneres (Seriously… I’m Kidding)

Photo: by Maria Lupan

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?

Teachers and Students Receive School Essentials Thanks to T-Mobile’s Million Dollar Donation

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Good News Network

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Aug 24, 2021

Teacher-Helping-Students_AdobeStock_234478647_CL-licensed-T-Mobile-submitted — Link: https://stock.adobe.com/images/teacher-helping-female-pupil-line-of-high-school-students-working-at-screens-in-computer-class/234478647

German Company Makes Concrete to Charge Electric Vehicles From Roads With 95% Efficiency and Low Cost

By

Andy Corbley

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Aug 24, 2021

MAGMENT-UG - rendering Magment — Magment

Indiana could be the first state in the Union to have a wireless charging road that tops up your electric vehicle as you drive along it.

As the 21st century rolls on, we’ve all had those one or two moments where we see some new technology and the pace of innovation really comes home to roost in our heads, normally with some recollection of Star Wars or Star Trek.

Maybe for some it would have been the self-driving feature of the Tesla, or smart home systems, but for motorists in Indiana, that moment may come by way of a shiny new wireless road.

While range and battery charging times are getting better every year, it’s still the most limiting factor when it comes to the purchase of an EV. The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) has decided to tackle that by burying electrified wire coils that create a magnetic field along the road surface, mimicking the way wireless charging stations for tablets and phones are designed.

In order to use the roads, cars would be fitted with a receiver coil to pick up the charge as they go along, and becoming magnetized, draw electricity from the coils themselves.

Expected to take three phases, the work will begin in late summer, according to a statement from the contracted German firm in charge of designing and installing the technology, Magment.

“This project is a real step forward towards the future of dynamic wireless charging,” said Mauricio Esguerra, CEO of Magment, “that will undoubtedly set the standard for affordable, sustainable, and efficient transportation electrification.”

Copper prices are pretty high these days; early in spring they were at an all-time record, so Magment are ditching copper wire coils for recycled ferrite, which they believe will allow them to “achieve transmission efficiency of up to 95% and be built at standard road-building installation costs,” according to Singularity Hub.

If the cost savings are real, then it could start production quite soon following two planned lab tests.

An electrified field

It’s the first such electrified charging road in the U.S., and a testament to the pace of change in this field is a projection by researchers working on charging roads at the University of Cornell that it would be 5-10 years before such technology would be available.

MORE: One of the Biggest Myths About EVs is Busted in New Study

The Indiana model would represent, if successful, the best in a field that is no means monopolized. Sweden has electric rails in some highways that allow the largest vehicles on the highway to charge by way of an electric arm on their undercarriage that draws power from the rail.

Volkswagen and an Israeli firm called Electreon have rolled out a prototype 70 kilowatt-hours of charging speed on a road between the Italian cities of Brescia and Milan—a deeply congested and popular long-distance commute.

Another German firm, Siemens, is trying to build a scaffolding of cables and wires above a three-mile stretch of road outside Frankfurt that will allow cars to charge as they drive similarly to city trams.

It won’t be long before one of these projects comes good, and motoring is once again changed forever.

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If You Have Someone to Talk to, it Could Stave Off Alzheimer’s, Researchers Find

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Good News Network

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Aug 24, 2021

Supportive social interactions in adulthood are important for your ability to stave off cognitive decline, a new study finds.

Researchers observed that simply having someone available most or all of the time whom you can count on to listen to you when you need to talk is associated with greater cognitive resilience—a measure of your brain’s ability to function better than would be expected for the amount of physical aging—or disease-related changes in the brain, which many neurologists believe can be boosted by engaging in mentally stimulating activities, physical exercise, and positive social interactions.

“We think of cognitive resilience as a buffer to the effects of brain aging and disease,” says lead researcher Joel Salinas, MD, the Lulu P. and David J. Levidow Assistant Professor of Neurology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and member of the Department of Neurology’s Center for Cognitive Neurology.

“This study adds to growing evidence that people can take steps, either for themselves or the people they care about most, to increase the odds they’ll slow down cognitive aging or prevent the development of symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease—something that is all the more important given that we still don’t have a cure for the disease.”

An estimated 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease, a progressive condition that affects mostly those over 65 and interferes with memory, language, decision-making, and the ability to live independently.

Salinas says that while the disease usually affects an older population, the results of this study indicate that people younger than 65 would benefit from taking stock of their social support. For every unit of decline in brain volume, individuals in their 40s and 50s with low listener availability had a cognitive age that was four years older than those with high listener availability.

“These four years can be incredibly precious. Too often we think about how to protect our brain health when we’re much older, after we’ve already lost a lot of time decades before to build and sustain brain-healthy habits,” says Salinas.

“But today, right now, you can ask yourself if you truly have someone available to listen to you in a supportive way, and ask your loved ones the same. Taking that simple action sets the process in motion for you to ultimately have better odds of long-term brain health and the best quality of life you can have.”

Salinas also recommends that physicians consider adding this question to the standard social history portion of a patient interview: asking patients whether they have access to someone they can count on to listen to them when they need to talk.

“Loneliness is one of the many symptoms of depression, and has other health implications for patients,” says Salinas. “These kinds of questions about a person’s social relationships and feelings of loneliness can tell you a lot about a patient’s broader social circumstances, their future health, and how they’re really doing outside of the clinic.”

How the Study Was Conducted

Researchers used one of the longest running and most closely monitored community-based cohorts in the U.S., the Framingham Heart Study (FHS), as the source of their study’s 2,171 participants, with an average age of 63.

FHS participants self-reported information on the availability of supportive social interactions including listening, good advice, love and affection, sufficient contact with people they’re close with, and emotional support.

MORE: Chemists Find Breakthrough Treatment for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s That Protects Brain Cells From Amyloid Plaque

Study participants’ cognitive resilience was measured as the relative effect of total cerebral brain volume on global cognition, using MRI scans and neuropsychological assessments taken as part of the FHS.

Lower brain volumes tend to associate with lower cognitive function, and in this study, researchers examined the modifying effect of individual forms of social support on the relationship between cerebral volume and cognitive performance.

CHECK OUT: Coffee is Now Linked to Reduced Risk of Many Ailments, Including Liver Disease, Parkinson’s, Melanoma, Even Suicide

The cognitive function of individuals with greater availability of one specific form of social support was higher relative to their total cerebral volume. This key form of social support was listener availability and it was highly associated with greater cognitive resilience.

Researchers note that further study of individual social interactions may improve understanding of the biological mechanisms that link psychosocial factors to brain health.

“While there is still a lot that we don’t understand about the specific biological pathways between psychosocial factors like listener availability and brain health, this study gives clues about concrete, biological reasons why we should all seek good listeners and become better listeners ourselves,” says Salinas of the study, which was published on August 16 in JAMA Network Open.

Source: NYU Langone Health / NYU Grossman School of Medicine

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Swedish Firm Delivers First Batch of ‘Green Steel’ to Volvo – Made Without Any Coal

By

Andy Corbley

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Aug 24, 2021

iron - green steel sweden released Hybrit — Hybrit

A quartet of manufacturing firms has managed to create the world’s first fossil fuel-free steel in Sweden, much of which will go straight into the foundries of Volvo to create the first cars ever made with “green steel.”

It’s a massive first step to decarbonizing a carbon-heavy industry, as steel-making worldwide accounts for 8% of all CO2 emissions resulting from the need for coal in the manufacturing process, and the firms involved in the discovery represent 10% of Sweden’s emissions, and 7% of Finland’s.

Since the Warring States period in Ancient China, and in India and Sri Lanka four centuries before that, metalworkers have understood that to take a useful metal, iron, and turn it into a superior alloy, steel, they needed very high heat and a bit of coal.

Today, that coal is being replaced with hydrogen by Swedish venture firm HYBRIT, owned by Swedish steelmaker SSAB, the state-owned utility Vattenfall, and the mining firm LKAB.

HYBRIT’s method uses hydrogen and green electricity to create the high temperatures and carbon necessary to replace coal in their steel.

MORE: They Melted Down 22,000 Firearms in Belgium, Recycling Them Into Steel

Their hope is to get green steel into the bodies of Volvo cars as soon as possible, and into the global circulating market as early as 2026.

“The first fossil-free steel in the world is not only a breakthrough for SSAB, it represents proof that it’s possible to make the transition and significantly reduce the global carbon footprint of the steel industry. We hope that this will inspire others to also want to speed up the green transition,” says Martin Lindqvist, President and CEO of SSAB.

Hardly resting on this remarkable achievement, HYBRIT and its backers are looking to ensure the steel plant and the boilers needed to heat the hydrogen to 1,000°C (1,832°F) for their manufacturing process is run by fossil fuel-free power sources.

They are focused on electric gas heating, and their plant in Luleå, Sweden will trial a 250 kilowatt boiler. If it goes well, a megawatt version will be developed.

“This is one of many exciting steps among all the development taking place within the fossil-free value chain,” stated Eva Vitell, GM of Hybrit Development AB.

Iron ore for steel manufacturing is the world’s second most-traded commodity behind crude oil, and any developments towards making that process greener represents massive potential emissions cuts.

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Archaeologists Discover Mighty Queen’s Seat of Medieval Power in a Lost Monastery in England

By

Andy Corbley

-

Aug 24, 2021

The seat of power for one of the most influential women in Medieval English history, Queen Cynethryth, has been discovered in a small Berkshire village.

A lost monastery in Cookham where Cynethryth ruled as abbess was located by a team from the University of Reading and local volunteers, and consists of the timber remains of buildings where the monks and nuns lived, as well as artifacts such as jewelry, crockery, and personal items.

Cynethryth was the wife of King Offa. The two ruled the old kingdom of Mercia in the four decades before the arrival of the Vikings in 793CE, and were determined to bring Christian values and better court decorum to their land.

“Cynethryth is a fascinating figure, a female leader who clearly had genuine status and influence in her lifetime,” said Dr. Gabor Thomas, the University of Reading archaeologist leading the excavation.

“The items that have been uncovered will allow us to piece together a detailed impression of how the monks and nuns who lived here ate, worked and dressed. This will shed new light on how Anglo-Saxon monasteries were organized and what life was like in them,” he said.

The power couple

While the details of almost anyone living in Britain during this period—even a king or queen, are scant, two discoveries bear testimony to the power wielded by Cynethryth during her life.

MORE: Woman Collecting Shellfish Discovers Dinosaur Footprint of ‘Jurassic Giant’

Coins minted during the reign of Offa and Cynethryth featured her visage, one of very few examples in all of Western Europe, much less England, and when King Offa exchanged letters with his opposite number in France (Charlemagne), to whom he considered himself equal, Charlemagne would address the letters to both Offa and Cynethryth by name.

Writing by Susan Abernethy at The Medievalists tells us that people in the know—in this case a poet/teacher/English scholar/ecclesiastical figure named Alcuin who was a contemporary of Offa and Cynethryth—considered her very important indeed.

“In a letter Alcuin wrote during Offa’s reign, he hints that Cynethryth was too busy with the king’s business to read correspondence,” writes Abernethy. In another letter he designates her as ‘mistress of the royal household’ and calls her pious. Alcuin emphasizes the legitimacy of her marriage with Offa and the legitimacy of her children and their suitability to inherit the throne of Mercia.”

The discovery of her monastery was made along the River Thames on the grounds of the modern Holy Trinity Church, a rumored location of the monastery where, following the passing of her husband, she ruled as “royal abbess” from the year 796 until her death.

The monastery’s position along the Thames is not only the modern border of Berkshire, but during the 790s was also the disputed border between Mercia and another Medieval kingdom called Wessex, highlighting the political and strategic importance of the site.

Livia Gershon, writing for Smithsonian, reports, “excavations showed that the building was constructed on a gravel island that raised it above areas that faced frequent flooding. The site was divided into zones, including a housing area and another with a cluster of hearths that were probably used for metalworking.”

As a religious and royal figure, the team from Reading expect that her remains are to be found at the site, an incredibly exciting potential discovery, as the physical remains of a person can be used to create 3D imaging of what the powerful queen might have looked like.

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“It only takes a split second to smile and forget, yet to someone that needed it, it can last a lifetime.” – Steve Maraboli

Quote of the Day

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Good News Network

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Aug 24, 2021

Quote of the Day: “It only takes a split second to smile and forget, yet to someone that needed it, it can last a lifetime.” – Steve Maraboli (Life, the Truth, and Being Free)

Photo: by saeed mhmdi

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?

Polish Olympian Auctions Silver Medal for Infant’s Heart Surgery, but Winning Bidder Won’t Accept It

By

Judy Cole

-

Aug 23, 2021

screen shot javelin instagram @m.andrejczyk social media selfie — Instagram/@m.andrejczyk/

Polish javelin thrower Maria Andrejczyk took the silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics. While she might have come in second at the games, what she did next was pure gold.

Less than two weeks after ascending the winner’s podium, Andrejczyk took an extraordinary leap of generosity, auctioning off her medal to raise funds for Miłoszek Małys, an 8-month-old Polish boy in critical need of heart surgery.

The athlete had never met Miłoszek or his family. She learned of his struggles through social media. But 25-year-old Andrejczyk, a cancer survivor herself, knew just how important obtaining timely medical intervention could be.

“Miłoszek has a serious heart defect, he needs an operation,” Andrejczyk posted to her Facebook page. “He also has support from above from Kubuś—a boy who did not make it on time, but wonderful people decided to donate his funds to Miłoszek. And this is how I want to help too. It is for him that I am auctioning off my Olympic silver medal.”

All told, it was estimated that costs for medical expenses plus travel from Poland to California’s Stanford University where the operation would be performed would total 1.5 million Polish zlotys (about $385,000).

With half the sum already raised through online contributions, Andrejczyk hoped her medal would bring in the rest. The winning bid not only met but exceeded the original fundraising goals.

MORE: From Working At McDonald’s To Competing At The Olympics, This US Track Youngster is Living American Dream

“We have the winner!” Andrejczyk posted. “On Friday I received this wonderful information, and due to the fact that you dears have already done wonders and joint forces have paid more than the equivalent of the initial medal to the Miłoszek account—I decided to end the auction so that our Miłoszek will receive the whole amount as soon as possible and can fly to the USA.”

Sorry as she might have been to see her medal go, Andrejczyk was thrilled to know the profits from its sale were earmarked for a worthy cause.

“The true value of a medal always remains in the heart,” Andrejczyk said, as quoted by The Times of London. “A medal is only an object, but it can be of great value to others. This silver can save lives, instead of collecting dust in a closet. That is why I decided to auction it to help sick children.”

But it seems the winning bidders, Polish convenience store chain Zabka, had some pretty big-hearted plans of their own. In honor of her winning ways both on the Olympic field and off, the company gifted Andrejczyk back her medal.

“We were moved by the beautiful and extremely noble gesture of our Olympian, we decided to support [the benefit],” Zabka posted to Facebook. “We also decided that the silver medal from Tokyo will stay with Ms. Maria, who showed what it means to be [a true champion].”

While silver has always been considered a precious metal, in this case, its value in helping save the life of a child was priceless—and that’s a win of Olympic proportions for everyone.

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Locals Digging a Well Accidentally Discover a $140 Million Star Sapphire Weighing Half a Ton

By

Andy Corbley

-

Aug 23, 2021

It’s hard work being a farmer, that is until you pull a half-ton sapphire out of the ground while digging a well… Then it’s pretty incredible being a farmer.

A boulder containing a cluster of 2.5 million carats in star sapphires was unearthed by workmen digging a well on the island of Sri Lanka, a country which, like a diamond, belittles its size in terms of richness.

Colored pale blue, the find has been given the name the ‘Serendipity Sapphire’, and could be worth $140 million on the international market, pending inspections and certification by world experts.

“The person who was digging the well alerted us about some rare stones. Later we stumbled upon this huge specimen,” Mr. Gamage, the owner of the stone, told the BBC.

Gamage, who kept most information confidential for obvious reasons, explained that while cleaning the stone of mud and dirt, some star sapphires of “high quality” became dislodged, suggesting that like the famous Bahia Emerald, this enormous half-ton stone isn’t a single structure, but likely hundreds of star sapphires connected together with other minerals.

City of Gems

In a country blessed with beautiful beaches, rich wildlife, tons of elephants, and as the story goes, the mountain from which the Buddha of this eon ascended to Buddhahood, the gemstone trade on Sri Lanka is one of the most important on Earth.

MORE: Struggling Thai Fisherman Finds Rare Melo Pearl Worth $320,000 While Walking on Beach

The island nation, no bigger than West Virginia, is the world’s leading exporter of sapphires and other precious stones, which generated half a billion in revenue last year as one of the five biggest gem producers.

The Serendipity Sapphire was mined in the area of Ratnapura, a traditional gem mining region famous for producing star sapphires, like the last one that was considered the largest ever, The Star of Adam, weighing 1404 carets.

Ratnapura means “City of Gems” in Sinhalese, and even as competitive markets for sapphires open up in Madagascar, Ratnapura remains a world capital in the gem trade.

“It is a special star sapphire specimen, probably the biggest in the world. Given the size and its value, we think it will interest private collectors or museums,” Thilak Weerasinghe, the Chairman of the National Gem and Jewellery Authority of Sri Lanka, told the BBC.

Star sapphires contain a gemological feature known as an asterism. Asterisms in gems occur when small flakes or spines of other material becomes trapped in the gemstone as it forms, creating an effect when receiving light from above of a shining six-pointed star. The most famous is the Star of India, currently held in the American Museum of Natural History.

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Iconic Moments of This Century Get Reimagined as ‘Ancient’ Cave Art – LOOK

By

Good News Network

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Aug 23, 2021

Major moments from modern history have been reimagined as ‘ancient’ cave art.

2,000 UK adults had their say on what moments from the worlds of sport, technology, politics, and popular culture should be immortalized in Buckinghamshire’s Hellfire Caves.

Using the same techniques, style, and colors as our ancestors more than 30,000 years ago, illustrator Emmy Smith worked with archaeologist Professor Paul Pettitt to make the paintings as authentic as possible.

Other noteworthy moments featured include Barack Obama becoming the first Black President of America, Live Aid, and Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’.

SEGA commissioned the cave art and the poll to celebrate the launch of new historical strategy game, HUMANKIND, which enables players to create and lead their own unique civilization.

Paul Pettitt, Professor in the Department of Archaeology at Durham University, said: “Ancient humans used cave art for thousands of years to record the most important concerns of their time.

“And I’m thrilled SEGA has used the oldest artistic medium to bring some of modern history’s most iconic moments to life.

“Rock art was a universal form of expression, with examples found all over the world.

“It was an enjoyable challenge working out how to translate the events of the last few decades, both monumental and mundane, into authentic cave art—I’m extremely proud of the results.”

The poll found 72 percent of adults believe it’s ‘important’ that key events from modern history are shared with future generations.

And 62 percent think cave art is a great way to learn about history from those who lived during that time.

Furthermore, 51 percent think cave paintings are more likely to survive for thousands of years than any form of modern technology.

More than half (51 percent) also think cave paintings are more likely to survive for thousands of years than any form of modern technology.

MORE: More Americans Now Consider Themselves to be ‘Thriving’ Than at Any Point in 13 Years: Gallop

It also emerged that those polled think Sir David Attenborough (27 percent) would be the best person to lead modern civilization.

But Manchester United and England star, Marcus Rashford (eight percent) got twice as many votes as current UK prime minister, Boris Johnson (four percent).

While 34 percent think they would do either a good or excellent job if they themselves were in charge.

Their priorities would include providing free healthcare to all (46 percent), ensuring equal rights for everyone (36 percent), and implementing a four-day working week (19 percent). Sounds good to us.

TOP FIVE SPORTING MOMENTS
1. England winning the World Cup in 1966
2. Andy Murray winning Wimbledon in 2013
3. Super Saturday at the London Olympics 2012
4. England reaching the final of Euro 2020
5. England winning the Rugby World Cup in 2003

TOP FIVE POP CULTURE MOMENTS
1. Live Aid concert in 1985
2. Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding in 2011
3. Gangnam Style dance in 2012
4. Jarvis Cocker storming the stage during Michael Jackson’s performance at the 1996 Brit awards
5. Lady Gaga’s meat dress at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards

TOP FIVE TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS
1. The invention of the internet in 1983
2. The first human organ transplant in 1954
3. The first ‘test tube’ baby born in 1978
4. The International Space Station in 1998
5. The rise of smartphones in the 1990s and 2000s

TOP FIVE INSPIRATIONAL LEADERS
1. Sir David Attenborough
2. Stephen Hawking
3. Queen Elizabeth II
4. Bill Gates
5. Barack Obama

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Farmer Leads Scientists to Fossilized Egg From Prehistoric Giant Turtle – With a Revealing Embryo Inside

By

Andy Corbley

-

Aug 23, 2021

China University of Geosciences, Yuzheng Ke

Finding fossilized dinosaur eggs is not unheard of, but finding the fossilized remains of an embryo within the egg is rare indeed.

Fortunately for a pair of paleontologists working in one of Earth’s great honeypot regions for dinosaur bones—North China—a local farmer had a few gems lying around to check over and inspect.

In a box of what the farmer believed were strange, intriguing rocky orbs, scientists Fenglu Han and Haishui Jiang noticed one that was different enough to merit closer examination.

The bony remains of the treasure contained within the eggshell were the only clues the scientists had to its origin, and while the farmer led them to the site where he found it, subsequently discovered specimens had held up very poorly over the years.

Egg in possession, Jiang and Han looked to examine it using micro-computed tomography, which would allow them to peer through the shell’s exterior. What they found was a jumble of bones which consultants determined looked strikingly like a turtle embryo.

Belonging to an extinct genus of giant land tortoises called Nanhsiungchelyidae that lived among the Cretaceous period—the geological curtain call of the age of dinosaurs—the find “is one of the largest and thickest shelled Mesozoic turtle eggs known,” write the authors in a study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The turtle which laid the egg would have been among the largest turtles to ever exist, and from shell tip to shell tail would have been as tall as a grown man.

How the turtle might have lived is difficult to imagine. All scientists know was that it was a plant eater, but the details within the eggshell may hint at what its habitat was like when it lived 144 to 66 million years ago.

“The thick-shelled, spherical eggs of nanhsiungchelyids may have been an adaptation, at least in part, to incubation in harsh arid environments,” write the authors in their paper.

“Among [living] turtles, a calcified rigid shell limits the movement of water outside the eggshell to prevent excess water loss of the egg during incubation. Spherical eggs can also reduce water loss and thickened eggshell in some reptiles may be an adaptation to an arid climate.”

MORE: 4-Year-old Girl Finds Dinosaur Footprint on a Beach From 215 Million Years Ago

As scientists speaking with National Geographic discussed, the baby turtle would have to be a little Hercules to push his way out of such a thick shell.

While nanhsiungchelyids went extinct along with the non-avian dinosaurs, their aquatic relatives sailed right on through, along with other success stories like crocodiles, snakes, and ocean life.

The giant tortoises of the Galapagos are slow-moving plant eaters, similar to nanhsiungchelyids. Putting them in the post-asteroidal apocalypse that occurred on Earth, when much of the plant life died out, would probably see them die off like their ancient ancestors.

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One final tip

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How the Study Was Conducted

The power couple

City of Gems