Can you imagine as a kid tuning in to see your favorite TV show, never realizing that the actress playing one of the leading roles was your mother? It sounds like something from a sitcom script, but that’s what happened to Lisa Wright.
The show Wright was watching? That’s My Mama. (We doubt even Hollywood could make that one up!)
As with many adoptions at the time, Wright’s birth records were sealed. Having been well-loved by her adoptive parents, she didn’t have a burning desire to search out her biological mother.
All that changed when, at age 54, Wright’s son suggested she get a DNA test to learn more about her family’s genetics. The DNA results revealed Wright had a match—an uncle.
In their initial conversation, Wright’s uncle asked her to fill him in on any details she knew about her birth. She was able to tell him her date of birth and that her mom, who’d gotten pregnant when she was very young, wanted a career in Hollywood.
Her uncle knew a lot more—and he was thrilled to tell her.
Wright’s mom turned out to be Lynne Moody, whose impressive résumé includes stints on Chicago Hope, Beverly Hills 90210, Knots Landing, General Hospital, and a host of other TV and film credits.
Not only did her uncle reveal who Wright’s birth mother was, he also let her know her mom had never forgotten the daughter she’d given up. The family had actually been looking for her, hoping someday to reconnect.
When Wright Googled her mom’s name, the realization was stunning. She was finally seeing a face that looked like her own. She knew she belonged.
Not long after that epiphany, Wright’s phone rang again. It was an ecstatic Moody.
“A voice on the other end says, ‘Is this my daughter?’ And then I just went, ‘Oh, my God, is this my mother?’” Wright told TODAY. “And then she goes, ‘Yes, sweetie, this is your mom.’ It was just the most indescribable feeling.”
The irony of growing up watching her mom on TV and not knowing it was nothing compared to the joy the two felt when they were reunited the very next day. Moody, likened finding her daughter to giving birth a second time, at least on an emotional level.
Of course, not everyone searching out their heritage is going turn up a TV star in the family tree, but this mother-daughter team hopes their story inspires other adoptive kids and their birth parents to welcome the connection if and when it does come their way.
“Life is full of surprises sometimes, so hang in there no matter what your circumstances are,” Moody told TODAY. “Be open to miracles, be open to surprises, and keep the faith.”
Good news was unveiled in the surging industry of wind power: The world’s largest turbine manufacturer is ensuring that wind power will create as little waste as possible, by pushing to create 100% recyclable wind turbine blades.
With 18% of the world’s wind power market share, Vestas is the first company of its kind to commit to producing fully recyclable products.
Giant wind turbine blades are made from a mixture of glass and carbon fiber heated together with sticky epoxy resin, and these materials can’t normally be separated once combined, which means they go into landfills when they become too battered to safely operate.
Conscious that the global market for wind energy is growing by about 3% per year, Vestas explains that they knew about the problem in the making—and they’re looking to get out in front of it. The company plans to tackle the recyclability problem for the next 20 years, until they’re operating at zero waste by 2040.
Reuters reports that Vestas has unveiled a new chemical technology which breaks the epoxy resin away from the glass and carbon fiber, allowing the hard material to be removed, and the epoxy to be turned into its constituent elements as well. All of these components, the company says, will be able to be re-used to make new turbine blades.
Typically a wind turbine lasts about 20 to 25 years, at which point the owner can either order it decommissioned or get it refitted with new parts. Typically 75% of all waste generated through decommissioning comes from the blades. Vestas wants to be able to recycle 50% of the blade material in just a few years through investing in new recycling technology and in new blade materials that are easier to recycle—and to do more and more in terms of recycling each year.
“We have spent quite some time on the approach to create zero-waste turbines because we know that this new strategic approach could potentially be the new standard for future turbines,” says Peter Garrett at Vestas.
That investment in the future is good news for all of us.
[CORRECTION: A previous version of our headline read, “…Can Now br Fully Recycled”.]
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Fresh off their success of the Mustang Mach-E, Ford has revealed that their most popular car, and for that matter, America’s most popular car, is going electric.
The F-150 Lighting is Ford’s contribution to the extremely limited electric truck market, and they’ve managed to include a truckload of features for a price tag of $36,650, that—when reduced by the $7,500 federal EV tax credit—puts its price point right in line with most other electric trucks.
FORD
The base model has 230 miles of range, 3.5 tons of towing capacity, an enormous front trunk, a 14-inch command touchscreen console, highway self-drive and automatic trailer hitching, and 11 power outlets for everything from your iPad to power tools all encased within the four-door “SuperCrew” cabin that F-150 buyers normally have to pay extra for.
The double-electric motor means all versions are all-wheel drive, and the technological integration is seriously impressive. This includes detailed onboard scales that measure load and towing weight, and that calculate that extra tonnage into the battery life to ensure you’re never left on the side of the road.
Public EV fast-charging stations can add 54 miles of range in 10 minutes, charging the battery from 15% to 80% in 41 minutes. This is pretty standard for modern EVs.
It’s an interesting attempt to pair a workman’s vehicle with a market share that tends to be dominated by young, affluent buyers that live in cities. One auto writer at the Verge suggested that if you’re going to take a gamble on whether an EV version of a well-known internal combustion car was going to work, you might as well try it with the most popular car in America, which at its most popular recent period put an American behind an F-150 wheel every 30 seconds.
But they aren’t throwing darts in the dark, they have some data to base their strategy off of: the recent EV conversion of the Mustang. 70% of the buyers of the Mach-E had never owned a Ford before.
FORD
One of the mantras of the F-150 Lighting design was self-reliance. As well as acting like a sort of mobile power station for light to medium work intensity sustained by the battery, owners of the extended range battery model, costing about $40,000 and capable of going 130 miles more on a full charge, will get an 80amp home-charging station that as well as filling up the battery in eight hours, will act as a backup generator for your home in the event of a power outage for about three days.
Having created the first mass produced automobile, if the F-150 Lighting is even a quarter as popular as the F-150, Ford will go a long way towards creating the next vehicular revolution.
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May 26, a Wednesday—or ‘Woden’s Day’ for you two or three pagans in the audience—will feature both a total lunar eclipse and a full super moon.
This year, in many parts of the world, the eclipsing of the sun’s light by Earth will shadow our lunar neighbor, turning it an impressive red—hence the name Blood Moon.
Science@NASA and NASA’s Goddard Space
This total lunar eclipse is the first in over two years. It will be visible in the western U.S. and Canada, all of Mexico, eastern Asia, Oceania, the Pacific Islands, and western South America before dawn on May 26.
For those on the east coast of the States, the sun will be too low on the horizon when the eclipse occurs—though if you can find a tall enough point (not easy to do in, say, Appalachia), and have a clear view of the horizon—given clear weather you may be able to see the phenomenon.
Unlike with solar eclipses, you’ll need no special glasses for viewing this event.
A full Super Flower Moon
According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac, the peak full moon illumination will occur at around 7:14am EST on Wednesday morning—but by this point it will be very close or even below the horizon, so you’ll want to head out the night before—or, to be honest, all week is fine: NASA reports that the Moon will appear full from Tuesday night all the way through Friday morning.
May’s Flower Moon—which is also known as the Milk Moon and Corn Planting Moon—will be the biggest and brightest full super moon of 2021.
Farmer’s Almanac reports that this time held a special place in some Native American calendars—as increasing warmth made it safe to bear young, an ideal period for planting crops, and a time that marked the end of late season frosts.
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Quote of the Day: “Beauty walks a razor’s edge, someday I’ll make it mine.” – Bob Dylan, (turns 80 today) lyrics from Shelter From the Storm
Photo: by Weston MacKinnon, mural in Minneapolis, Minnesota
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
In early April, Girl Scouts were experiencing a 50% shortfall in cookie sales, with reduced foot traffic and the pandemic limiting their ability to sell their iconic cookies in person—and eating into their annual activity budgets.
Google’s delivery service Wing began talking to a local Girl Scout troop in Christiansburg, Virginia, where they run America’s first and only residential drone delivery service. Now, enthusiasm and sales are soaring, with the local scouts selling cookies in an entirely new way: via drone.
Wing
Residents in Christiansburg can now get Samoas, Thin Mints, Peanut Butter Patties, and more favorites flown through the sky and dropped directly at their front door.
And, through it all, Wing has also been working with the local scouts showing them the technology of how drones work, and hopefully inspiring the girls to pursue STEM careers.
“In return, they’re teaching us a lot about how to sell cookies,” one spokesperson told GNN.
During 2020, Wing was able to support a number of local Christiansburg businesses with their contactless delivery capabilities. For example, the owner of Mockingbird Cafe bakery, reported that drone delivery accounted for about 25% of sales during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shoppers with a sweet tooth can order through the Wing app in Christiansburg until the end of May, but the company has committed to help the girls sell 3,000 boxes, regardless. So far, the most popular cookie order is—not surprising—Thin Mints.
A recent Virginia Tech survey of consumers in the nearby southern Virginia town found 87% of residents liked the idea of drone delivery following the first year of service in the community.
Drones can deliver goods to a consumer in minutes, without adding to traffic congestion and, energy-wise, they about 10x as efficient as electric vehicles, and more than 50x more efficient than gasoline-powered vehicles.
“It makes a lot more sense to deliver a 1lb box of cookies with a 10lb drone than it does to do it with a 3,000lb car,” says Wing.
If it means getting our Thin Mints dropped into our front yard, it’s a badge that’s worthy of a Girl Scout sash.
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Seventy years ago, on a frozen hilltop deep in what is now North Korea, a young First Lieutenant acted with bravery that earned him the Distinguished Service Cross, the military’s second-highest honor.
On Friday, Ralph Puckett, Jr. was hosted at the White House where he received the Medal of Honor, the U.S. government’s highest and most prestigious military decoration.
Ralph’s first response was to ask, “Why all the fuss? Can’t they just mail it to me?”
But, after his lifetime of service to the nation, President Joe Biden said at the medal ceremony, “Rather than mail it to you, I would’ve walked it to you.”
Ralph’s wife of 68 years, Jeannie Puckett, was in the audience, too, as Biden described how the couple met—while the brave Army Ranger was recovering from his wounds.
They were married two years to the day after the battle in November, 1950, for which he was honored this week with the following citation: “For acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty while serving as the commander 8th U.S. Army Ranger Company…”
Army photo
51 of Puckett’s Rangers and 9 Korean enlisted soldiers set out in a daylight attack to take Hill 205, just 60 miles from the border with China, which drew mortar, machine gun, and small-arms fire against them. First Lieutenant Puckett mounted the closest tank, exposing himself to the deadly enemy fire. Leaping from the tank, he shouted words of encouragement to his men and began to lead the Rangers in their offensive.
To make their charge, they had to cross about half mile of frozen rice paddies under fire.
“Almost immediately, enemy fire threatened the success of the attack by pinning down one platoon. Leaving the safety of his position, with full knowledge of the danger, First Lieutenant Puckett intentionally ran across an open area three times to draw enemy fire, thereby allowing the Rangers to locate and destroy the enemy positions and to seize Hill 205,” continued the citation.
When the Rangers finally reached the top of the hill, they found it abandoned, but Puckett knew the fight wasn’t nearly over.
“During the night, the enemy launched a counterattack that lasted four hours. Over the course of the counterattack, the Rangers were inspired and motivated by the extraordinary leadership and courageous example exhibited by First Lieutenant Puckett.”
Even though Puckett’s Rangers were outnumbered almost ten to one, five attacks by a battalion-strength enemy were repulsed.
During the first wave, First Lieutenant Puckett was wounded by grenade fragments, but refused evacuation and continually directed artillery support. Over the course of the next several hours, four more waves of assaults came.
“He repeatedly abandoned positions of relative safety to make his way from foxhole to foxhole, to check the company’s perimeter and to distribute ammunition amongst the Rangers.”
Extraordinary selflessness above and beyond the call
When the enemy launched a sixth attack, two mortar rounds landed in his foxhole, inflicting “grievous wounds” in both his feet, his backside, his left arm and shoulder.
“Knowing his men were in a precarious situation, First Lieutenant Puckett commanded the Rangers to leave him behind and evacuate the area. Feeling a sense of duty to aid him, the Rangers refused the order and staged an effort to retrieve him from the foxhole while still under fire from the enemy.
Ultimately, the Rangers succeeded in retrieving First Lieutenant Puckett and they moved to the bottom of the hill, where First Lieutenant Puckett called for devastating artillery fire on the top of the enemy-controlled hill.
First Lieutenant Puckett’s extraordinary heroism and selflessness above and beyond the call of duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.”
First Time a Foreign Leader Attended This Ceremony
Biden said in his remarks, “Korea is sometimes called the “Forgotten War.” But those men who were there under Lieutenant Puckett’s command — they’ll never forget his bravery. They never forget that he was right by their side throughout every minute of it.”
Puckett at the White House
“And the people of the Republic of Korea haven’t forgotten, as evidenced by the fact that the President of Korea is here for this ceremony. I doubt this has ever happened before.”
President Moon said, “I learned that I’m the first foreign leader to ever attend a ceremony of such kind. As President of the Republic of Korea, it is a great honor and pleasure.
“Colonel Puckett is a true hero of the Korean War… Without the sacrifice of veterans, including Colonel Puckett and the Eighth Army Ranger Company, freedom and democracy we enjoy today couldn’t have blossomed in Korea.”
“From the ashes of the Korean War, we rose, we came back. And that was thanks to the Korean War veterans who fought for Korea’s peace and freedom. And now, thanks to their support and efforts, we are enjoying prosperity. On behalf of the Korean people, I express deep gratitude and respect to them. Through the war veterans, the Korean people saw a great soul of America that marches toward freedom and peace. Their acts of gallantry, sacrifice, and friendship will forever be remembered.”
Puckett’s military service did not end in the Korean War. He also served in the Vietnam War, where he earned a second Distinguished Service Cross, two Silver Stars, and two Bronze Stars, adding to his five Purple Hearts for injuries suffered in combat.
You can read about his life story in his published book, Ranger: A Soldier’s Life (from the American Warrior Series).
People are traveling across town to see the rubber duckies being arranged into inspiring messages that are quacking up the neighborhood.
Jim Preston came up with the unique way to make people smile during lockdown from his 14th Ave. home in Menlo Park, California.
He gets up at the quack of dawn (presumably) and uses the yellow toy ducks to spell out words of hope, encouragement, and wisdom, and has been doing it for months.
Chandrama Anderson told GNN that photos were being posted on the app, NextDoor, but that she began seeing the creations on her daily walks.
“For my husband’s 60th birthday under Covid lockdown, when there weren’t many ways to make a birthday special, I asked Jim to use his ducks to spell out ‘Happy Birthday Locke,’ and he did!”
Even if the message is not created specifically for you, it’s easy to believe the uplifting sidewalk art comes straight from the heart—the heart of a town ‘wise quacker’.
Tadpoles have been airlifted this week by plane from Florida to the island home of their ancestors, helping to save a species.
Tampa Zoo
The only toad species native to Puerto Rico is now critically endangered, but ZooTampa contributed to the survival of this important species by sending thousands of recently hatched tadpoles to help restore the population on their native island.
The Puerto Rican crested toad once flourished on the island but before 1967 the amphibian was thought to have become extinct, due to habitat loss from urban development, natural disasters, and competition from invasive species who prey on their young.
An essential part of the island ecosystem, eating insects that are pests to humans, scientists estimate that fewer than 3,000 adult toads remain in the wild.
Today, ZooTampa is one of only a few zoos across the world who participate in the Association of Zoos and Aquarium’s Species Survival Plan with the goal of re-populating this species by breeding and sending tadpoles back to Puerto Rico.
The Zoo’s herpetology and veterinary teams oversaw the delicate reproduction process for the pairs of crested toads: From careful habitat temperature control that stimulates the island’s rainy season, to playing the “Barry White version” of toad mating calls, several important steps were taken to ensure that the toads produced fertilized eggs.
ZooTampa
“These tadpoles represent hope for this critically endangered species,” said Dan Costell, associate curator of herps and aquatics. “Bolstering the population of these toads in their natural environment is a real win for conservation and at the core of our mission at ZooTampa.”
The tadpoles were quickly counted and packed into protected shipping boxes filled with oxygen to keep the tadpoles healthy and safe on their journey to their homeland, where biologists will release them into protected managed ponds.
It was a race against the clock, as there’s only an 8-day window between when the fertilized eggs begin hatching into tadpoles and when they must be released by biologists on the island.
ZooTampa
The efforts of all involved are now resulting in chirps of joy—from both toads and humans—on the Island of Enchantment.
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Quote of the Day: “Nothing in the universe can stop you from letting go and starting over.” – Guy Finley
Photo: by Marcus Dall Col
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
lithium battery experiment - courtesy of Second Bay Studios:Harvard SEAS
Long-lasting, quick-charging batteries are essential to the expansion of the electric vehicle market, but today’s lithium-ion batteries fall short of what’s needed — they’re too heavy, too expensive and take too long to charge.
lithium battery experiment – courtesy of Second Bay Studios:Harvard SEAS
For decades, researchers have tried to harness the potential of solid-state, lithium-metal batteries, which hold substantially more energy in the same volume and charge in a fraction of the time compared to traditional lithium-ion batteries.
“A lithium-metal battery is considered the holy grail for battery chemistry because of its high capacity and energy density,” said Xin Li, Associate Professor of Materials Science at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS). “But the stability of these batteries has always been poor.”
Now, Li and his team have designed a stable, lithium-metal solid state battery that can be charged and discharged at least 10,000 times — far more cycles than have been previously demonstrated — at a high current density. The researchers paired the new design with a commercial high energy density cathode material.
This battery technology could increase the lifetime of electric vehicles to that of the gasoline cars — 10 to 15 years — without the need to replace the battery. With its high current density, the battery could pave the way for electric vehicles that can fully charge within 10 to 20 minutes.
“Our research shows that the solid-state battery could be fundamentally different from the commercial liquid electrolyte lithium-ion battery,” said Li. “By studying their fundamental thermodynamics, we can unlock superior performance and harness their abundant opportunities.”
The big challenge with lithium-metal batteries has always been chemistry. Lithium batteries move lithium ions from the cathode to the anode during charging. When the anode is made of lithium metal, needle-like structures called dendrites form on the surface. These structures grow like roots into the electrolyte and pierce the barrier separating the anode and cathode, causing the battery to short or even catch fire.
To overcome this challenge, Li and his team designed a multilayer battery that sandwiches different materials of varying stabilities between the anode and cathode. This multilayer, multimaterial battery prevents the penetration of lithium dendrites not by stopping them altogether but rather by controlling and containing them.
Think of the battery like a BLT sandwich. First comes the bread — the lithium metal anode — followed by lettuce — a coating of graphite. Next, a layer of tomatoes — the first electrolyte — and a layer of bacon — the second electrolyte. Finish it off with another layer of tomatoes and the last piece of bread — the cathode.
Courtesy of Second Bay Studios : Harvard SEAS
The first electrolyte (chemical name Li5.5PS4.5Cl1.5 or LPSCI) is more stable with lithium but prone to dendrite penetration. The second electrolyte, (Li10Ge1P2S12 or LGPS) is less stable with lithium but appears immune to dendrites. In this design, dendrites are allowed to grow through the graphite and first electrolyte but are stopped when they reach the second. In other words, the dendrites grow through the lettuce and tomato but stop at the bacon. The bacon barrier stops the dendrites from pushing through and shorting the battery.
“Our strategy of incorporating instability in order to stabilize the battery feels counterintuitive but just like an anchor can guide and control a screw going into a wall, so too can our multilayer design guide and control the growth of dendrites,” said Luhan Ye, co-author of the paper and graduate student at SEAS.
“The difference is that our anchor quickly becomes too tight for the dendrite to drill through, so the dendrite growth is stopped,” Li added.
The battery is also self-healing; its chemistry allows it to backfill holes created by the dendrites.
“This proof-of-concept design shows that lithium-metal solid-state batteries could be competitive with commercial lithium-ion batteries,” said Li. “And the flexibility and versatility of our multilayer design makes it potentially compatible with mass production procedures in the battery industry. Scaling it up to the commercial battery wont’ be easy and there are still some practical challenges, but we believe they will be overcome.”
The research was published in Nature, and supported by Dean’s Competitive Fund for Promising Scholarship at Harvard University and Harvard Data Science Initiative Competitive Research Fund.
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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY – Week beginning May 20, 2021
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
Here’s a public service announcement for you Geminis from the planet and god Mercury: You’re under no obligation to be the same person you were three years ago, or six months ago, or last week—or even five minutes ago, for that matter. Mercury furthermore wants you to know that you have been authorized to begin a period of improvisation and experimentation, hopefully guided by a single overriding directive: what feels most fun and interesting to you. In the coming weeks it will be more important to create yourself anew than to know precisely who you are.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
As a Zen Buddhist priest for 47 years, Kōshō Uchiyama was knowledgeable about the power that illusions can wield over our imaginations. “If we’re not careful,” he said, “we are apt to grant ultimate value to something we’ve just made up in our heads.” I won’t tell you the examples from my own life that prove his point, because they’re too embarrassing. And I’m happy to report that I don’t think you’re anywhere near granting *ultimate* value to something you’ve just made up in your head. But I do advise you to be on the lookout for milder versions of that phenomenon.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Leo-born professor Sibelan Forrester is an expert on charms, spells, and incantations in Russian folklore. She wrote, “An empty place where no one can see or hear what one says is the proper locus for working magic.” Spells often start with these words, she added: “I rise up, saying a blessing. I go out, crossing myself, and I go to an open field.” Whether or not you have Russian heritage, Leo, I see the immediate future as being a good time for you to perform magic in an open field with no one else around. What might be the intention of your magic? How about something like this: “I ask my guides and ancestors to help me offer my most inspired largesse so as to serve the health and inspiration and liberation of the people whose lives I touch.”
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Spiritual author Stephen Russell wrote, “Don’t mask or deny your vulnerability: It is your greatest asset.” That’s an exaggeration, in my opinion. Vulnerability is a greater asset than your intelligence, compassion, and creativity? Not in my view. But I do recognize the high value of vulnerability, especially for you Virgos during the next three weeks. “Be vulnerable,” Russell continues. “Quake and shake in your boots with it. The new bounty and beauty that are coming to you, in the form of people, situations, and things, can only come to you when you are vulnerable—open.”
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
My friend Jenny’s Swedish grandmother used to say to her on a semi-regular basis, “åh tänk om vi vore korkade, vi skulle vara så lyckliga,” meaning, “If only we were stupid, we would be so happy.” In the coming weeks, I am asking you to disprove that folk wisdom. According to my analysis of the astrological potentials, now is a favorable time for you to explore ways in which your intelligence might enhance and deepen your enjoyment of life. Your motto should be: “The smarter we are, the happier we will be.”
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Sometime soon I invite you to speak a message similar to what poet Kenneth Rexroth once delivered to a special person in his life. He wrote, “Your tongue thrums and moves / Into me, and I become / Hollow and blaze with / Whirling light, like the inside / Of a vast expanding pearl.” Do you know anyone who might be receptive to hearing such lyrical praise? If not, create a fantasy character in your imagination to whom you can say it. On the other hand, maybe you do know a real person who would appreciate an earthier, less poetical tribute. If so, please convey it; something akin to this: “Your influence on me amplifies my ability to be my best self.” Now is a perfect time to honor and extol and reward those who move you and excite you.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
Author Aldous Huxley said, “I can sympathize with people’s pains, but not with their pleasures. There is something curiously boring about somebody else’s happiness.” To that I reply, “Other people’s pleasure and happiness bored you? Maybe you were suffering from raging narcissism and an addiction to cynicism.” In any case, Sagittarius, I hope you won’t be like Huxley in the next few weeks. I believe you could glean useful insights and derive personal benefits from knowing about and appreciating the joys of others.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Capricorn businessman Howard Hughes (1905–1976) had great success early in his life. Working as a film director and aviation pioneer, he became a wealthy philanthropist. But as he aged, he became increasingly eccentric and reclusive. For the last 10 years of his life, he lived in expensive hotels, where he placed strict and often absurd demands on the hotel staff. For example, if he called on room service to bring him a meal that included peas, he would measure the peas with a ruler, and send back any he deemed too big. I do hope that you Capricorns will also have an intense focus on mastering the details in the coming weeks—but not as intense or misguided as that nonsensical obsession.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Aquarian author Charles Dickens (1812–1870) was famous and popular. Audiences packed the halls where he did public lectures and readings. His favorite way to prepare for these evening events was to spend the day drinking a pint of champagne, as well as generous servings of rum, cream, and sherry with eggs beaten into the mix. I don’t have a problem with that—whatever works, right?—but I suggest a different approach for your upcoming appointments with greater visibility and prominence. Like what? How about sexy meditations on the gratitude you feel for your expanding possibilities? How about fun fantasies focusing on how you’ll use your increased clout?
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
In his upcoming book The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, John Koenig proposes that we begin using “monachopsis,” a word he coined. He defines it as follows: “the feeling of being out of place, as maladapted to your surroundings as a seal on a beach—lumbering, clumsy, easily distracted, huddled in the company of other misfits, unable to recognize the ambient roar of your intended habitat, in which you’d be fluidly, brilliantly, effortlessly at home.” Even if you have spent too much time lately experiencing monachopsis, my dear, I predict this malaise will soon dissipate and give way to an extended phase of being fluidly, brilliantly, effortlessly at home.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
Aries playwright Samuel Beckett wrote the play Waiting for Godot. At one point in the tale, the character named Estragon suggests it might be possible, even desirable, to “dance first and think afterwards.” In response, the character named Pozzo says, “By all means, nothing simpler. It’s the natural order.” With that in mind, and in accordance with astrological omens, I am going to encourage you to dance first and think afterwards as much as possible in the coming weeks. In my opinion, your ability to analyze and reason will thrive to the degree that you encourage your body to engage in enjoyable free-form play. Your power to make good decisions will grow as you take really good care of your physical organism and give it an abundance of pleasure and release.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
As you enter a phase when gradual, incremental progress is the best progress possible, I offer you the concluding lines of Taurus poet Adrienne Rich’s poem “From a Survivor”: “not as a leap, but a succession of brief, amazing movements, each one making possible the next.” I especially want to call your attention to the fact that the small steps can be “brief, amazing movements.” Don’t underestimate the power of minor, subtle, regular breakthroughs.
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
An eager penguin leaped into a tourist boat and stayed onboard for 10 minutes to enjoy the above-water view with the other passengers.
Polar guide John Bozinov was leading a tour through Antarctica’s Ross Sea when a sole chinstrap penguin made a couple of attempts to jump onboard his Zodiac vessel.
The 30-year-old cut off the engine to make it easier for the animal to make the leap, and it finally landing successfully on the side of the boat next to one of the passengers.
The speculation is that the penguin was possibly trying to avoid predators in the water, like leopard seals and killer whales—especially because after he jumped ship, he hopped over to another vessel piloted by John’s colleague Steve Reynolds.
WATCH the moment these travelers will surely never forget…
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Galapagos Islands Floreana Marine Iguana sitting on rocks by Andrew S. Wright
A coalition of groups, including a newly formed organization backed by actor Leonardo DiCaprio, have mobilized $43 million for efforts to restore degraded habitats in the Galápagos Islands, an archipelago renowned for its endemic species and central role in scientists’ understanding of ecology and evolution.
Galapagos Islands Floreana Marine Iguana sitting on rocks by Andrew S. Wright
The Galápagos initiative has three immediate priorities: Helping restore Floreana Island, one of the islands most degraded by human activities in the Galápagos; increasing the population size of the critically endangered pink iguana on Isabela Island; and strengthening protection of the archipelago’s marine reserves, which are critical to the local economy yet have been besieged by foreign fishing fleets in recent years. The initiative involves more than 40 partners, ranging from local NGOs to governments to international organizations, leveraging decades of collective experience working across the archipelago.
To mark the start of the new initiative, DiCaprio is turning control of his social media accounts over Paula A. Castaño, a veterinarian and biologist with Island Conservation who lives in the Galápagos Islands, for the day. DiCaprio has more than 86 million followers across his official Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook accounts.
“When I travelled to the Galápagos Islands, I met with Paula Castaño and other environmental heroes in Ecuador working day in and day out to save one of the most irreplaceable places on the planet. I’m excited to share her team’s work and to support the longstanding effort to protect and restore these iconic islands, alongside the team at Re:wild,” said Leonardo DiCaprio.
One of the groups leading the effort is Re:wild, an organization that was just formed between Global Wildlife Conservation and Leonardo DiCaprio, who is a founding board member of the new entity. The Galápagos initiative is Re:wild’s first project under its new brand, but the group plans to scale up its existing global work, putting renewed emphasis on the concept of rewilding, or restoring species and ecosystems to previous levels of abundance and health.
“Rewilding, a positive reframing for nature conservation, involves holistic solutions to remove barriers and reestablish vibrant wildlife populations and intact, functional, and resilient ecosystems that effectively integrate people,” said Re:wild in a press release. “Re:wild is a movement to build a world in balance with the wild.”
DiCaprio adds, “Re:wild offers a bold vision to amplify and scale the local solutions being led by Indigenous peoples and local communities, nongovernmental organizations, companies, and government agencies, to help increase their impact around the world. The environmental heroes that the planet needs are already here. Now we all must rise to the challenge and join them.”
Galapagos giant tortoise by Andrew Wright
In the case of the Galápagos, the new initiative has focused initially on targeted opportunities. For example, Floreana Island has great potential for restoration after loss of native vegetation and species from land clearing, intentional fire-setting, and the introduction of invasive species in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Galápagos initiative aims to reintroduce 13 species that have gone extinct and help increase the population of the island’s 54 threatened species.
The efforts in Floreana Island would be expanded to other parts of the Galápagos under the initiative, which over the next decade, hopes to restore another two dozen islands, “halt and reverse” the decline of 250 threatened species, and vastly increase the extent of areas under effective protection and management. At the same time, the initiative plans to help bolster the capacity of local and regional conservation and restoration experts as well as support the development of more sustainable and resilient economies for communities in the Galápagos.
Castaño said that lessons from the efforts in the Galápagos could eventually be applied in other geographies to scale impact and reverse biodiversity decline.
“Time is running out for so many species, especially on islands where their small populations are vulnerable and threatened,” Castaño said in a statement. “We know how to prevent these extinctions and restore functional and thriving ecosystems—we have done it—but we need to replicate these successes, innovate and go to scale,”
“We need catalytic investments like the one announced today to replicate our successes in the Galápagos and elsewhere.”
Wes Sechrest, Re:wild chief scientist and CEO, who was formerly in the same roles at Global Wildlife Conservation, echoed Castaño’s sentiments.
“In order to reverse the climate crisis and ecosystem collapse, we need to focus on a ‘technology’ that took billions of years to refine, that is free, and that sustains us every single day: nature, in its most wild form,” said Sechrest in a statement. “Where better to begin than the Galápagos, which, as the first-declared World Heritage Site, is among the most extraordinary wild places on the planet. Re:wild’s work with partners is hope in action–from Darwin’s laboratory to Australia’s wildlands to the Congo forests of Central Africa.”
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Reprinted with permission from World At Large, a news website of nature, politics, science, health, and travel.
Winner of Europe’s Leading Island Destination award for five years running, the Portuguese island of Madeira is looking to capitalize on the rise in numbers of a unique kind of traveler—digital nomads—by building a town entirely specialized for their residency.
While COVID-19 has forced millions of workers into the telecommuting space, when they got there, they found the sphere was already inhabited by Anthony Bourdain-type people who travel year-round and work from their computers.
Realizing this market was goosed by the rise in telecommuting, and that the staggering beauty of the island would be deeply appealing to digital nomads, Madeira has created Digital Nomad Village, a place with fast internet, exclusive hotel property, community events, and a free office space.
It’s situated in tranquil Ponta do Sol on the south coast, with views out to the Atlantic and a short drive from the capital of Funchal. Launched in February, the pilot program for the village will run until the end of June.
“Madeira Islands have the perfect conditions to attract digital nomads with its natural beauty, activities in nature, culture, and fantastic weather conditions throughout the year,” reads the village’s website. “There was an urgent need to create an integrated strategy to attract this market, in order to make Madeira also known as one of the best places in the world to work remotely.”
This concept is being launched in partnership with the Government of Madeira, StartUp Madeira, and acclaimed digital nomad Gonçalo Hall. Hosting up to 100 nomads at any one time, residents must commit to staying for at least a month.
A leading island
Europe’s island travel market is fiercely competitive, with locations such as the Azores and their volcanoes, Sicily with its food and culture, the Greek islands with their long history, and Cyprus all battling for market share every holiday season. Madeira has nevertheless been considered as the best island destination in Europe for years.
On the same latitude as Casablanca, the Portuguese outpost is home to scenery that’s both rugged and gentle—and more like the Caribbean than anywhere else on the continent, with warm seas always close by. The rich volcanic soil, mountainous terrain, and forests covering 20% of the main island serve to cloak much of Madeira in natural beauty.
The forests in Madeira are unlike anything else on Earth. Laurissilva, or Laurel forest, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and an outstanding relict of a previously widespread type of forest that covered much of Southern Europe 15-40 million years ago.
Now ,however, this type of forest, with 79unique species of vascular plant, is found only on the Canary Islands, the Azores, and Madeira.
Madeira was referred to as the “most enviable island on Earth” by author H.N. Coleridge in the 19th century.” Well now, if you’re a digital nomad, you can live and work there today.
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Hope floats. Swans’ nests do not—unless they get a little help from someone determined to make sure their precious cargo has a chance to hatch.
Rob Adamson, who lives and works at Jones Boatyard in St Ives, England has been a longtime spectator to the world’s “unluckiest swans” efforts to become parents.
For a decade, he looked on sadly as the poor birds’ eggs fell prey to poaching foxes and rising waters. This year as the Great Ouse began to flood, he knew he couldn’t stand by and let another clutch perish on his watch.
Rob Adamson
“You’re not supposed to interfere, but it had got to the point where they were all going to die,” Adamson told the BBC. “I couldn’t go to bed knowing that. I knew I would regret it if I didn’t do anything to save them… I needed to make sure they survived.”
During the night, Adamson fashioned a makeshift raft and moored it with a line to the bank. It was well after dark when he gingerly lifted the nest and its occupants—nine eggs and one hissing mama—to safety, all under the wary eye of Papa swan.
As a breed, swans have a reputation for beauty that’s only surpassed by their fierce temper. That neither of the pair attacked Adamson is unusual.
Perhaps the two sensed that he was only trying to help—which would only be keeping in character since Adamson’s affinity for the majestic avians is already well established.
Some years ago, Adamson famously raised an orphaned cygnet named Sid. Although he eventually made the break, when Adamson initially attempted to release Sid into the wild, his adopted offspring refused to go.
Once the story made the rounds, Essex locals fittingly dubbed their neighbor “the Swan Man”—which was fine with Adamson.
For him, being in tune with Mother Nature is what life’s all about. “This is why I am here, living on the water,” he told BBC. I’m in dreamland with all the wildlife… I wouldn’t swap my boat for a £10m house.”
Back on the Ouse, Mama swan has settled in nicely and hopes are that the signets will hatch soon. While Papa swan remains vigilant, to further ensure the family’s safety, Adamson has erected fencing to deter predators.
The swans, it seems, aren’t St Ives’ only residents grateful for Adamson’s nest-saving intervention. “It took us all by surprise when the water levels in the lower marina shot up on Saturday night,” Jones Boatyard posted to Facebook. “A HUGE thank you to Rob who noticed that the water was lapping around the swans’ nest at 9 pm.
“If only the Queen knew what great service he was doing for her feathered friends!”
Hmmm. ‘The Royal Order of Swan Keepers to the Crown’ does have a certain ring to it, and since technically, by law, the majority of Britain’s swans actually belong to the Queen, perhaps an elevation from ‘The Swan Man’ to ‘Sir Swan’ might be in order here?
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The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has just ended what’s been described as a 52-year monopoly on growing cannabis for research purposes.
Several large-scale cannabis growers have now been awarded contracts to produce weed for federal research, a move that will hopefully go a long way towards proving what many state and foreign governments already know: Cannabis has powerful medicinal properties, particularly for pain control.
Award-winning journalist Bruce Williams described the marijuana produced on the 12-acre farm at the National Center for the Development of Natural Products at the University of Mississippi—the only federally approved supplier of cannabis for research purposes in the United States—as “terrible, low-THC “schwag.”
That “schwag” has led to several public relations disasters. In one case, Johns Hopkins University pulled out of a medical cannabis trial because they requested marijuana with at least 12% THC, and couldn’t get it from the federal agency. Scientists at the Scottsdale Research Institute (SRI) involved in the trial, speaking with PBS at the time, said what they did receive was contaminated with mold, and “didn’t look like weed [or] smell like weed.”
Another case saw a Massachusetts-based scientist file a lawsuit against the DEA for not reviewing his application to grow marijuana for a trial for MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) and Tripsitter. It came out that the DEA had received 33 such applications since 2016 that it appeared to have simply shelved.
However on May 14, the DEA quietly announced that it would “soon register additional entities authorized to produce marijuana for research purposes,” and that among those entities would be the SRI—who both received the moldy schwag and who actually played a large role in this change of policy.
A lawsuit, Scottsdale Research vs. DOJ/DEA, brought to light a 2018 memo that suggested the DEA’s Mississippi-monopoly was a violation of federal law, as well as to certain U.S. treaty obligations.
The memo, published by the Office of Legal Council, was kept secret, even in the face of repeated attempts by the legislature to reveal it and discover why, since 2016, the 33 applicants had been repeatedly ignored.
Eventually, SRI’s lawsuit got the U.S. Court of Appeals to order the DEA to respond to why it had not processed SRI’s, or the 32 other applications.
Matthew Zorn, an attorney who co-led the FOIA-based lawsuit, told Leaflythat now scientists will be able to conduct research on the kind of cannabis that people are actually using.
“A lot of people may not appreciate the importance of that, with [national cannabis] legalization around the corner,” he said to Bruce Williams. “We don’t know when, but the need for this research is urgent. We can as quickly as possible start growing and have a supply for researchers to get good data.”
A nifty new Chrome extension uses machine learning to sort products on Amazon by their eco-friendly aspects—allowing consumers to make sustainable choices about paper mill runoff or deforestation without pouring through research on their lunch breaks.
Called Finch, its ranking can be applied to the top 41 product categories on Amazon, where it ranks evaluates thousands of different products.
Browser extensions are becoming as widely utilized and exciting as the App Store was for the first few iPhones. But compared to an iPhone, the operating system of a computer is much more powerful, allowing more creativity in the functioning of these add-ons.
Along with sorting available information on sustainability listed on the Amazon product page itself, Finch also pulls a lot of its rankings from long, industry-specific reports on supply chains, and self-reported data that’s designed to be reviewed by stakeholders and regulators.
Finch founder Lizzie Horvitz explains that nothing scores a perfect ten, but anything above a 6.5—and the product is already having very minimal impact. She also says that sometimes it may be difficult to totally ascertain what’s the most sustainable product, since it can often be determined by how it’s used by the consumer.
“What’s important to us is to show where it falls, given the relationship to the other products out there,” she tells Fast Company.
In terms of growing the small startup, the sky’s the limit. Finch wants to eventually rank all the categories on Amazon before moving on to other large ecommerce platforms, and eventually “any ecommerce site out there.”
There’s currently a waitlist to acquire the browser extension, which isn’t featured on any digital extension marketplaces. You can join the waiting list on their website, and read their blog while you’re at it to learn how to make the most sustainable decisions when faced with near endless choices.
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A research team in Montreal has been busy developing a personalized anti-cancer vaccine that works in mice.
At the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM), Marie-Claude Bourgeois-Daigneault and a team of scientists modify viruses to make them specific to the cells of a tumor.
Once in the patient’s body, these viruses—called oncolytic viruses—infect and specifically destroy the cancer cells without touching healthy cells. These viruses can even stimulate the immune system so that it is better armed to recognize and kill malignant cells. This is what’s known as immunotherapy.
In a study published in Nature, the researchers show how they came to create an effective personalized vaccine by combining oncolytic viruses with small synthetic molecules (peptides) specific to the targeted cancer.
Here, Bourgeois-Daigneault explains her team’s approach and findings.
In your study, you use oncolytic viruses as anti-cancer vaccine adjuvants to immunize mice. How do you do it?
Marie-Claude Bourgeois-Daigneault, CRCHUM
For a vaccine to induce an immune response, it has to contain elements that stimulate the cells of the immune system—the famous white blood cells.
These elements, called adjuvants, are ingredients in all vaccines. They allow the human body to perceive potential danger and contain the threat by sending its army of immune cells.
Our approach consists of using oncolytic viruses to stimulate this immune response and direct it towards the cancer. To succeed, we create a vaccine by mixing viruses with synthetic peptides (antigens) that resemble the targeted cancer.
Because it’s true that, to be effective, the vaccine has to be personalized for each patient, based on the mutations specific to each cancer cell. Thanks to the identification work done by other research teams, we can predict what peptides to use for each patient through the information obtained from a biopsy.
The advantage of our approach is that the oncolytic viruses themselves have the power to kill the cancer. We can thus attack the cancer on two fronts: kill it directly with the virus and induce an immune response, thanks not only to the virus, but to the vaccine as well.
On our mice, we were able to show the efficacy of the resulting immunization.
What sets your vaccine strategy apart from clinical trials currently being conducted by other teams?
The other clinically tested personalized anti-cancer vaccines don’t use oncolytic viruses as vaccination adjuvants. Therefore, their adjuvant doesn’t have direct anti-cancer effects whereas, in our case, our viruses can destroy the cancer.
An anti-cancer vaccine using oncolytic viruses is currently being tested in Canada and the U.S. However, it is not personalized. Instead, it targets certain specific cancers that have an antigen in common. By targeting this antigen, the vaccine induces an immune response.
In this case, the oncolytic viruses have to be genetically modified to allow for the insertion of the antigen into the genome of the viruses.
This is very different from our approach. We can target all cancers without genetic modification. A little like putting together Lego—it’s a matter of mixing synthetic peptides resembling the cancer with the chosen virus. It will be a lot easier to implement in a clinical setting.
What challenges need to be addressed before your personalized anti-cancer vaccination approach can be translated to clinical practice?
The main challenge is to identify the mutations that we want to vaccinate against. Because a cancer is unique in its tens or hundreds of mutations, but only a few of them, once targeted, will have a therapeutic effect and allow us to eliminate it.
