Quote of the Day: “Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of thinking that their price is too high when, in reality, the value communicated is too low.” – Seth Godin
Photo by: Katie Harp
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?
The hummingbird is named after its pleasant humming sound when it hovers in front of flowers to feed. But only now has it become clear how the wing generates the hummingbird’s namesake sound when it is beating rapidly at 40 beats per second.
Researchers from Eindhoven University of Technology, Stanford University, and Sorama meticulously observed hummingbirds using 12 high-speed cameras, six pressure plates, and 2,176 microphones. The team of engineers succeeded in measuring the precise origin of the sound generated by the flapping wings of a flying animal for the first time.
They discovered that the soft and complex feathered wings of hummingbirds generate sound in a fashion similar to how the simpler wings of insect do. The new insights could help make devices like fans and drones quieter.
The hummingbird’s hum originates from the pressure difference between the topside and underside of the wings, which changes both in magnitude and orientation as the wings flap back and forth. These pressure differences over the wing are essential, because they furnish the net aerodynamic force that enables the hummingbird bird to liftoff and hover.
Unlike other species of birds, a hummingbird wing generates a strong upward aerodynamic force during both the downward and upward wing stroke, so twice per wingbeat. Whereas both pressure differences due to the lift and drag force acting on the wing contribute, it turns out that the upward lifting pressure difference is the primary source of the hum.
Professor David Lentink of Stanford University said, “This is the reason why birds and insects make different sounds. Mosquitoes whine, bees buzz, hummingbirds hum, and larger birds ‘woosh’. Most birds are relatively quiet because they generate most of the lift only once during the wingbeat at the downstroke. Hummingbirds and insects are noisier because they do so twice per wingbeat.”
To arrive at their model, the scientists examined six Anna’s hummingbirds, the most common species around Stanford.
One by one, they had the birds drink sugar water from a fake flower in a special flight chamber. Around the chamber, not visible to the bird, cameras, microphones, and pressure sensors were set up to precisely record each wingbeat while hovering in front of the flower.
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During a follow-up experiment, six highly sensitive pressure plates finally managed to record the lift and drag forces generated by the wings as they moved up and down, a first.
The researchers finally managed to condense all their various results in a simple 3D acoustic model, borrowed from the world of airplanes and mathematically adapted to flapping wings. It predicts the sound that flapping wings radiate, not only the hum of the hummingbird, but also the woosh of other birds and bats, the buzzing and whining of insects, and even the noise that robots with flapping wings generate.
Although it was not the focus of this study—published in March in the journal eLife—the knowledge gained may also help improve aircraft and drone rotors as well as laptop and vacuum cleaner fans. The new insights and tools can help make engineered devices that generate complex forces like animals do quieter.
This is exactly what Sorama aims to do: “We make sound visible in order to make appliances quieter. Noise pollution is becoming an ever-greater problem. And a decibel meter alone is not going to solve that. You need to know where the sound comes from and how it is produced, in order to be able to eliminate it. That’s what our sound cameras are for. This hummingbird wing research gives us a completely new and very accurate model as a starting point, so we can do our work even better,” concludes CEO and researcher Rick Scholte of Sorama, a spin-off of Eindhoven University of Technology.
CHECK OUT: Being Around Birds Makes Us Much Happier Says New Science
If the movements of hummingbirds can give us quieter technology in the future? Well, we are absolutely here for it.
(WATCH the researchers’ video all about how hummingbirds hum)
Source: Eindhoven University of Technology
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A new recycling plant under construction in England features technologies that can break down any kind of plastic polymer into its constituent elements for recycling.
According to Forbes, wildlife filmmaker Sir David Attenborough appeared in a video alongside other naturalists and the owners of the new plant that uses superheated steam to obliterate the chemical bonds holding the monomers together.
Owned by Mura Technology, the process is known as HydroPRS, and it’s particularly special due to its ability to break down plastics normally destined for landfills or incineration. It can even remove biological material like food scraps clinging to the plastic, an aspect that can sometimes prevent plastic from being recycled—instead being used to power the boilers fueling the recycling.
What’s left are oils and chemicals ready to be re-sold to manufacturers to make into new products.
“What’s so tragic about plastic pollution is that it is so totally unnecessary,” Attenborough says in the video, released by U.K. recycling firm Mura Technology. “The plastic in our oceans should never have found its way there in the first place.”
Plastic pollution is a huge problem, and there are tons of smart technologies, many of them emerging, for recycling and biodegrading plastic.
Further still, plastic is being pulled out of rivers and the ocean with ever more intelligent designs and committed organizations. Yet the problem is set to get worse for the oceans, as more of the developing world enters the consumption-heavy prosperity and security of modern life.
Mura says the materials produced during their recycling process can be used again and again without ever becoming chemically unstable, and so it’s not surprising then that the British government is backing the project to the hilt as the plant in Teesside, England, ramps up to 1,000,000 tons of plastic recycling annually.
“The Government is committed to both clamping down on the unacceptable plastic waste that harms our environment and ensuring more materials can be reused instead of being thrown away,” said Rebecca Pow, the U.K. under-secretary of state for the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs.
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“By investing in these truly ground-breaking technologies, we will help to drive these efforts even further, and I look forward to seeing them develop and deliver real results.”
(WATCH the video about Mura Technology in the video below.)
Featured image: Plastics, Antoine Giret/David Attenborough, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Australia
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Durable, cheap, and relatively safe, one young architect is utilizing some of India’s 100 million yearly thrown-away tires to design colorful playgrounds for schools that need them.
Operating under the philosophy that play is a child’s right, Anthill Creations, a non-profit run by Pooja Rai, has so far built 283 different play spaces using almost entirely painted tires.
Located in Bengaluru, most of the play spaces Ms. Rai designs feature large tire sculptures of cars, buildings, or animals, paired with more classic elements of swings, seesaws, and jungle gyms.
All of the spaces are built with discarded tires that are collected, cleaned, and inspected for anything that might pose a threat to the kids. Next they are painted, and drilled with holes once or twice to ensure rainwater doesn’t collect inside.
“We live in a world where play, such an essential part of growing up, is now viewed as a luxury and even thought of as unnecessary,” Rai told the Christian Science Monitor.
As India is the world’s only nation that has legislated mandatory charity upon corporations, much of Rai’s work is done through donations, with a small play space costing around $800, and large ones costing up to four-times as much.
The second most populous country on Earth really does go through a lot of tires, and recycling them as playground infrastructure offers the unique chance to teach kids the idea of “reduce, reuse, recycle” long before they become consumers themselves—and a perusal through images of Anthill Creations’ creations reveals all kinds of shapes familiar in bespoke recycling projects.
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Constructing the play spaces, like the funding stage, is all done by volunteers—800 of whom have have so far been involved in building.
The play grounds go up not only in schools, but in public parks and even refugee camps, and they are themed to what children in the area want—whether that’s a specialty space for blind kids, nautical-themed installations for coastal communities, or even a boxing-ring instead of a jungle gym, with tires instead of punching bags.
“It has been a really gratifying and joyful experience to be part of Anthill Creations and to bring smiles and play to thousands of kids,” said Vikas Keshri, a volunteer.
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“We often forget how vulnerable these growing years can be,” Rai told CSM. “The right to play should be considered critical to a child’s cognitive growth, physical, and emotional well-being—we believe that it is indeed a basic human right.”
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In the state of Kerala, known as the Jewel of South India, fishermen are taking it upon themselves to keep it that way and secure their livelihoods against plastic pollution.
Their workers’ association is encouraging fisherman to save all the plastic waste fished up by their nets in order to support a 2017 government clean seas initiative that’s turning plastic into roads.
A sliver of coastal land on the southwest tip of India, Kerala has a thriving fishing community. According to a report from the Hindu, the fishing industry directly employs 55,000 people working on 3,600 boats, and almost a million indirectly, while generating 1.5 billion rupees, or $14 million in revenue.
As plastic content has gradually increased in the fishing waters, the local government took notice, passing a clean seas law known as the Suchitwa Sagaram, which instructed the harbor authority to distribute nylon bags to fishing boats with the request that they save every scrap of plastic that gets caught in their nets.
Once ashore, the plastic, often far too mangled or contaminated for available recycling methods, is shredded into a kind of confetti and mixed with asphalt to make roads. The arithmetic is positive, as it requires the plastic equivalent of a million shopping bags per kilometer of road, while replacing one ton of emissions-heavy asphalt and reducing road costs by about 9%.
The plastic in the roads appears also to give roads resistance to the immense heat of the midday Indian sun.
An April update on the Kerala fishermen’s work from the Guardian details how the project has so far amassed 176,000 pounds (80,000 kilograms) of plastic, of which more than half has gone towards creating 84 miles (135km) of road.
“Previously, we didn’t care much about the plastic we collected in our nets,” Peter Mathias, president of the All Kerala Fishing Boat Operators’ Association, told the Guardian. “But not any more—we’re now protecting the ocean to save our livelihoods. Had we continued to be reckless, there wouldn’t have been any more fish for us to catch.”
The project, which also gives employment to those sorting the trash to sell to roadbuilding companies, is growing in scale up and down the 375 miles of coastline, with dive fisherman reportedly going to government buildings to see if they can get involved. too
Local sources also explain that attitudes are changing in the state towards plastic pollution, and there’s now a sense of pride in these efforts, such that locals try and keep littering tourists in line, and fishermen put stickers on their boats displaying their participation.
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Quote of the Day: “Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.” – Booker T. Washington (born 165 years ago)
Photo by: Levi Guzman
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?
Meet the clever dog that can count to ten, answer questions and even solve addition problems—in English and Japanese.
Monica Elkhalifa taught her six-year-old Shiba Inu new tricks when he became impossible to entertain with just long walks and toys.
Now when shown a number of different flashcards featuring colors, numbers and shapes Akira can choose the one that matches Monica’s question.
With a tap of his paw Akira—who knows more than 90 words—can also do simple addition problems by pointing to the card with the correct answer. (See the video below.)
Akira can even apparently add up the number of drawings on a card, such as three apples—and select the number card which matches—and answer yes/no questions too.
“I just thought it would be fun to teach him a few numbers—just an exercise to keep him busy. I was overjoyed when he learned the number four. After that, he quickly learned five to ten and as he mastered each stage or level, I had to develop new ideas to keep him mentally active and build on the earlier lessons.
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“This included teaching him counting, addition and mixing colors and objects, and the yes and no cards.”
The pair live in Abu Dhabi, UAE, with Monica’s husband and their other dog Miko.
Monica started to train him when he was young with games like finding treats in toys.
“Shiba Inus are very independent and clever. I really felt that he needed something extra apart from his physical exercises,”
“He often looks behind the TV to see where the people or animals are. When he was little he would go under glass tables and look at things on them.”
Five years ago the corporate worker Monica decided to push her pooch’s mind further, but couldn’t find any methods to purchase.
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She made her own flashcards to familiarize Akira with shapes and commands, but admits that at the start she did not know what her pet would be capable of.
Akira started by learning to tap the card on command, then Monica familiarized him with the shape of a number or image by tracing it with her finger and saying it our loud.
Next she said she taught him to count by holding a flashcard with a number on it next to a card with that number of tennis balls on it, and counting them out loud.
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Even though dogs are thought to be largely color blind, Akira has also been trained to recognize different colors.
He now knows nearly 90 words, and when told a sum will point to the numbered card that is the solution, even after the cards are switched over or changed.
Akira trains five times a week in ten minute sessions, and his dog-mum said it is making him calmer and he looks forward to it. The next challenge is to master subtraction.
Monica has called her method The Professor Akira Method: Brain Training for Dogs, and pet owners can train their pets with a set of flashcards and a handful of treats. She sells them using Paypal for £20.00 on her website, ProfessorAkira.com. (We are unsure about where she ships to.)
“It is also such a great way to bond, especially during these challenging times when walks might be fewer.”
WATCH her teaching method below…
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Many people have been mastering their hobbies thanks to the isolation provided by a year of pandemic living.
Six in 10 Americans say they have “leveled up” in one of their hobbies since lockdown began, according to a new poll.
The survey of 2,000 adults found that 60% improved their skills in one or more of their hobbies since the start of the COVID-19 quarantines last March, and that 56% expect to be an “expert” by the time life returns to normal.
And, that includes new hobbies, too. Respondents took up an average of three brand new activities and cited improvements in active pastimes like running or yoga (35%), preparing food (34%) and making art by painting, sketching or drawing (34%).
The survey asked people to use a standardized competency proficiency scale to rank their previous and current skills related to any new hobbies.
The typical respondent said that at the start of quarantine, they would have ranked themselves as a 1—meaning they had a functional awareness or basic knowledge of the activity. Ten months later, the typical respondent now rank themselves as a 3—meaning they have intermediate skills.
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So how do you know you’ve gotten better at something? Of those polled, 48% say they make fewer mistakes or can fix them more easily; 45% said they work more quickly and efficiently; and 45% said they’ve noticed mental improvements, like better memory or focus.
Conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Silhouette America, survey-takers also shared some of their proudest hobby-related accomplishments over the past year, such as knitting a blanket for the first time, mastering a new recipe, or holding a conversation in a foreign language.
“I built a new dresser from scratch for my daughter,” one respondent said. “She wanted a large dresser with some designs carved into the wood to personalize it. I felt it was an accomplishment because she gave me high approval and said it’s exactly what she wanted.”
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25% of those polled even said they’ve been given a prize, award, or money for their hobby since quarantine first began — and 40% think it’s “very” or “extremely likely” that they’ll be able to make money from their hobby once quarantine is over.
“Mastering a new skill or craft feels empowering,” said Silhouette America Marketing Officer Toshiyuki Unaki. “It allows a person to take pride in what they are capable of accomplishing, which can transfer into stronger confidence in other areas of their life. When you can take on learning something new, it feels like you can take on anything.”
Now, over half (57%) of survey respondents are itching to get better at something new, and 51% are inspired to try something they’d previously found intimidating.
CHECK OUT: Taking Up Hobbies Can Prevent—Or Reduce Symptoms of—Depression by One-Third
Overall, the average respondent has spent $165 dollars on their hobbies since nationwide shutdowns first began in March 2020.
However, 42% also bought a tool they weren’t skilled enough yet to use.
“More than ever before, I’ve realized how great it is to have a few good tools that are versatile enough to be used across my various hobbies,” said crafting expert Kelly Wayment. “Something like a digital cutting machine may seem intimidating at first, but the time spent learning how to use it pays off when I can use it for so many different crafts.”
Over half of those polled have bought new tools for their current hobby that they didn’t even know existed before—including knitting looms, pompom makers, resin molds, yarn winders, cutting machines, and more.
TOP TEN MOST IMPROVED HOBBIES
Doing something active (golf, running, yoga) – 35%
Preparing food (baking, cooking) – 34%
Making art (drawing, painting, sketching) – 34%
Fiber arts (knitting, embroidery, sewing) – 28%
Playing an instrument – 28%
Speaking a language – 28%
Scrapbooking or papercraft – 23%
Model or miniature building – 21%
Photography, videography, or editing – 17%
Sculpture or pottery – 17%
Let us know what hobbies you’ve taken up this past year in the comments…
A 5,700 year-old lump of pitch from a tree provided intriguing details to archaeologists about the intimate details of a Stone Age Danish woman—and the ‘chewing gum’ sheds new light on the evolution of our species.
Found on an island known for its mud, the Paleolithic chewing gum has been perfectly preserved, and scientists were able to determine the individual’s skin, hair, and eye color, pathogenic profile, dental health, diet, and more, from the DNA inside.
3,700 years before the Biblical story of Jesus, a woman with dark skin, dark hair, and blue eyes lived around a place in Denmark called Syltholm, on the island of Lolland, and was chewing on a 1 centimeter long piece of birch pitch before spitting it out on the ground, as so many have done since.
There it became encased in mud for millennia until scientists managed to somehow identify, preserve, and study it.
In the pitch, researchers were able to collect her entire genome, as well as those of other species that had inhabited her mouth. She was lactose intolerant, seemed to prefer wild food to agricultural grains staples, and carried a viral infection many of us have today.
“It is amazing to have gotten a complete ancient human genome from anything other than bone,’’ says Associate Professor Hannes Schroeder from the Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen, who led the research.
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“What is more, we also retrieved DNA from oral microbes and several important human pathogens, which makes this a very valuable source of ancient DNA, especially for time periods where we have no human remains,” he adds.
This individual, named “Lola” after the name of the island on which the gum was found, had dark skin, suggesting the adaptive lighter skin of northern Europeans evolved much later on. She could have been chewing on the gum, made by rendering down birch bark, for a number of reasons.
As the principle Stone Age adhesive agent, resin of a variety of trees becomes more pliable the more it’s heated, and chewing it could have been a way to keep it pliable as it became cooler after heating.
There’s also the possibility that its antiseptic properties led her to chew it to relieve dental pain, or she could have simply enjoyed the monotonous gnawing that brings many of us to chew gum today.
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The gum contained viral DNA of the Epstein-Barr virus, which infects 90% of humans today. The DNA of mallard duck and hazelnuts, likely the meal Lola last enjoyed, were also encased in the pitch.
“Syltholm is completely unique. Almost everything is sealed in mud, which means that the preservation of organic remains is absolutely phenomenal,” says Theis Jensen, Postdoc at the Globe Institute, who worked on the study for his PhD and also participated in the excavations at Syltholm.
“It is the biggest Stone Age site in Denmark and the archaeological finds suggest that the people who occupied the site were heavily exploiting wild resources well into the Neolithic, which is the period when farming and domesticated animals were first introduced into southern Scandinavia,” he adds.
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Lola lived at a time when hunter-gatherers and agriculturalists lived in the same areas— something that wasn’t always considered probable. Her taste for mallard and hazelnut, while other Paleo-Danes were eating crops, further reinforces this theory, as does her inability to tolerate lactose, generally seen in northern Europeans after the domestication of animals.
Next time you see a piece of gum in a ditch, think of Lola—and perhaps in another five thousands years scientists will be able to parse out the characteristics of our modern time.
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When Marjy Stagmeier was 11 years old, she was the Monopoly champion of her 6th grade class in Atlanta Georgia—and she knew right then that she wanted to be landlord when she grew up—and what a compassionate landlord she became.
After graduating from Georgia State University, she started investing in old affordable apartment communities and quickly realized that many of her renter families were low-income single parents who needed services like after-school programs and playgrounds for their communities.
In response to the demand for social services, Marjy launched her own 501c3 nonprofit that provides free on-site services to families living in affordable apartments communities—and Star-C has since become a Godsend for families.
“Many children have come through the Star-C after-school program, who are now doctors, plumbers, and school-teachers, earning good wages that moved them out of poverty,” she told GNN. “Almost 100 families have elevated from renting to home ownership because we kept rents low so families can save their money.”
A chance meeting in 2017 with Bill and Melinda Gates—and Mathew Desmond, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning book Evicted—opened her eyes: Even with her rents below market, some of the tenants struggled to pay rent, so she began to build an informal resource network for families to get rental assistance.
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After COVID-19 struck in March 2020, many of Marjy’s tenants were laid off from their jobs or had to manage multiple children that were suddenly at home during the day, which made the need even greater.
So, in April, Star-C launched an ambitious $50,000 GoFundMe campaign for eviction relief—and the response completely shocked Marjy—when they raised nearly $50,000.
Adding icing to the cake, the local municipal government of Cobb County found out about the Star-C Eviction Relief Fund and quickly voted to donate $1.5 million of their federal stimulus funding. Other municipalities, like Fulton County, followed, and Star-C has now raised over $9 million from governments and foundations, giving the ability to help over 3,000 families avoid eviction.
Marjy’s staff has spoken personally with thousands of Atlanta families through their hotline, and has, so far, partnered with over 330 landlords representing 65,000 apartment units.
“The eviction relief fund works with landlords who offer affordable rents for low-income families,” says Marjy. “Our landlords know their neediest tenants and assists them with their applications.”
The Star-C program has been a game-changer not only for tenants but landlords who have struggled as well.
“So many of our tenants and landlords are simply grateful. Our Star-C staff often receives thank you notes and calls from families who have now found work and can pay their rent.”
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And more good news came with the 2021 federal relief package, which has provided another $4.1 million so they can give even more assistance.
“If tenants and their children are stable in their community, it is a win-win for everyone, including the tenant, child, landlord, and local school.”
You can help by donating to Marjy’s nonprofit here or volunteer at their website.
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Quote of the Day: “To become a master of desire, keep talking yourself out of being attached to trivial goals and keep talking yourself into being thrilled about the precious few goals that are really important.” – Rob Brezsny
Photo by: Becca Tapert
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?
A patient with a genetic form of childhood blindness gained vision, which lasted more than a year, after receiving a single injection of an experimental RNA therapy into the eye.
The gene editing research was conducted at the Perelman School of Medicine in the University of Pennsylvania. Results of the case, detailed in a paper published April 1 in Nature Medicine, show that the treatment led to marked changes at the fovea, the most important point of human central vision.
In the international clinical trial, participants received an intraocular injection of an antisense oligonucleotide called sepofarsen. This short RNA molecule works by increasing normal CEP290 protein levels in the eye’s photoreceptors and improving retinal function under day vision conditions.
The treatment was designed for patients diagnosed with Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA) — an eye disorder that primarily affects the retina — who have a CEP290 mutation, which is one of the more commonly implicated genes in patients with the disease. Patients with this form of LCA suffer from severe visual impairment, typically beginning in infancy.
“Our results set a new standard of what biological improvements are possible,” said co-lead author Artur Cideciyan, PhD, a research professor of Ophthalmology at Penn Medicine’s Scheie Eye Institute. “Importantly, we established a comparator for currently-ongoing gene editing therapies for the same disease, which will allow comparison of the relative merits of two different interventions.”
In a 2019 study published in Nature Medicine, Cideciyan and collaborators including Dr. Samuel G. Jacobson, found that injections of sepofarsen repeated every three months resulted in continued vision gains in 10 patients.
The eleventh patient, whose treatment was detailed in the latest paper, received only one injection and was examined over a 15-month period. Prior to treatment, the patient had reduced visual acuity, small visual fields, and no night vision. After the initial dose, the patient decided to forgo the quarterly maintenance doses, because the regular dosing could lead to cataracts.
After a single injection of sepofarsen, more than a dozen measurements of visual function and retinal structure showed large improvements supporting a biological effect from the treatment. A key finding from the case was that this biological effect was relatively slow in uptake. The researchers saw vision improvement after one month, but the patient’s vision reached a peak effect after month two. Most striking, the improvements remained when tested over 15 months after the first and only injection.
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According to the researchers, the extended durability of vision improvement was unexpected and provides implications for treating other ciliopathies — the name of the large category of diseases associated with genetic mutations encoding defective proteins, which results in the abnormal function of cilia, a protruding sensory organelle found on cells.
“This work represents a really exciting direction for RNA antisense therapy. It’s been 30 years since there were new drugs using RNA antisense oligonucleotides, even though everybody realized that there was great promise for these treatments,” said Jacobson. “The unexpected stability of the ciliary transition zone noted in the patient prompts reconsideration of dosing schedules for sepofarsen, as well as other cilium-targeted therapies.”
One reason why antisense oligonucleotide has proven successful in treating this rare disease, according to the researchers, is that these tiny RNA molecules are small enough to get into the cell nucleus, but are not cleared very quickly, so they remain long enough to do their work.
For future studies, the Penn authors are planning gene-specific therapies for other currently incurable blinding inherited retinal disorders.
Source: Penn Medicine
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Our partner Rob Brezsny provides his weekly wisdom to enlighten our thinking and motivate our mood. Rob’s Free Will Astrology, is a syndicated weekly column appearing in over a hundred publications. He is also the author of Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How All of Creation Is Conspiring To Shower You with Blessings. (A free preview of the book is available here.)
Here is your weekly horoscope…
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY – Week beginning April 1, 2021
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
Playwright August Strindberg (1849–1912) was a maverick innovator who loved to experiment with plot and language. One of his stories takes place in a dream and the hero is the Christ-like daughter of a Vedic god. He once said that he felt “an immense need to become a savage and create a new world.” Given your current astrological potentials, Aries, I suspect that might be an apt motto for you right now. APRIL FOOL! I half-lied. There’s no need for you to become a savage. In fact, it’s better if you don’t. But the coming weeks will definitely be a good time to create a new world.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
Who says all Tauruses are dependable, gentle, risk-avoidant, sensible, and reliable? Taurus author Mary MacLane (1861–1929), known as the “Wild Woman of Butte, Montana,” authored shocking, scandalous books. In I Await the Devil’s Coming, she testified, “I am not good. I am not virtuous. I am not generous. I am merely a creature of intense passionate feeling. I feel—everything. It is my genius. It burns me like fire.” Can I convince you, Taurus, to make her your role model for the coming weeks? APRIL FOOL! I don’t think you should be EXACTLY like MacLane. Please leave out the part about “I am not good. I am not virtuous. I am not generous,” as well as the “I await the devil’s coming” part. But yes, do be a creature of intensely passionate feeling. Let your feelings be your genius, burning in you like a fire.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
Poet Emily Dickinson had a good sense of humor, so she was probably making a wry joke when she wrote, “The lovely flowers embarrass me. They make me regret I am not a bee.” But who knows? Maybe Emily was being a bit sincere, too. In any case, I advise you to make a list of all the things you regret not being—all the qualities and assets you wish you had, but don’t. It’s a favorable time to wallow in remorse. APRIL FOOL! I was totally lying! In fact, I hope you will do the reverse: Engage in an orgy of self-appreciation, celebrating yourself for being exactly who you are.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
Provocation specialist Lydia Lunch is a singer and poet who’s skilled at generating interesting mischief. She testifies, “My daily existence is a battlecade of extreme fluctuations where chaos clobbers apathy, which beats the s— out of depression which follows irritability which slams into anger which eclipses ecstasy which slips through my fingers far too often.” In the coming weeks, Cancerian, I recommend you adopt her melodramatic approach to living the intense life. APRIL FOOL! I lied. Please don’t be like Lydia Lunch in the near future. On the contrary: Cultivate regal elegance, sovereign poise, and dynamic equanimity.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
In 1692, a Swedish man named Thiess of Kaltenbrun was put on trial for being a werewolf. He claimed to be a noble werewolf, however. He said he regularly went down to Hell to do holy combat against the Devil. I suggest you make him your inspirational role model in the coming weeks. Be as weird as you need to be in order to fight for what’s good and right. APRIL FOOL! I half-lied. What I really meant to say was: Be as weird as you need to be, but without turning into a werewolf, zombie, vampire, goblin, or other supernatural monster.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
“I want to hear raucous music, to brush against bodies, to drink fiery Benedictine,” wrote author Anais Nin. “Beautiful women and handsome men arouse fierce desires in me. I want to dance. I want drugs. I want to know perverse people, to be intimate with them. I want to bite into life, and to be torn by it.” All that sounds like perfect counsel for you to consider right now, dear Virgo! APRIL FOOL! I lied. Nin’s exuberant testimony might be an interesting perspective to flirt with—but I must, instead, suggest that you find ways to express this lively, unruly energy in safe and sublimated ways.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
Here are affirmations that will serve you well in the coming days. 1. “I am willing to make mistakes if someone else is willing to learn from them.” 2. “I am grateful that I’m not as judgmental as all the shortsighted, self-righteous people.” 3. “I assume full responsibility for my actions, except those that are someone else’s fault.” 4. “A good scapegoat is as welcome as a solution to the problem.” APRIL FOOL! All the preceding affirmations are total bunk! Don’t you dare use them. Use these instead: 1. “I enjoy taking responsibility for my actions.” 2. “Rather than indulging in the reflex to blame, I turn my attention to fixing the problem.” 3. “No one can make me feel something I don’t want to feel.” 4. “I’m free from believing in the images people have of me.”
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
According to author Kahlil Gibran, “If we were all to sit in a circle and confess our sins, we would laugh at each other for lack of originality.” But I challenge you Scorpios to refute that theory in the coming days. For the sake of your sanity and health, you need to commit highly original sins—the more, the better. APRIL FOOL! I lied. Save your novel, imaginative sinning for later. The truth is that now is an excellent time to explore the joyous and healthy practice of being extremely virtuous. Imitate author Susan Sontag: “My idolatry: I’ve lusted after goodness. Wanting it here, now, absolutely, increasingly.”
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
The coming months would be a great time to start your own university and then award yourself a PhD in Drugless Healing or Mathematical Reincarnation or Political Metaphysics—or any other subject you’d like to be considered an expert in. Hey, why not give yourself three PhDs and call yourself a Professor Emeritus? APRIL FOOL! I’m just joking. The coming months will indeed be an extremely favorable time to advance your education, but with real learning, not fake credentials.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
After his Nirvana bandmate Kurt Cobain committed suicide, Capricorn drummer Dave Grohl was depressed for months. To cheer himself up, he wrote and recorded an album’s worth of songs, playing almost all the instruments himself: drums, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass, and vocals. I think you should try a similar spectacularly heroic solo task in the coming weeks. APRIL FOOL! I lied. Here’s my true and actual advice: Now is a time when you should gather all the support and help and cooperation you can possibly garner for a beloved project.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Argentine poet Alejandra Pizarnik told her psychoanalyst León Ostrov that if she were going to steal something, it would be “the façade of a certain collapsed house in a little town called Fontenay-aux-Roses [near Paris].” What was so special about this façade? Its windows were made of “magical” lilac-colored glass that was “like a beautiful dream.” In accordance with astrological omens, I invite you, too, to decide what marvel you would steal—and then go steal it! APRIL FOOL! I half-lied. Yes, definitely decide what you would steal—it’s important to give your imagination permission to be outrageous—but don’t actually steal it.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
I’ve never understood the appeal of singer-songwriter Morrissey. However, I want to recommend that you adopt the attitude he once expressed in a letter to a friend. “It was a terrible blow to hear that you actually worked,” he wrote. “It’s so old-fashioned to work. I’d much rather lounge about the house all day looking fascinating.” Be like that in the coming weeks, Pisces! APRIL FOOL! I lied. In fact, you’d be making a silly mistake to lie around the house looking fascinating. It’s a highly favorable time for you to find ways to work harder and smarter.
WANT MORE? Listen to Rob’s EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES, 4-5 minute meditations on the current state of your destiny — or subscribe to his unique daily text message service at: RealAstrology.com
(Zodiac images by Numerologysign.com, CC license)
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Fresh out of their winter den, this mama black bear in Connecticut had her paws full—trying to get all four cubs across the road as cars piled up in both directions.
25 miles northwest of Hartford, the state capital, a driver in the city of Winsted had a front row seat to the amusing scene unfolding.
Four cubs is a lot for a bear, an animal that usually has to manage caring for only two or three.
The adorable video, shot on March 27, depicts the difficulty she had, with the fourth cub refusing to cross, and trying to climb a utility pole instead.
The police from nearby Winchester were called to the scene, but drivers were waiting patiently for the bear to get her brood safely to the other side.
She BEAR-LY made it across! Watch the video below…
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A new study suggests that empathy training for parole and probation officers helps deter their clients from reoffending.
Heavy caseloads, job stress, and biases can negatively affect relations between these officers and their clients, leading to the likelihood of offenders landing back behind bars.
A positive psychology intervention developed by UC Berkeley suggests that nonjudgmental empathy training helps court-appointed supervision officers feel more emotionally connected to their clients, which, the new study shows, might deter them from criminal backsliding.
The findings, published last month in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show, on average, a 13% decrease in recidivism among the clients of parole and probation officers who participated in the empathy training experiment.
“If an officer received this empathic training, real-world behavioral outcomes changed for the people they supervised, who, in turn, were less likely to go back to jail,” said study lead and senior author Jason Okonofua, an assistant professor of psychology at UC Berkeley.
The results are particularly salient because the U.S. criminal justice system has among the highest rates of recidivism, with approximately 66% of incarcerated people rearrested within three years of their release, with one-half being sent back behind bars.
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Okonofua, who has led similar interventions for school teachers to check their biases before disciplining students, points out that “ongoing criminal justice reforms are diverting more people away from incarceration and toward probation or parole, which is why we need to develop scalable ways to keep pace with this change.”
At the invitation of a correctional department in a large East Coast city, Okonofua and graduate students in his lab at UC Berkeley sought to find out if a more caring approach on the part of court-appointed supervision officers would reverse trends in recidivism.
For the study, the researchers surveyed more than 200 parole and probation officers who oversee more than 20,000 people convicted of crimes ranging from violent crimes to petty theft. They make sure their clients don’t miss a drug test or court hearing, and provide resources to help them stay out of trouble and out of jail.
The researchers designed and administered a 30-minute online empathy survey that focused on the officers’ job motivation, biases, and views on relationships and responsibilities.
To trigger their sense of purpose and values, and tap into their empathy, the UC Berkeley survey asked what parts of the work they found fulfilling. One respondent talked about how, “When I run across those guys, and they’re doing well, I’m like, ‘Awesome!’” Others reported that being an advocate for people in need was most important to them.
As for addressing biases — including assumptions that certain people are predisposed to a life of crime — the survey cited egregious cases in which probation and parole officers abused their power over those under their supervision.
LOOK: Bob Ross’s Legacy is Helping Inmates Plant ‘Happy Little Trees’ Throughout State Parks
Survey takers were also asked to rate how much responsibility they bear, as officers and members of a profession, for their peers’ transgressions. Most answered that they bore no responsibility.
Ten months after administering the training, researchers found a 13% decrease in recidivism among the offenders whose parole and probation officers had completed the empathy survey. Research protocols bar identifying the agency and its location.
While the study yielded no specifics on what prevented the parolees and people on probation for reoffending in the period following the officers’ empathy training, the results suggest that a change in relationship dynamics played a key role.
“The officer is in a position of power to influence if it’s going to be an empathic or punitive relationship in ways that the person on parole or probation is not,” Okonofua said. “As our study shows, the relationship between probation and parole officers and the people they supervise plays a pivotal role and can lead to positive outcomes, if efforts to be more understanding are taken into consideration.
Source: Yasmin Anwar/UC Berkeley
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Quote of the Day: “April is the kindest month. April gets you out of your head and out working in the garden.” – Marty Rubin
Photo by: Jez Timms
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?
How can a megacity find water for 10 million people if it exists in the desert? Fog-catching nets, erected on hills over the city of Lima could solve the city’s water shortages for good.
A twenty-meter high (60 feet) tower of spiraling nets will be unveiled this summer in the city as a solution to the threat which a warming climate poses to the shaky foundations of water availability in Lima.
Aside from glacial runoff from the Andes, and water from the stressed Rímac River, Peru’s capital city accumulates just one inch of rain a year. The city sees high annual temperatures, and water consumption rates, despite being located in a desert, are higher than world averages.
However, a unique feature of Lima’s weather offers a way of relieving some of this demand. Situated on the coast, Lima’s surrounding hills are constantly bathed in waves of fog coming off the Pacific Ocean, and the moisture captured by plants ensures they stay green year-round.
Inspired by rudimentary, two-dimensional fog nets installed by rural communities across the continent, Alberto Fernandez, a Chilean designer currently studying for a Ph.D. from University College London, wanted to extrapolate the technology to its most sophisticated conclusion, because while the nets had major flaws, their basic principles were brilliant.
The towers and fog-catching nets unveiled by Fernandez are made of aluminum wrapped in copper mesh covered in plastic, and could create as much as 1,000 liters of water per day, amounting to 3.6 million liters per year, if enough are installed.
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Their towering structure allows them to get into the clouds, collecting more vital water vapor, and their spiral shape means that no matter the direction of the wind, the moisture-rich fog will strike some part of the structure directly.
The water will largely be used for agriculture—as the water would require filtering before consumption—helping free up resources for city-dwellers.
Cheaper than seawater desalination or filtering water from the Rímac, the towers and nets, which Fernandez says could be built up to 200 meters high, are part of a myriad of designs for the Lima 2035 project.
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It aims at reversing current desertification trends to create a re-generative oasis for sustainable and human-centered food systems that promote healthy diets and improved incomes in the driest megacity on Earth.
(WATCH the video about fog-catching towers below.)
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After more than 10 years of cruise ships plowing through Venice’s historic Giudecca Canal, they’ve been permanently banned.
Italian Cultural Minister Dario Franceschini announced the news on Wednesday, stating it was in response to a request from UNESCO, and described it as “a correct decision, awaited for years.”
After a 2019 collision between one of these floating cities and a Venetian harbor left five people injured, pressure mounted to ban cruise ships from stopping in the Italian city. They will now have to dock at the industrial port until a new solution can be found.
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Scientists and civil servants have argued that the wake from the huge vessels, which can legally enter as long as they weigh less than 96,000 tones, have eroded the foundations of the city—which suffers regularly from flooding.
The Giudecca Canal goes right past the iconic Saint Mark’s Square, or Piazza San Marco: seat of the Duchy of Venice when it was the most prosperous merchant republic in the world, as well as the jaw-dropping Basilica di San Marco.
Cruise ships have not been able to enter Venice since the outbreak of COVID-19, and it seems the 2019 tourist season was the last to feature them, at least until a permanent alternative port can be found—a topic for which the government plans to hold a “call for ideas.”
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The world is full of everyday heroes. People behind the scenes who go out of their way to make life better for all of us. Sometimes, they’re recognized; oftentimes they’re not.
When Raymond Brown, head custodian at Edenton’s White Oak Elementary didn’t take home the North Carolina School Hero Award he’d been nominated for last year, an entire community—led by one determined mom—got together to let him know just how much they appreciated him.
“He’s kind of our rock, our foundation of what we do here,” White Oak principal Michelle Newsome told WRAL. “Probably what makes Mr. Brown the most special is he works really hard to build relationships with the students.”
No one knows that better than Adrian Wood, whose son Amos has formed a special bond with Brown. Amos has autism, which can make finding friends among his peers a challenge. He and Brown, however, encountered no such obstacle.
“He got attached to me and I got attached to him, so I gave him the name Famous Amos,” Brown told WRAL.
When the kids at his school realized there was something special going on between the 7-year-old and the school’s favorite grownup, it helped them see Amos in a way they hadn’t before.
“[Mr. Brown] welcomed my son,” Wood told WITN. “And when the most popular man in school gives you a nice nickname, it draws other children in. All the kids started talking to him. Even now, if you walk down the hall, you’ll hear children say, ‘There’s Famous Amos! Hey, Famous Amos!’ And as a mom of a child with a disability, there’s nothing more I want in the world to include him.”
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With her other two children, Wood went through the usual school-related worries, but having a child with special needs was another experience entirely. “Sending Amos to school was such a different path,” she told TODAY. “He was 3 when he started school. He was in diapers and he didn’t speak. But after Mr. Brown started saying hello to him and calling him Famous Amos,’ Amos started saying, ‘Hey Brown,’ when he saw him. He wasn’t even saying ‘Daddy,’ at that point, so it was really something.”
Wood admits to crying tears of frustration when she learned Brown was passed over for the NC Heroes Award, but rather than admit defeat, she decided to find another means of honoring him.
Wood used her Facebook blog, Tales of an Educated Debutante, as a platform to, as she saw it, right a wrong. Within a week, she’d raised $35,000 from nearly 2,000 people from around the globe and had a plan in the works to shower Brown with the kudos he deserved.
On March 20, in a surprise ceremony that coincided with Brown and his wife’s 38th wedding anniversary, the Browns’ grown children along with hundreds of well-wishers—including Edenton’s mayor, the chief of police, and Miss North Carolina—were on hand to sing their beloved custodian’s praises and present him with a $35,000 honorarium dubbed “The Famous Amos Award.”
“I just hope that people will look around and see…it’s not hard to do—it’s not hard to be kind and it’s not hard to recognize kindness,” Wood told WITN.
And so it’s fitting that the most precious accolade for the small-town hero came from Amos himself, who simply said, “I love you, Mr. Brown.”
(WATCH the WRAL video for this story below.)
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North Carolina-based writer Judy Cole has a new rom-com murder mystery debuting on Amazon: And Jilly Came Tumbling After (from Red Sky Presents).
The amazing lives of two rescued street dogs who travel with their owner on trips around Europe have been captured in a series of stunning photographs.
Finn and Yuri were plucked from the streets of Romania by photographer Anne Geier where they faced being abused or put down in a shelter.
Now Anne and her two doggy companions enjoy traveling to some of Europe’s most spectacular beauty spots in her VW T4 camper van.
In her latest adventure with her two loyal canine companions, Anne spent two weeks touring the mountains and fjords of Norway and documenting their trip with her camera.
The result is a stunning series of beautifully crafted portraits.
In the photos, you can see the two dogs in a landscape of crystal clear lakes, snow-bound mountain peaks, and foggy forests.
Anne, who lives in Tauplitz in Austria, said of van life with her best friends: “It’s perfect, we can go wherever we want and whenever we want… [and] I think moving from hotel to hotel every few days would be too stressful.
She said that, as a group, they have been to South Tirol, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany—and of course all around Austria as well as Norway.
Finn, a fox-terrier and Labrador cross, was adopted by Anne in 2014 and was joined by Yuri—an Australian cattle dog/border collie cross—in 2017.
Together, they make the perfect companions for each other, don’t you think?
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