Quote of the Day: “Every time you tear a leaf off a calendar, you present a new place for new ideas.” – Charles Kettering
Photo by: Brooke Lark
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 dedicated wildlife photographer has used lockdown to catalogue the parade of beautiful birds visiting his garden—and has snapped all of the pictures through the kitchen window.
Cancer survivor Andrew Fusek Peters, who remained isolated throughout most of the pandemic, forced himself to adapt by working with subjects closer to home who were already socially distant.
The 55-year-old used his double-glazed kitchen window as a makeshift hide to capture stellar images of wild birds outside his Shropshire garden.
In the last week alone, according to SWNS, he has managed to photograph goldfinches fighting each other midair as well as redpolls, nuthatches, and blue and long tailed tits taking flight.
He spent several hours every day camped in his kitchen while drinking tea to complete the project he has called, “The secret life of birds in lockdown.”
Andrew, of Lydbury North, used an Olympus EM Mark III camera with a zoom lens and shot the birds at 60 frames per second.
He said: “I’ve been carrying on this garden bird project through lockdown and these have worked out really, really well.
“Usually I’d have gone away to Scotland and the Shetlands but instead I’ve managed to showcase this amazing wildlife in our garden.
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“The garden has great light but I need the sun to be at the perfect level at a certain time, and have the ideal weather conditions.
“The sun can’t be shining at the window or the glare makes it impossible. There is only a small window of opportunity really.
“The bird needs to take off and fly past the exact same place for it to come off.
“Because I’m behind the double glazed glass I have to clean the windows inside and out daily to get the shot as sharp as possible.
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“The birds are so fast you are photographing like crazy. The six or seven shots I’ve managed to get are about a one in five thousand chance.
“You have to understand the behavior of the birds, which are all different.
“I think these are some of the best shots I’ve done,” he said of the goldfinches fighting.
“They look ferocious with their claws up and the look in their eyes is so intense. Their colurs are beautiful.
“It’s quite magical to see such a variety of wildlife in your back garden. It shows how beauty is all around us, if you look closely enough.”
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An excerpt from the book Thriving Through Uncertainty: Moving Beyond Fear of the Unknown and Making Change Work for You (TarcherPerigree-Penguin-Randomhouse),
by Tama Kieves
I was talking to one of my coaching clients who reported not being able to stay with a Zen meditation practice—so she gave up meditating altogether. “I’m either gung-ho all the way or I don’t show up at all,” she said with self-disgust.
We were discussing this on one of the unfortunate evenings when she “hadn’t shown up at all.” To listen to her, you would have thought that she had just murdered the family’s cocker spaniel. Clearly, she needed self-forgiveness more than self-discipline.
I understand the desire to make changes in your life. I am a believer in enthusiasm. I also believe in commitment. But I’m more of a fan of incremental, organic natural commitment.
I dare you to break promises to yourself and I dare you to make fresh new ones. This is what it takes to be on the courageous path of learning to reinvent, hunt down your bare heart, and discover and trust yourself.
You are here to follow an unpredictable light wherever it leads, not to wrangle unfathomable power into a silly, stupid box. This isn’t rationalization. It’s strategy. Because a realistic and sustainable path doesn’t come from obligation or hostility. If you want something to go the distance, it needs to come from love.
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Commitment is bold and wondrous. Still, let your intention breathe instead of suffocate you. You’re learning how to commit from something deeper than willfulness. I’ll call it willingness. This willingness arises from an inner summons. Authentic success springs forth from irrepressible desire, not impatience.
“I never follow through,” says Sandra, on one of our afternoon calls. I know this isn’t true. She is a bright, passionate woman who has raised children, which if you ask me, is quite the follow through. In fact, she’s still feeding them, last I heard. “I get it. You’ve got to stare resistance down sometimes,” I said. “But honey, believe me when I tell you, that rigidity will create more problems than it solves.”
It’s not wise to stay true to a faded goal. Stay committed to the gold. Your inner voice is the gold. You don’t have to believe me, just because I get paid good money as a coach who kind of turns the term “accountability” on its head. Ralph Waldo Emerson, leading the Transcendentalist movement in the mid 19th century said it even more flagrantly: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” Don’t worry. Your inner wisdom is never going to ask you to abandon your integrity. It may ask you to abandon your hobgoblins. Or give yourself elbow room and wingspan.
Flexibility doesn’t mean you have a problem with commitment. It may indicate adaptivity, which is sounds so much sexier than being erratic.
For example, I’ve worked with many high-powered successful individuals who don’t “follow through,’ because while something might be a great idea, it’s not an idea that sets its fangs into their jugular. It’s just a good idea. They have lots of great ideas, popcorn coming out of their ears. And it’s not right for them to make a good idea the only opportunity right now. It takes emotional honesty to explore and stay true to your instincts. It takes enormous courage to not follow through.
Maybe you think you’re just a quitter? I’ve met many intelligent authenticity seekers who refuse to settle. They had the need to keep moving on. It wasn’t because they were flighty, but because they had already taken flight. If you’ve grown, you move on. That’s called maturing. If you move on to the 8th grade, have you “quit” 7th grade? No, you’re not quitting; You’re evolving. And growth sheds its baby teeth.
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There’s also a divine timing to things, when things just work out themselves. My partner Paul tried to get sober three times before he got sober for life, or at least for two decades, and counting. It wasn’t a mistake for him to try to get sober. It wasn’t a failure to take a run at it, even though he didn’t follow through. It’s never wrong to move towards health. You can’t force yourself to be ready. But you can keep taking steps in the right direction as often as is possible.
The dream-basher in you pushes you into airtight commitments. But real change is about breathing, coming in and going out. Daring to live the authentic life that calls you is a path of invitation, not obligation. If it’s right for you to make a deeper commitment to something, you will move into this grace. But you will make it in your own time and not a second before or afterwards.
The Persian mystic poet Rumi, the absurdly free and expansive spirit, writes “Come, come whoever you are, wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving… Come, even if you have broken your vow a hundred times. Come, come again.”
The wisdom path of A Course in Miracles echoes this philosophy by telling us to “choose once again,” whenever we have made a choice that has felt painful. It doesn’t say crucify yourself, throw in the towel, and, by all means, go ahead and create your identity out of all that hasn’t worked out yet. No, it instructs us to save time. Just begin again.
Choose the new behavior or belief now. Give birth to a different experience this very minute. This kind of freedom isn’t irresponsible. It’s the ultimate responsibility. You have a mandate in this lifetime to give yourself every chance to be healthy and true.
If you are trying to lose weight, don’t agitate over your failure of will on the third day of your program. Celebrate the first two days of motivation. Only the wins count—if you want to win. In 12 Step Program lingo, “It’s all about progress, not perfection.”
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I know the sticklers will tell you that taking one exercise class or spending one hour with your camera won’t help, but I disagree. Every act of love for yourself– makes a difference.
That one time can boost your self-esteem, help reveal the heavens, stretch a muscle, or send a rush of dopamine to your brain, which believe me, will increase the likelihood that you’ll return.
Go ahead, stumble into grace. Start and stop a million times. Get there late and leave early. Whatever it takes. So, what, if some think you look spasmodic? You are an extraordinary truth-seeker, an inspired explorer, or as Rumi says a traveler on “a caravan of joy.” And that works just fine, because you’re moving in the right direction.
Tama Kieves, an honors graduate of Harvard Law School, left her law practice to write and help others create their most extraordinary lives. She is the bestselling author of 4 books including A Year Without Fear: 365 Days of Magnificence and her latest Thriving Through Uncertainty. A sought-after speaker and career/success coach, she has helped thousands to thrive in their life, calling, and businesses. Sign up for your FREE digital fortune cookies and a free copy of her popular webinar Dare to Decide at www.tamakieves.com/dare.
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New Yorkers were treated to a once in a lifetime visit from a snowy owl, a species that hadn’t been seen in Central Park in over a century.
The white raptor wasn’t as well camouflaged as it is at home in the Arctic, which is its normal summer home. The species migrates south in search of food in the Winter, but no one expected to see the bright white feathers on a baseball field with the Manhattan skyline in the background.
David Barrett, who runs a popular Twitter page, Manhattan Bird Alert, was the first to report the sighting, calling it “perhaps the first-ever documented record of this species in the park.”
His tweet on January 27 alerted a throng of birders who stayed behind a fence to give the majestic predator plenty of space.
“Yesterday’s snow and cold to our north likely encouraged this SNOWY OWL to fly south in search of better hunting conditions,” Barrett says.
“These owls like flat lands and beaches, so the Central Park North Meadow, flat and with sand-filled fields, might have appealed.”
Snowy Owl was the center of attention today in Central Park and ready to play ball.. ⚾️ Thanks @BirdCentralPark for the alerts. #birdcp #WildlifeWednesday #birding Big thanks @gigi_nyc for messaging me and @VenusNabs pic.twitter.com/p42QG7ve1d
— RosEspinosa Quinto (@mitzgami) January 28, 2021
The appearance is not due to the pandemic, as some would surmise. Snowy owls have been spotted on Governors Island in the NY harbor near Brooklyn throughout the last decade.
However, with more people outside leisurely strolling during the lockdowns, more birds than ever are being reported on wildlife apps and on social media.
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No snowy owl glimpses have been reported in the park over the last 2 days. Maybe it is checking out the nearby island—but with snow in the forecast, it might be back.
WATCH David’s sweet video…
Yesterday's SNOWY OWL in the Central Park North Meadow, a once-in-a-lifetime sight. pic.twitter.com/SaCpWJbAIX
— Manhattan Bird Alert (@BirdCentralPark) January 28, 2021
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Quote of the Day: “To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It gives us the energy to act.” – Howard Zinn
Photo by: Gabriel Lamza
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?
Similar to a classic pregnancy test, a color-changing strip may, in the future, be mounted on face masks to detect the presence of COVID-19 in the air you breathed that day, allowing everyone to self-monitor the environments they pass through.
The project was launched by nanoengineers at UC San Diego with a $1.3 million grant from the NIH’s Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics Radical (RADx) program.
The scientists created a small test kit to attach to the front of any mask, which can be mass produced at a cost of about 3 cents per kit.
After breathing through the mask for 4-5 hours, enough particles would be available to determine if you came in contact with the virus throughout the duration, or indeed if you perhaps have contracted it.
“In many ways, masks are the perfect ‘wearable’ sensor for our current world,” said Jesse Jokerst, professor of nanoengineering at the California university and project lead. “We’re taking what many people are already wearing and repurposing them, so we can quickly and easily identify new infections and protect vulnerable communities.”
To detect the virus, the wearer would crack a small blister pack that would immediately coat the test kit in fluid which would indicate the presence of proteases—protein-cleaving molecules produced from the coronavirus.
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The grant program from the NIH totals $107 million and is being handed out to 49 projects at 43 institutions looking for “non-traditional viral screening approaches, such as biological or physiological markers, new analytical platforms with novel chemistries or engineering, rapid detection strategies, point-of-care devices, and home-based testing technologies.”
Despite the fact that the test strip turns blue or red, Jokerst said the product would more represent a smoke detector in function.
“Think of this as a surveillance approach, similar to having a smoke detector in your house,” he said. “This would just sit in the background every day and if it gets triggered, then you know there’s a problem and that’s when you would look into it with more sophisticated testing.”
Perfect for prisons, homeless shelters, nursing homes, dialysis clinics, or other areas where people must stay in quite close proximity, the kits could prevent outbreaks from becoming epidemics, and while Jesse understands that by the time his idea is mass-produced, which might not even come this year, the vaccination program might have COVID-19 under control.
But, his test also turns red for the original SARS virus from 2003, as well as MERS, which means he thinks they could be utilized—as a rapid and quickly-deployable weapon—for future pandemics originating form coronaviruses
“To solve a problem as complicated as COVID-19, we need ideas, tools, and technologies that challenge the way we think about pandemic control,” said NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., in a statement.
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“These awards from the RADx-rad program provide superb examples of outside-the-box concepts that will help us overcome this pandemic and give us a cadre of devices and tactics to confront future outbreaks.”
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Our friend 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 January 29, 2021
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
“We all want everything to be okay,” writes author David Levithan. “We don’t even wish so much for fantastic or marvelous or outstanding. We will happily settle for okay, because most of the time, okay is enough.” To that mediocre manifesto, I reply, okay. I accept that it’s true for many people. But I don’t think it will apply to you Aquarians in the coming weeks. According to my assessment of your astrological potentials, you can, if you want, have a series of appointments with the fantastic, the marvelous, and the outstanding. Please keep those appointments! Don’t skip them out of timidity or excess humility.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
DON’Ts: Don’t keep scratching an old wound until it bleeds. Don’t try to snatch away the teddy bear that belongs to the 800-pound gorilla. Don’t try to relieve your tension by pounding your head against a wall. Don’t try to convince a stone idol to show you some tenderness. DOs: Do ask supposedly naive questions that may yield liberating revelations. Do keep in mind that sometimes things need to be a bit broken before you’ll be motivated to give them all the care they need and deserve. Do extinguish the fire on a burning bridge, and then repair the bridge.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
In the 1950 film Harvey, James Stewart plays a middle-aged man named Elwood whose best friend is a tall invisible rabbit named Harvey. The relationship causes problems with the people in Elwood’s life. At one point a psychiatrist tries to convince him to “struggle with reality.” Elwood replies, “I wrestled with reality for 40 years and I am happy to state that I finally won.” I’m happy to tell you this story, Aries, because it’s a good lead in to my counsel for you: I suspect that one of your long wrestles with reality will yield at least a partial victory in the coming weeks. And it will be completely real, as opposed to Elwood’s Harvey. Congratulations!
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
The light of the North Star takes a long time to reach us, even though it’s traveling 186,000 miles per second. The beams it shows us tonight first embarked when Shakespeare was alive on Earth. And yet that glow seems so fresh and pure. Are there any other phenomena in your life that are metaphorically comparable? Perhaps an experience you had months ago that is only now revealing its complete meaning? Or a seed you planted years ago that is finally ripening into its mature expression? The coming weeks will be an excellent time to take inventory of such things, Taurus. It will also be a favorable phase to initiate innovations that will take some time to become fully useful for you.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
In 1971, astronaut Alan Shepard had the great privilege of landing on the moon in a spacecraft, then walking on the lunar surface. How did he celebrate this epic holy adventure? By reciting a stirring passage from Shakespeare or the Talmud? By placing a framed photo of Amelia Earhart or a statue of Icarus in the dirt? By saying a prayer to his God or thoughtfully thanking the people who helped put him there? Shepard actually hit a golf ball with a golf club. I’ll ask you not to regard him as a role model in the coming weeks. When your sacred or lofty moments arrive, offer proper homage and honor. Be righteously appreciative of your blessings.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
William Shakespeare worked with another playwright in creating three plays: Henry VIII, The Two Noble Kinsmen, and Cardenio. The lucky collaborator was John Fletcher, who was popular and influential in his era. I propose that we name him one of your role models in 2021. Here’s why: You will have an enhanced potential to engage in fertile partnerships with allies who are quite worthy of you. I encourage you to be on the lookout for opportunities to thrive on symbiosis and synergy.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Canadian journalist Nick Ashdown is amazed that white people in North America are so inhibited about revealing their real feelings. He writes, “How bizarre that in English, the word ’emotional’ is used pejoratively, as though passion implies some sort of weakness.” He marvels that the culture seems to “worship nonchalance” and regard intense expressiveness as uncool or unprofessional. I’m going to encourage you to embody a different approach in the coming days. I don’t mean to suggest that you should be an out-of-control maniac constantly exploding with intensity. But I do hope you will take extra measures to respect and explore and reveal the spirited truth about yourself.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Virgo actor Ingrid Bergman appeared in three movies directed by Alfred Hitchcock. In Notorious, set after the end of World War II, she played the daughter of a Nazi spy. During the filming, Bergman had trouble with a particular scene. She explained her doubts to Hitchcock, saying, “I don’t think I can do that naturally.” Hitchcock seemed receptive to her input, but in the end had an unexpected response: “All right,” he told her. “If you can’t do it naturally, then fake it.” I’m going to suggest that you follow Hitchcock’s advice during the next two weeks, Virgo. “Fake it till you make it” is an acceptable—probably preferable—approach.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
The 17th-century Libran polymath Thomas Browne had a brilliant, well-educated mind. He authored many books on various subjects, from science to religion, and was second only to Shakespeare in the art of coining new words. He did have a blind spot, however. He referred to sex as the “trivial and vulgar way of union” and “the foolishest act a wise man commits in all his life.” Most of us have pockets of ignorance like that—aspects that qualify as learning disabilities or intellectual black holes. And now and then there come times when we benefit from checking in with these deficiencies and deciding whether to take any fresh steps to wisen them up. Now is such a time for you.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
“There is no sunrise so beautiful that it is worth waking me up to see it,” declares actor and comedian Mindy Kaling. Is that an unromantic sentiment? Maybe. But more importantly, it’s evidence that she treasures her sleep. And that’s admirable! She is devoted to giving her body the nurturing it needs to be healthy. Let’s make Kaling your patron saint for now. It’s a favorable time to upgrade your strategies for taking very good care of yourself.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
All of us go through phases when our brains work at a higher level than usual. I’m guessing that you’re about to enjoy one of these times. In fact, I won’t be shocked if you string together a series of ingenious thoughts and actions. I hope you use your enhanced intelligence for important matters—like making practical improvements in your life! Please don’t waste it on trivial matters like arguments on Facebook or Twitter.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Today the Capricorn artist Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) is regarded as an important and influential painter. Early in his career, though, he was rejected and even ridiculed by critics. One reason was that he loved making still-life paintings, which were considered low art. Of his 584 works, about 200 of them were of inanimate, commonplace objects. Fruit was his specialty. Typically he might spend 100 separate sessions in perfecting a particular bowl of apples. “Don’t you want to take a vacation from painting fruit?” he was asked. In response, he said that simply shifting the location of his easel in relation to his subject matter was almost more excitement than he could bear. That’s the kind of focused, detailed attitude I hope you’ll cultivate toward your own labors of love during the coming weeks, Capricorn.
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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We recently lost our beloved golden retriever, Layla. Her departure left an enormous hole in the house and in our hearts at a time when we needed her never-ending joyfulness, compassion, and affection more than ever. Losing a pet might seem like a small tragedy compared to the ongoing pandemic, but it devastated us nonetheless.
Because of COVID restrictions, our family has been mourning alone at home. As I floundered around in my grief, desperately missing the intimate physical, emotional, and spiritual relationship with this innately loving creature, an idea came to me. On some levels, it was a little strange, but I decided to step outside my comfort zone.
I put an ad up on Nextdoor Sorich Park, our neighborhood online bulletin board in Marin County, California, with the headline “Grieving Family Needs Canine Healing.” Attaching a picture of Layla, I said I’d love to take a neighbor’s dog for a walk or just play in the yard, assuring readers that I’ve been practicing strict safety measures.
I also mentioned that I would be particularly interested in meeting other golden retrievers; I like almost all dogs, but once you’ve had a golden, you gain lifetime membership to a club where you naturally gravitate to fellow devotees.
Within minutes of posting, the likes, emojis, and comments started rolling in—a stream that soon turned into a flood. There were expressions of sympathy, stories of people’s own losses, and recommendations for local golden retriever adoptions.
Many included photos of their own pets; two sent beautiful poems; and one included a link to an online pet grief support group. I even got a message from the San Rafael Police Department to visit with their official comfort dog. Best summons I’ve ever received.
Over the following week, I received 420 responses, including 140 comments. I was simply overwhelmed by this outpouring of empathy. Messages from 25 previously unknown neighbors welcomed me to come meet their pups, 15 of them golden retrievers. How could complete strangers be so generous during a health crisis, when we’re so focused on our own well-being?
As the offers kept rolling in, I realized I’d struck a rich vein of humanity at a time when we genuinely need more personal connection. While all of us want to feel loved, I believe we have an equally primal need to give love, and dogs bless us with abundant opportunities to express our devotion.
I work from home, so I saw Layla all day, every day, and I rarely passed her without stopping to rub her soft head, neck, back, or belly, feeling a gentle jolt of loving energy move up my arm and into my heart and brain. Over our 12 years together, I can honestly say that I relished every single stroke.
People always talk about the tenderness, lack of judgment, and unconditional love they receive from their dogs, but I also know that Layla continually called forth these same qualities in me. I think the reason people responded so viscerally to my ad was that it enabled them to share their best friends and best selves.
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Two weeks after my post ran, I began arranging play times. It was almost like Tinder, where I kept swiping right for my next candidate. I’m now up to six dates, ages 10 weeks to 11 years. It turns out there’s a sweet little golden right down the block who became an instant friend.
And talk about magic — after a few minutes of sitting together with the police dog, Blue, he suddenly put his front legs on my shoulders to give me a hug. I would have started crying if I weren’t smiling so hard underneath my mask. Somehow, he just knew.
Under the Bay Area’s stay-at-home orders, we’re only supposed to go out for groceries, prescriptions, and outdoor exercise. The get-togethers with my new furry buddies fit all these criteria: food for my soul, strong medicine for my grief, and fresh air for me and my canine companion.
Although my heart still aches, I’m also filled with gratitude — both for my cherished friendship with Layla, and the unexpected kindness of so many strangers. And the bonus lesson from this wondrous experience: They were right next door all this time.
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Efforts to finish the Great Green Wall in Africa, which has been halting the desertification of villages near the Sahara, received a multi-billion dollar boost this month—and nations are saying, ‘Merci!’
Following the ‘One Planet Summit for Biodiversity’, held virtually in Paris on January 11, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that $14 Billion was pledged for additional funding over the next ten years.
This financial support will “fast track” the Great Green Wall efforts to restore degraded land, create green jobs, and protect biodiversity in the Sahel and Sahara region, according to the United Nations, which helped organize the Summit.
Among the financiers are the Government of France, the World Bank, and the African Development Bank.
Planting a massive wall of trees across the continent, to span 5,000 miles (8000 kilometers), the Great Green Wall is not only holding back the desert, it is holding back poverty, as well.
Launched in 2007, the African-led initiative originally involved 11 countries, planting and caring for trees that provide an eco-barrier along the southern margin of the Sahara Desert running from the Atlantic coast to the Red Sea.
RELATED: African Nations Use Satellite Monitoring to Cut Deforestation by 18 Percent
The region was once a lush oasis of greenery and foliage back in the 1970s, but the combined forces of population growth, unsustainable land management, and climate change turned the area into a barren and degraded swath of land.
By 2019, the initiative had recruited at least nine additional countries to plant drought-resistant acacia trees across the entire width of the continent. By that time, the wall was only 15% percent complete, but had already dramatically impacted the participating countries: Over 12 million acres (5m-hectares) of degraded land had been restored in Nigeria; 30 million acres of drought-resistant trees had been planted across Senegal; and a whopping 37 million acres of land had been restored in Ethiopia, just to name a few of the states involved.
The new funding provides 30% of the development money needed to complete the project by the year 2030.
“The Great Green Wall is an inspiring example of ecosystem restoration in action,” said Susan Gardner, Director of UN Environment Programme’s Ecosystems Division. “It is rapidly becoming a green growth corridor that is bringing investment, boosting food security, creating jobs, and sowing the seeds of peace.”
Mohamed Cheikh El-Ghazouani, President of Mauritania and current chair of the Conference of Heads of State and Government of the Pan-African Agency of the Great Green Wall, cheered the news.
“The mobilization of this additional funding through an innovative approach will certainly contribute to the achievement of the Great Green Wall goals, which aim by 2030, at the restoration of 100 million hectares [42,400 square-miles] of degraded land and the creation of 10 million green jobs,” said Ghazouani.
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The approach, using a ‘Great Green Wall Accelerator’ to raise the funds, was responding to new challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has strained resources in Africa.
“In a post-COVID context where Sahelian countries are struggling with budgets and funding, this accelerator will help meet financial requirements and turbo charge the achievement of its goals,” notes the UN in a statement.
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Quote of the Day: “Strength shows not only in the ability to persist, but the ability to start over.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
Photo by: nirmal rajendharkumar
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?
This is the amusing moment a yellow pet iguana sunbathed on a window sill—looking for all the world like a bikini model posing on the beach.
The mango-colored reptile laid on its side, flaunting its stomach while its owner watched in amusement in Thailand’s Chonburi province this January.
It was even resting on one of its webbed-hands. Its position? Well, it looks straight out of the pages of Sports Illustrated: The Swimsuit Issue.
Reptile lover Chaiwat Daenglrachang said, “My iguana Mhontong was relaxing under the warm sunlight just like other pet iguanas I have. However, I’ve never seen any of them lay on its side as this one did.”
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We’ve never seen such sassy behavior from a lizard either. Does he remind you of anyone?
(WATCH Mhontong in his glamorous video ‘shoot’ below.)
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Hot off the presses from the ‘Isn’t It Ironic?’ department comes this story of a seasick postman who’s about to get his 15 minutes of fame (and likely a whole lot more) by singing—what else?—sea shanties.
For those not familiar with the jaunty ditties, sea shanties, dating back some 600 years, are folk songs first sung by fishermen, whalers, pirates, merchants, privateers, and pretty much anyone who earned their keep sailing the seven seas.
The tunes feature a steady beat to keep time, and in the days when maritime trade was the king, were crooned in unison by ships’ crews as they toiled at their labors.
Likely or not, in 2021, sea shanties have become all the rage on TikTok, and the man we have to thank for the trend is a 26-year-old Scottish postman named Nathan Evans.
Evans, who has a powerful and pleasing singing voice, has been posting TikTok music videos for some time. His first sea shanty went up last June at a fan’s request.
After hauling in a leviathan’s worth of followers, Evans recorded his second shanty, ‘The Wellerman’, last December—to the tune of 7.5 million views.
@nathanevanss The Wellerman. #seashanty #sea #shanty #viral #singing #acoustic #pirate #new #original #fyp #foryou #foryoupage #singer #scottishsinger #scottish
♬ original sound - N A T H A N E V A N S S
As in days of yore, he soon had scores of Internet shipmates singing as well as playing along, including none other than legendary music composer and impresario, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber.
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Evans’ rendition of ‘The Wellerman’ proved so popular, he decided to quit his day job to pursue a career in music.
“It all started getting hectic,” Evans said in a January 21 interview with I News UK. “I was getting emails about interviews and radio, and it kept rolling on. [Last] Friday I was like, ‘Right, I need to make a change here’, because I was too busy on my phone looking at emails and trying to post letters. I was like, ‘This is not sustainable’.”
While Evans is hopeful the tides of destiny will steer him toward fame and fortune, the mail carrier remains pragmatic about his prospects.
“The future will be quite bright, I hope. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, it’s never going to come around again,” Evans said. “Hopefully if nothing comes of it then I can go back and continue being a postman, but I thought at the minute I’ll seize it and see what happens.”
As high as Evans’ star may rise, just don’t look for him to do any of his warbling aboard a cruise ship once the pandemic has ended. Even the motion of the ocean from something as tame as a ferryboat ride is enough to make him ill.
Aye, ’tis never easy,
When the singer is queasy…
When he’s a singing o’ the sea!
Check out the knockout collaborative version below.
The biggest compilation I’ve seen so far of the Wellerman sea shanty. It’s chefs kiss! 🤩 pic.twitter.com/NwEwHsR6SK
— Etel Sverdlov (@etelsverdlov) January 11, 2021
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As if lab-grown meat wasn’t a head turner, a group of scientists at MIT are plotting lab-grown wooden furniture.
The two projects are nearly identical, made by cultivating cells to divide and multiply into forms outside of their parent phylum, and the proof-of-concept study is a powerful first step towards finding alternatives to forestry.
According to Velásquez-García and team, using a leaf from a zinnia, they were able to grow plant like tissues selectively, free from unnecessary organs. The researchers described in their corresponding paper how plant cells respond well to “tunability,” and that the scalable, land-free cultivation of plant material like wood for use in furniture making, for example, is very possible—and even easier than what other scientists are doing with cell-cultured meat, the correct jargon for “lab-grown meat.”
“Despite considerable and early resource investment, (imagine the cost of buying, fueling, and operating logging trucks and roads alone) only a small fraction of the cultivated crop may be economically valuable at harvest,” write the authors in their paper, noting also that for the production of some natural fibers, as little as 2% to 4% of the harvested plant matter will be used.
The strategy for cell-cultured trees, grown in the shape of a table or a rectangular board, is easier to scale, and could become cost-effective much faster than cell-cultured meat—as plants are simply easier to grow in this way.
MORE: This Non-Profit is Hard at Work Designing New Forests to Cure California’s Wildfire Curse
Speaking with Fast Company, Ashley Beckwith, an engineering Ph.D. student and co-author of the paper, explains the inefficiencies of relying on forested trees for lumber production.
“Trees grow in tall cylindrical poles, and we rarely use tall cylindrical poles in industrial applications,” she says. “So you end up shaving off a bunch of material that you spent 20 years growing and that ends up being a waste product.”
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What if instead you could spend that 20 years growing only furniture or clothing applicable fibers and shapes? Well the scientists haven’t yet grown a table from a petri dish, but their work is an important proof-of-concept that if widely adopted could lead to huge reductions in CO2 emissions from a number of sources.
These could include fueling and driving heavy, low-range cargo trucks up logging roads at low speeds, as well as fueling and manufacturing the vehicles to construct the logging roads, and the manufacturing plants that make both, as well as the vehicles to transport that equipment there.
Then one must think of deforestation, a major contributor of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, as carbon that would otherwise be released through the Earth’s 1,000-year carbon cycle naturally is ripped from the ground as the trees are felled. Tree plantations could be left to age more naturally, retuning more of the carbon cycle into a natural state while attracting more wildlife in return.
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After Dr. Alex Oshymansky started a public-benefit company to combat the exploding prices of certain prescription drugs, he attracted a new partner—Shark Tank billionaire investor Mark Cuban.
The Dallas, Texas radiologist started in 2015 with Osh’s Affordable Pharmaceuticals and a million dollars in investment capital. Four years later, the new partnership was moving forward under the name Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drug Co, and donating medicine to those in need.
For years, a mixture of FDA demands for approval, and drug company greed which created soaring prices for drugs had begun making Cuban “bleeping mad.”
Now under Cuban’s brand name, the private-label arrangement allows Oshymansky to buy from third party suppliers, take care of the labeling and branding laws himself, and sell it at a serious discount with just a 15% mark-up for the business expenses.
This method allowed the pair to lower the cost of an anti-parasitic medication called albendazole from its normal U.S. price range of $225-$500, down to just 20 bucks.
This proved especially valuable for Baylor College of Medicine, who needed thousands of doses of albendazole to complete a study they were doing on U.S. hookworm infections in the South.
“The Germ of the South,” was a catch-all term that characterized a curious lethargy and haziness of the brain, distended bellies, and emaciated shoulder blades, found across the Deep South during the 20th century. Even today, American hookworm infects large numbers of people, particularly children, due to poor sanitation and poverty.
One study done in Lowndes County, Alabama of 24 homes found that 34% of stool samples contained the parasite, which is killed rather quickly by albendazole.
Cuban and Oshymansky donated the first 10,000 doses of the company’s albendazole supply to Baylor and the author of the study, Dr. Rojelio Mejia, so that volunteers from Alabama to New York who test positive for hookworm could immediately purge the parasite from their bodies.
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Other drug companies estimated that the number of doses which the two entrepreneurs donated would have cost $2 million—which would have kept the research from being conducted.
“We found it deeply troubling that albendazole is extremely expensive in the United States, and are happy to be able to manufacture it for free for this research and provide it at significantly decreased prices to the rest of the U.S. market,” said Dr. Oshmyansky.
Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs is aiming for 100 new drug offerings by the end of 2021, all with “no hidden costs, no middlemen, (and) no rebates only available to insurance companies,” the company website says. They want to be “radically transparent” about how much the drug costs to formulate and how much pharmacies will be charged to sell it.
They’re also in the process of constructing their own brick-and-mortar pharmacy in Dallas where they hope to earn a profit on non-pharmaceutical items that can fund the lower cost formulations and offer drugs for rare diseases directly to patients or through outpatient facilities.
As helpful as this will be for American consumers and patients, it could also drive drug companies out of business if they over-charge their customers in the extreme. It’s a dose of free market competition in a nation where millions are crying out for alternatives.
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With the help of some truly potent pooches, the Miami Heat will be able to allow some ticket holders in to watch their games provided they get the A-okay from a team of COVID-19 sniffing dogs.
Several countries have already trained dogs to sniff out COVID-19, and the combination of masks, socially distanced seating maps, and the canines, mean around 2,000 lucky fans get to cheer on their home team next week.
In April, Good News Network reported on the progress of a British medical charity that had successfully trained dogs to smell the infamous virus, while ESPN reports claim the success rate of the Heat’s sniffers are around 94%
It’s not a perfect detection rate, so the Heat staff are augmenting the COVID-19 prevention measures with temp checks, mask wearing, cashless-only transactions, isolated seating patterns, and reduced food and beverage sales. If people are allergic or afraid of dogs, the Heat are even offering rapid antigen tests which they say will produce results in 45 minutes.
“If you think about it, detection dogs are not new,” Matthew Jafarian, the Heat’s executive vice president for business strategy, told ESPN. “You’ve seen them in airports, they’ve been used in mission-critical situations by the police and the military. We’ve used them at the arena for years to detect explosives.”
Indeed, dogs have been trained to detect everything from bombs and narcotics to cancers, low-blood sugar, and even depression. Viral diseases like malaria and COVID have also been trained.
The first game will be at home against the LA Clippers, while Monday is the first game when season ticket holders will be allowed to claim their seats, when the arena will be at a little less than 10% capacity.
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Quote of the Day: “What a wonderful thought it is that some of the best days of our lives haven’t even happened yet.” – Anne Frank
Photo by: marco barsotti
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 Mexico City, after more than a year of behind-the-scenes work, a ban on single-use containers, cutlery, straws, cups, stirrers and other popular but disposable items has come into effect.
Mexico City’s environmental secretary explained on Twitter that the capital will now be a place “without single-use plastics,” and urged citizens to think of reusable containers as something they never leave the home without—just like they might do with cell phones.
Lawmakers in the city actually passed the single-use plastics ban in 2019: a year in which the city was producing 13,000 tons of garbage a day, according to Mexico City’s environmental agency.
The city, which has a population of around 9 million, saw the ban on single-use plastic bags come into effect last year.
Since then, business owners have been preparing for the ban on other day-to-day disposable items.
Coronavirus guidelines notwithstanding, tortillas at street stalls should now be wrapped in the paper that a buyer has—hopefully—remembered to bring with them.
The Mexican capital isn’t the only populous place to enact such a ban in recent months. China is also aiming to reduce plastic pollution by moving towards using biodegradable alternatives to single-use plastic straws and bags.
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Alfred Guerra never faltered when it came to proudly serving his country in World War II. Now, in his time of need, his community is stepping up to proudly serve the war hero.
His family tried to keep up with the repair and maintenance on the old house, but it became uninhabitable after his son, who had torn out much of the interior during the remodel, suddenly passed away from cancer.
Hoping to harness the power of social media, his daughter, Maria, reached out via Facebook to ask for help. It wasn’t long before a variety of veterans groups heard about the man who had earned a Bronze Star and Purple Heart for acts of bravery in the Philippines.
First to answer the call was the Military Order of the Purple Heart, followed soon after by Broken Warriors’ Angels, a local nonprofit serving San Antonio veterans and their families, along with the VFW Post 76, and the city’s Department of Human Services and Department of Military Affairs..
“As combat warriors, we leave nobody behind. And as veterans, we leave no veteran behind,” Tony Roman, of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, told KSAT-News.
Mr. Guerra had moved in with Maria and was thrilled that the repairs underway once again—but then the COVID-19 lockdown put the project on hold.
Thankfully, this month, the hammers, saws, and nail guns, were singing once again. Veteran volunteers who had served in three foreign conflicts—Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam—arrived on the scene and worked as a team to gut the home’s interior and prep it for the next phase of the home makeover. (Watch the inspiring video below…)
A new roof had been donated by the SRS Raise the Roof Foundation, and the electrical and plumbing systems are on their way to being updated.
One thing lacking is an HVAC system. The family is hoping for another guardian angel to come through there as well. In the meantime, they’ve set up a GoFundMe page with a modest $5,000 goal to help finance further much-needed fixes.
It may take another month or so to complete the project but more than anything else, Guerra yearns to move back into his home. He longs to tend the roses he named in honor of his wife, Emma, in their garden. He’s so eager in fact, he told his family he’d live there in a tent.
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While she appreciates his determination, Maria’s not letting him go anywhere just yet, but that’s all right, too.
“As long as I’m with my family,” Guerra added. “I’m always happy.”
(WATCH the video from KSAT-12 of the veteran crew at work below.)
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The weather for President Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony was blustery, with snow flurries and a wind chill making the temperature drop to near-freezing. But, never let it be said that a Vermonter like Senator Bernie Sanders doesn’t know how to dress for winter weather.
Along with Amanda Gorman’s stirring poem, Senator Sanders’ now-iconic mittens was one of the highlights of the day. Within 24 hours, the casual look had launched more memes than anyone could count and, like Elf on the Shelf, it was pretty much everywhere.
Bernie’s hunkered-down image—captured by the decorated photographer Brendan Smialowski—was soon Photoshopped into classic paintings like Edward Hopper’s ‘Nighthawks’ and Botticelli’s ‘Birth of Venus’. He’s been inserted into contemporary pop culture with winks and nods to Sex and the City, Twilight, Game of Thrones, and Where’s Waldo? He’s even been swapped into Sharon Stone’s infamous cross-legged hot seat pose from Basic Instinct.
Some of my favorite Bernie Sanders sightings today: pic.twitter.com/Pxta5BO7Uu
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) January 21, 2021
Apart from injecting some much-needed humor onto our social feeds, Sanders’ sartorial tour-de-force injected some much needed cash into a few charities, thanks to the Senator, himself, who seized the moment.
He quickly added the image to a line of merchandise on his website—with all proceeds benefitting Vermont-based charities, including Meals on Wheels and senior citizen advocacy groups.
The sweatshirts, tees, and stickers sold out in less than 30 minutes. Additional supplies were similarly snapped up faster than you can say ‘Jack Frost.’ In all, Sanders reported raised around $1.8 million in the span of five days.
“We’re glad we can use my internet fame to help Vermonters in need,” Sanders said in a statement.
Jen Ellis, the Vermont elementary school teacher responsible for making the world’s most famous mittens from a repurposed sweater reported via social media that Sanders called to let her know “the mitten frenzy” had raised big bucks for a number of worthy causes.
Ellis, who was inundated with requests for the mittens, which she doesn’t have time to make, set up a new philanthropic website called Generosity Brings Joy. She will be collaborating with businesses to design and create “Bernie Mitten Themed” products to benefit charity, hoping the “joyful, high-quality” items make up some of the shortfalls of nonprofits during the pandemic.
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Ellis wasn’t the only Bernie meme fan to use her crafty talents to raise money for charity. Tobey King, a woman from Corpus Christi Texas, put a crocheted Sanders doll she’d conceptualized up for sale on eBay to benefit Meals on Wheels—and raised an amazing amount. Listed at a modest opening price of 99 cents, 167 bids later, the “Bernie Mittens Crochet Doll” sold for a gobsmacking $20,300.
Meanwhile, the Portland, Oregon artist Mike Bennett has made a life-size cutout of Bernie in his now iconic pose for a charity auction. Through his creative genius, over $3,000 has been raised in donations for Meals on Wheels.
“This is the lesson life has taught me again and again,” said Jen Ellis, who had gifted the original mittens to Sanders. “If you give of yourself—not just material gifts, but your time, your goodwill, your kindness—you receive joy. It’s that simple. You don’t have to be rich to care; you just have to be human. We all have so many gifts, and the world is a better place when we share them.”
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After decades of use, ‘gillnets’ and the fishing strategies that employed them have been banned by California law—and that has provided a boon for seabirds, sharks, and the shy harbor porpoise.
The years between 1987 and 2002 saw many gillnet bans enacted in counties along the California coast, where dead marine animals would wash up on beaches entangled in nets, causing outrage among locals.
Used literally for thousands of years, the gillnet easily catches fish when the fibers snag on the fishes’ gills, but it is also liable to snare other animals like sharks, otters, and seabirds.
The harbor porpoise, which is actually one of the smallest toothed whales on Earth, is a very secretive animal and difficult for marine biologists to count—but there’s been such a marked increase that the success is obvious.
Karin Forney, a marine biologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has been studying them for three decades.
“They’re capable of recovering,” Forney told the LA Times. “They have a resilience and they will rebound if we just let them.”
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Rebounding could almost be considered an understatement. Since bans were introduced, harbor porpoise populations have added around 8,200 new members—in Monterrey Bay, Morro Bay, Santa Barbara, and the San Francisco and Russian River systems
It’s a significant triumph for the under-the-radar sea mammal, which in Morro Bay alone grew from 570 individuals in 1990 to over 4,000 by 2012.
Another species that will have benefited from the gillnet ban is great white sharks, which used to be caught by all manner of nets. Since the Marine Resources Protection Act of 1990, which was implemented in 1994 and banned drift and set gillnets, very few great white sharks have been incidentally caught.
That’s great news because, with the sharks being relatively unknown to science, the fewer members of the species that perish accidentally the better, since it is difficult to ascertain population levels.
READ: Scientists Finally Manage to Record the Strange Sounds of the ‘Arctic Unicorn’—the Elusive Narwhal
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