In yet another bid to rebrand himself in a more positive light, this week Florida Man made the news as a good Samaritan once again (okay, if you ignore the story about him snatching that stray golf ball off the back of an alligator).
Michael Esmond
In a true humanitarian gesture, Mike Esmond of Gulf Stream, Florida paid off $7,600-worth of outstanding utility bills for 114 of his neighbors who were facing cut-off deadlines.
It’s not the first time.
Last year, Esmond launched his generous Christmas tradition by doling out $4,600 to ensure community members in need wouldn’t go without basic services during the holiday season.
“This year to me probably is more meaningful than last year with the pandemic and all the people out of work having to stay home,” the 74-year-old said in CNN interview reported by People.
“Hurricane Sally slammed us pretty good and hurt a lot of people. We still have a lot of the blue roofs here, where they’re just covered with tarps.”
As the owner of Gulf Breeze Pools and Spas, Esmond admits he found himself in a very different financial position at the end of 2020 than those less fortunate. While the COVID-19 lockdown left many people struggling, it also meant they were staying home—which proved to be a boon to his business.
“We’ve had a good year, and that’s why I want to share what I have with the people who need it,” he said. Rather than a shut-off notice, 114 families will instead be receiving a holiday greeting from the city letting them know they’re no longer in the red.
“You can imagine people this time of the year that know they’re behind on their bills, when they get this envelope and when they open it up, it’s a Christmas card from the City of Gulf Breeze telling them that Gulf Breeze Pools has paid their utility bill and that’s one less stressful thing that you have to worry about,” Esmond told CBS.
Since his story made the headlines, Esmond has heard from lots of folks offering to help his cause, but he believes their money would be better spent closer to home. “I’ve had people call me out of California, Chicago, Tampa, saying that they wanted to send some money,” he explained.
“I said, ‘No, take the money, go do what I did. Start this in your own communities.’ It’s something I can see that we could really pass on and make Christmases better for people in the future.”
Way to go, Florida Man, that’s telling ’em.
(WATCH the Christmas 2019 interview with Mike from ABC.)
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Planning a safe wedding for a young mom who’s battling an intense form of cancer would always be tough—but this oncology ward in Arizona did it during a pandemic.
As nurses at Banner Thunderbird Medical Center in Glendale recently admired 22-year-old cancer patient Samantha Preston’s engagement ring, an incredible idea suddenly grabbed everyone’s attention.
Preston’s medical team saw how much support she received from her fiancée Angel Aguilar during her extensive treatment for late-stage osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer. They also knew how much love Preston felt for their toddler son, Odin, and wanted to help the family.
“I said, ‘You’re coming in for a long day of transfusions on Friday. Why don’t you let us throw the wedding here at the clinic?’” said Amy Mabry, nurse practitioner at the pediatric oncology center at Banner Thunderbird Medical Center. “She kind of got a sparkle in her eye, and she said, ‘Really?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, we’ll totally figure it out for you.”
Preston’s medical team quickly turned into wedding planners. Social worker Kelley Hunt, child life specialist Courtney Smith and the pediatric oncology team worked together to plan an unforgettable ceremony in just three days.
“After getting her okay, it was time to pedal to the metal,” said Mabry. “We just wanted to make sure that as amazing as Sam is, she got to experience a special day for her, Angel, and their son Odin.”
The team received a lot of help from Smiles for Miles, a nonprofit group that helps children fighting cancer. The organization “was instrumental in helping us to get all the decorations and setting things up,” Mabry said.
An area at the hospital traditionally used as a gathering spot for families was quickly transformed into a beautiful venue for the couple to tie the knot. The team helped Preston get her makeup professionally done, and a local photographer captured every sweet moment between the family.
Banner Thunderbird Medical Center
“They just completely went all out with the decorations, and they had it all planned where they would cover up my (IV) pole, hiding the transfusion going on. It was just so magical!” said Preston. “And I told them if they wouldn’t have done what they did, I would have just gone out for dinner after getting the papers from the courthouse.”
Banner Thunderbird Medical Center
Smith said helping to plan the special day was an honor. “Being a part of Sam’s wedding made history for me and my team, as it’s not very often that pediatric patients—or adult patients under pediatric care, in Sam’s case—get married,” said Smith, whose team has helped to plan proms, quinceñeras, tea parties, and more. “This is a first for a wedding!”
Preston’s cancer treatment began in August 2019 at Banner Children’s at Desert in Mesa, where she spent considerable time receiving chemotherapy to treat her osteosarcoma.
She remains determined to stay upbeat in spite of her health challenges.
“I just always wanted to remember to overcome adversity with a positive attitude, because that’s what’s going to get you through it the easiest,” said Preston.
“You know, everybody has their problems, no matter what it is. Yes, I’m going through cancer, but there are other families now going through COVID. There are families who have been going through cancer or other issues for way longer than I have. And you just need to remember, always stay positive no matter what situation or obstacles you have to go through.”
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Quote of the Day: “Although a person’s life may be a land full of thorns and weeds, there is always a space in which the good seed can grow.” – Pope Francis
Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio 84-years old today in Argentina, he became leader of the Catholic church in 2013, and the first pope to be from the Americas, and first outside Europe since the 8th century.
Photo by: Faris Mohammed
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?
An Idaho man is acting as a real life Secret Santa this year, by gifting more than half a million dollars to local people who deserve a little extra kindness this year.
The man who’s giving upwards of $500,000 to others wishes to remain anonymous, so he’s been getting a little help from the team at East Idaho News to hand out his presents.
Here’s the story of the woman who was first on this Santa’s ‘nice’ list:
Grandmother Diana Boldman is 65 years old. Early each morning, she and her husband Cameron wake up to deliver newspapers across their home town of Idaho Falls. The route takes them across a large area of the city, and they do it in a van that already has nearly 240,000 miles on it.
Once she’s finished the paper route, Diana then goes to McDonald’s to put in a shift at her full-time job there. Her hope is to retire in a few years, but for now she has to work: Cameron is on disability and it’s up to Diana to provide for them.
When Idaho’s Secret Santa heard about this couple’s situation, he knew just the Christmas gifts to surprise them with.
(WATCH the video of Diana receiving her early Christmas parcel below.)
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Have you ever had a nightmare where you’re rushing to get to someplace vitally important only to realize you’re on a bus or train heading in the wrong direction and you’ll never make it in time? This scenario played out for one Belfast woman last week—only she wasn’t dreaming.
Jacqueline Mason was on her way to see her 79-year-old mom, Eileen McGrugan, who lives in an assisted care facility. Due to COVID-19 protocols, visits are limited to pre-scheduled half-hour time slots.
When Mason discovered she’d mistakenly gotten on the wrong bus and her 30-minute window was fast closing, she was understandably distraught. Mason tearfully explained to bus driver 57-year-old Alex “Alec” Bailey what had happened.
“I started crying, and I said, ‘I’m not too sure if I’m on the right bus,’” she told Sky News.
Rather than offer routine commiseration and keep to his schedule, Bailey decided to take action.
“When the woman said to me she hadn’t seen her mum in a long time, it just hit my heart,” Bailey told the BBC. “A lot of people have suffered this year and you’ve seen on the news, people not able to see their mother or their father in the homes and it just struck a chord with me… I just said to myself, I have to get this woman as close as I can to that home.”
BBC
With a nod of approval from the other passengers, Bailey detoured the bus and drove Mason to her destination, dropped her off, then calmly went back to his regular route as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
By pure coincidence, as Mason was arriving at the Bradley Manor nursing home, a news crew from Sky Ireland was onsite covering the rollout of coronavirus vaccinations for staff and residents there. Though she didn’t know his last name, Mason relayed her tale of the compassionate Route 11B Translink Metro bus driver who’d made it his mission to ensure she’d see her mom to reporters.
Even though Bailey spent the rest of the day wondering whether or not his passenger had gotten there in time, soon enough, he learned he needn’t have worried. Though “the driver in question” had yet to be named, the story made the evening news—and then it hit social media.
BBC
Gushing thanks to the passengers and praise for the man she knew only as “Alec,” Mason recounted the day’s events. Word of the “hero” bus driver quickly spread.
When Bailey’s daughter saw a clip of the story, she had a sneaking suspicion she knew just who’d been captaining that bus—her dad.
After confirming that he had in fact briefly commandeered the bus, Bailey asked his daughter how she’d found out. By then, it seems, Bailey was “internet famous.”
While Bailey wound up with unexpected accolades from Translink CEO Chris Conway and Stormont Transport Minister Nichola Mallon for “going above and beyond the call of duty”—as well as getting a lot of good-natured ribbing for being a “superhero” from his co-workers—at the end of the day, he was just happy to have helped out.
“The smile and the joy on her face just said it all and I was just so pleased,” he told BBC. “It was just a nice, magical moment. It was just the right thing to do.”
(WATCH the BBC video of this uplifting story below.)
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The European Parliament plans to boost sustainability by promoting reuse and repairs of phones, laptops, tablets, and other electronics—and by tackling practices that shorten the lifespan of such products.
NeonBrand
France is reported to begin rolling out ‘repairability tags’ on devices from January 2021, with some other European countries following suit after that.
The resolution on a more sustainable Single Market was adopted on November 25 with 395 in favor, 94 against, and 207 abstentions.
This means Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have called on the European Commission to grant consumers a “right to repair” by making repairs more appealing, systematic, and cost-efficient, whether by extending guarantees, providing guarantees for replaced parts, or better access to information on repair and maintenance.
It means MEPs insist on increasing support for second-hand goods markets, call for measures to tackle practices that shorten the lifetime of a product, and endorse sustainable production.
In a statement, MEPs have also reiterated the need for a common charger system to reduce electronic waste and want products to be labeled according to their durability (e.g. a usage meter and clear information on the estimated lifespan of a product).
Remove obstacles that prevent repair, resale, and reuse
According to a survey, 77% of EU citizens would rather repair their devices than replace them; 79% think that manufacturers should be legally obliged to facilitate the repair of digital devices or the replacement of their individual parts.
To encourage sustainable business and consumer choices, MEPs—through this resolution—are saying they push for more sustainable public procurement as well as responsible marketing and advertising.
For example, when environmentally friendly claims are made in advertisements, common criteria should be applied to support such a claim—similar to obtaining ecolabel certifications.
The resolution also calls for the role of the EU ecolabel to be boosted so that it is used more by industry and to raise awareness among consumers.
Finally, the advisory text proposes new rules for waste management and the removal of legal obstacles that prevent repair, resale, and reuse. This will also benefit the secondary raw material market. From here, it’ll be up to the European Commission to issue actual proposals based on this report.
Source: European Parliament
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We may wish some memories could last a lifetime, but many physical and emotional factors can negatively impact our ability to retain information throughout life.
A new study published in the journal Psychological Science found that people who feel enthusiastic and cheerful—what psychologists call “positive affect”—are less likely to experience memory decline as they age. This result adds to a growing body of research on positive affect’s role in healthy aging.
A team of researchers analyzed data from 991 middle-aged and older U.S. adults who participated in a national study conducted at three time periods: between 1995 and 1996, 2004 and 2006, and 2013 and 2014.
In each assessment, participants reported on a range of positive emotions they had experienced during the past 30 days. In the final two assessments, participants also completed tests of memory performance. These tests consisted of recalling words immediately after their presentation and again 15 minutes later.
The researchers examined the association between positive affect and memory decline, accounting for age, gender, education, depression, negative affect, and extraversion.
“Our findings showed that memory declined with age,” said Claudia Haase, an associate professor at Northwestern University and senior author on the paper. “However, individuals with higher levels of positive affect had a less steep memory decline over the course of almost a decade,” added Emily Hittner, a PhD graduate of Northwestern University and the paper’s lead author.
Whether printed on wrapping paper, made into ornaments, or sewed into festive socks, the figure of a snowflake is one of the most identifiable shapes you’ll ever see.
Alexey Kljatov, CC license
But why is the shape so unanimous, when it’s often said that no two are alike? Today GNN looks at some merry mathematics and festive physics to get the stone cold facts about the famous six-pointed snowflake.
Many people think that snow crystals, as they should be referred, are just frozen droplets of water. These would be sleet, and snow crystals are actually formed in a completely different way, and change as they fall from the sky.
Furthermore, all three forms of water, liquid, vapor, and ice, must be present in a cloud for snow to fall.
At the heart of all things chemistry, there is first a discussion of charges, in this case a positive and a negative charge. Two hydrogen atoms bind to one side of an oxygen atom, giving that part a positive charge, while the other side left lacking the hydrogen atoms is negatively charged.
The negative side than attracts an entirely separate water molecule, which eventually grows, in a liquid state, to form a four-sided pyramid of six water molecules.
Wilson Bentley
In this stage of the snow crystal-forming process, it could very well be that two indeed look the same, and there is no actual law of nature that would prevent two crystals from looking the same (in the winter of 1988, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Nancy Knight, took a plane into the clouds over Wisconsin and did indeed find two identical snow crystals).
From snow piece to show piece
It’s after this stage, when it becomes ice however, that a snow crystal will shift into a hexagonal (six-sided) formation and the immediately identifiable and beautifully symmetrical shape comes into existence.
Marc Newberry
University of Manitoba researcher and mathematician Ranganathan Padmanabhan explains to his university press why a snow crystal is always depicted with six sides and six branches.
“Nature is the Mother of all symmetries,” he begins. “In fact, symmetry happens to be a central organizing principle in Nature’s design,” noting bee honeycomb before explaining that on a molecular level, a hexagon allows for the tightest packing of things into space, meaning that Nature is a thrifty sort.
As the snow crystal falls through the clouds and the sky, it collects water—liquid, vapor, and solid, which upon exposure to differing levels of humidity and temperature, begins to build up as it spins downward in a theoretically unending variation of trajectories and conditions, eventually forming the branches or arms of the snow crystal that essentially prohibit identicality among fallen flakes.
An interview with meteorologist David Epstein, published in the Boston Globe, explains how snow crystals can actually form pillars, needles, diamonds, and triangles under different weather conditions, but hexagonal formations which we all recognize have a very streamlined process.
Ranganathan Padmanabhan tastefully noted that “as Galileo once mentioned, mathematics happens to be the language chosen by God to express these basic facts of science,” adding that “group theory,” an important mode of fashioning descriptions, was developed to explain symmetry across physics, mathematics, and biology.
While they fall across the polar latitudes and higher altitudes, the beautiful snow crystals which blanket forests and houses in snow globe glory have another beautiful side to them—a beautiful symmetry, uniqueness, and mathematics.
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Quote of the Day: “Never say never because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.” – Michael Jordan
Photo by: Austin Human
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?
Six in ten Americans expect to be receiving more “creative” gifts than ever before from their loved ones this holiday season, according to a new poll.
And it may be in hopes to make this a season to remember, as nearly three in four Americans say they are planning on making this holiday season a memorable one.
The poll of 2,000 Americans found that in order to achieve this, one in five started their holiday shopping in September.
The survey, conducted by OnePoll on behalf of BJ’s Wholesale Club, took a look at how Americans are doing their holiday shopping during this unusual year.
According to the results, all but five percent of those polled plan to start their holiday shopping before December.
Since there will be a greater emphasis on online shopping this year than in the past, 71% said they plan on spending a good amount of time researching the best deals and discounts before purchasing anything.
And for those who will shop in-store, 70% of those polled said they plan on doing their holiday shopping at big, all-encompassing stores in order to cut down on how many trips they take.
While 56% of those polled said they’ll miss the in-store “treasure hunt” aspect of holiday shopping this year, most feel as though they’ll wind up being more creative and thoughtful with their gift-giving by shopping online.
Most respondents feel confident that they’ll find what they need by surfing the web, but one out of three (34%) still say they plan to buy at least one holiday item or gift only in-store. The majority agree that they’ll plan to use digital services to make that process easier.
Purchasing gifts for more loved ones
More than four in ten respondents (42%) also say that they will purchase gifts for people that they’ve never previously bought for.
In fact, the average American surveyed will be getting gifts for nine people this holiday season, with 40% having 11 or more people on their shopping list.
The average American who took the survey said they plan on spending $370 on holiday gifts for loved ones this year, and nearly half (45%) say they plan to spend more than $400, with 16% planning to spend over $700.
Far from pursuing the American vision of “amber waves of grain,” this farmer in England’s southwest has, for 20 years, been growing 500 different types of food in what appears to be a temperate forest.
YouTube/National Geographic
Known as “agroforestry,” Martin Crawford’s garden is wild but tamed—a forest capable of producing tons of food with as little as a few hours’ work a month.
“What we think of as normal in terms of food production is actually not normal at all,” explains Crawford in a National Geographic short about his marvelously-tangled forest garden.
“Annual plants are very rare in nature, and yet most of our agricultural fields are full of annual plants. What’s normal is a forested or semi-forested system.”
The word ‘system’ here is important, because whereas normal farmers look to isolate certain parts of natural systems for complete control (a tactic which has become unfathomably successful thus far) Crawford’s garden’s success depends on it holding it’s own as a fully functional and complex ecosystem.
Returning to normal
YouTube/National Geographic
Crawford explains in the video, and in his bookCreating a Forest Garden, that one needs seven layers: tall trees, small trees, shrubs, perennials, ground cover, root crops, and climbers.
These could be food producing crops, but also what he calls system plants, ones which aid in nitrogen distribution or mineral accumulating, or others which attract pollinating species that eat pests.
In addition, he grows utilitarian plants such as those meant for weaving fibers, basket making, medicinal plants, and plants meant for fine timber as well. He even has fruit bushes spliced into existence in Cold War-era Soviet laboratories.
“It can seem a bit overwhelming, there’s just so many different species,” he admits. “You shouldn’t let that stop you from beginning a project because you don’t have to know everything to begin with, just start, plant some trees, and go from there.”
Eventually though, agroforestry systems become so big, and so perennial, as to naturally eliminate most of the work one associates with farming or gardening. Since everything is there to stay, there’s no need to till and re-till the ground, add manure, fertilizer, or nitrogen.
The canopy will hold moisture in the undergrowth, meaning that eventually, you won’t really need even to water your garden.
A more sustainable system
This lack of tilling pressure eliminates one of the major land-use changes associated with human carbon emissions. “Because of course when you [till] the soil, a load of carbon goes into the air,” explains Crawford in another film on his farm.
Furthermore, it releases micronutrients and exposes vital fungi, bacteria and other microorganisms to sunlight, often killing them, reducing the biodiversity of soil particles.
But the real sustainability of an agroforestry system comes from its diversity of species.
“It’s not the gradually increasing temperatures that damage plants, it’s the increase in extreme events,” he explains in the Nat Geo film. “By having a very diverse system whatever happens to the weather, most of your crops will probably do fine—some will fail, some may do better.”
That’s very important, explains Crawford because it’s during the next 30 years that farmers will be under the constant threat of changing weather, and will have to be able to identify quickly which species of fruits and vegetables are capable of withstanding such threats.
Earlier this year, GNN reported that 59,400 square miles of land (15.4 million hectares) is currently utilized in Europe for agroforestry, of which 15.1 million is livestock agroforestry, while in the U.S., the 2017 Census of Agriculture found over 30,000 farms utilizing agroforestry practices, in states as varied as Texas, Virginia, Oregon, Missouri, and Pennsylvania.
“In this country [the UK] in particular, you know, farmers don’t tend to know much about trees, and foresters don’t know much about farming. And agroforestry, which is kind of in the middle of the two, therefore seems quite difficult for people like farmers to access because they’re not comfortable with trees, so that’s a potential problem,” Crawford hypothesized in a film about his garden from 2010.
It’s perhaps necessary that they do. Agroforestry systems can produce varying amounts of an enormous variety of foods; their three-dimensional nature making up for the lack of powerhouse production potential of a traditional farm.
Organic farming, however, which is often hypothesized as an effective alternative, would require an average of 500% more land to feed the UK at current yields, while undesirably producing 170% more greenhouse gases due to the need to use overseas land, create natural fertilizer, and import the difference in production loss.
Hopefully Martin Crawford can inspire a generation of forest farmers through his innovative work, appealing to both dedicated agriculturalists, and lazybones who only feel like working a few hours a month.
(WATCH the National Geographic short about Martin below.)
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Like the song says, “There’s no place like home for the holidays.” Now, thanks to a pair of forward-thinking business owners in County Kerry, Ireland, three families will be moving into company subsidized housing in plenty of time to see Santa come down the chimney—and that’s just for starters.
Patricia and Tony Walsh, owners of Walsh Colour Print and Educate.ie employ nearly 120 people. Patricia explains that the work they do requires a specialized skill set. Since they’d been unable to find enough local job candidates to fit the bill, a good part of their workforce hails from other European countries.
Unfortunately, with housing options both limited and expensive in the area, many employees simply couldn’t afford to save for places of their own while paying steep rents.
Two such longtime workers were Anna and Marcin Wojs, who’ve been with the Walshes since emigrating to Ireland from Poland 16 years ago. Faced with the possibility of having to go home despite wanting to stay, they brought their dilemma to Patricia and Tony’s attention.
For the husband and wife team, the answer seemed obvious: Find a way to offer an affordable housing alternative as an incentive to keep their employees in the family fold.
So, in 2017, the couple sought planning permission to build tracts of not-for-profit homes on land already owned by Walsh Colour Print. The Clonaugh site can accommodate 70 units, 20 of which have been earmarked for company workers.
Rte.ie/Twitter
Built on a not-for-profit basis, the 1,000-square-foot attached homes are sold to employees at about €30,000 (roughly $36,500) below market value. To offset costs, the other 50 units are set to be sold at full value on the open market.
With the construction of three houses now complete, the Wojs family was the first to move into their new home and they’ve already begun decking the halls. The employees who purchased the two remaining homes are expected to ring in the new year in their new homes as well.
Tony Walsh notes that there will be an informal agreement with employees who purchase homes to stay with the company for the following 10 years. While he sees the measure as a way to ensure a steady workforce, he also believes homeownership will be a key factor in securing a stable future for his employees when they eventually retire.
“Mercin and Anna and their family are over the moon,” Tony Walsh told RTÉ News. “For the first time in their lives, they own something. We are going to roll this out now to the rest of our staff and, at the end of their time, when they are finished working with Walsh Colour Print and Educate.ie, they can close the door and say, ‘We own this.’”
Construction for the next tract of houses is scheduled to break ground next month. According to Patricia, providing affordable housing is already proving to be a job perk that’s a win/win for both employers and employees—and she heartily hopes other Irish firms will emulate their example.
In the meantime, Mercin, Anna, and their children are just thankful to be home for the holidays. “It’s the best Christmas present ever,” Anna said. “The feeling now is that we are happy, just happy.”
Three families in North Kerry are preparing to move into new homes developed on a not-for-profit basis by the company they work for. They were all purchased below market value and plans are underway to build 20 more homes for employees. pic.twitter.com/xOJc2KPBGT
When I was a kid, in truth I was a bit of a scaredy cat. The ‘adventurer’ in my family has always been my big brother. He’s the one who’s a search and rescue pilot. He’s the one who’s climbed the tallest mountain in the Swiss Alps, in a snowstorm—for fun.⠀
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Still, I’m always trying to shake up the scaredy cat inside me. And I’ve always known how important it is for girls to feel brave as they grow up.
Girls not feeling confident in themselves is common. In the high school years especially, according to Girl Scouts developmental psychologist Dr Andrea Bastiani Archibald, “girls, at large, experience so much hesitancy and a normative drop in confidence.”
One way to counteract that dip in confidence? By encouraging a sense of adventure in girls before they’re teenagers.
Such adventures don’t have to be big. Research from Anglia Ruskin University shows that even just going for a walk outside leaves people feeling more confident and better about their bodies. After all, nature doesn’t care about how we look. It doesn’t care who our friends are or the grades we got. It’s a place where we can really be ourselves.
That’s why I teamed up with the award-winning illustrator Amy Blackwell to create a middle grade book dedicated to real-life women adventurers from around the world, from 2,000 years ago to today.
The Girl Who Rode a Shark: And Other Stories of Daring Women
A USBBY Outstanding International Book 2020 and a CBC kids’ book pick, The Girl Who Rode a Shark: And Other Stories of Daring Women has been receiving star reviews in lots of places. Even more exciting, kids have been dressing as women from the book.
Here’s a young reader called Sophie dressed as her favorite dancer-turned-treetop scientist Nalini Nadkarni.
Through bright illustrations that combine portraits and hand-drawn maps, I’m so glad readers can now trace the ocean-soaring flights of pilot Amelia Earhart, follow Isabella Bird’s expedition up the Yangtze River, and meet Kimi Werner—the freediving chef who hitched a ride on the dorsal fin of a great white shark. I hope these stories help so many kids feel bold, and daring, and excited by the world.
As for me? I live in the Canadian Rockies these days, and while I still feel a little nervous before an adventure up a big mountain, or across a frozen river, I feel a lot bolder than I did as a kid.
Ailsa Ross sledding with dogs in the Yukon
It helps that I now have a lot of role models to help me feel daring. Here’s one of my favorite stories from The Girl Who Rode a Shark. Please meet Jade Hameister.
The polar explorer who hit back at bullies from the South Pole.
Jade Hamster, Illustration by Amy Blackwell for The Girl Who Rode a Shark
Jade Hameister lives in Australia. Her birth country is famous for beaches, kangaroos and koalas. It’s not so famous for snow. Yet when Jade was 12 years old, she decided to become a skier. In fact, she wanted to ski at the North Pole.
To ski in the Arctic requires lots of training, but Jade didn’t have anywhere to practise her technique. Still, she could build her strength and endurance at the gym. She also went to the local beach and ran with giant tyres attached to her waist. In this way, she mimicked the weight of pulling a heavy sled across ice. By the age of 14, Jade was ready for her adventure.
The world’s far north is not a blank canvas of soft snow. At the North Pole, Jade had to navigate ice rubble. She faced looming walls of snow blasted by furious winds. Between drifting fields of ice, there were rivers of freezing water to cross. Jade and her team used their sleds to build makeshift bridges over the water.
Every part of Jade’s body felt frozen and sore, but she never thought of giving up. She just felt lucky to be in this fragile yet beautiful part of the planet.In April 2016, after skiing 62 miles, Jade made history. She became the youngest person in history to ski to the North Pole by this route. Thirteen months later, she broke another record. In June 2017, Jade became the youngest woman to complete the 342-mile crossing over the Greenland icecap.
Jade gave a talk about her skiing adventures. On stage in Melbourne, she said that every human body is astonishing. It doesn’t matter what it looks like in selfies. What matters is who we are. The whole audience cheered.
But when the video was posted on YouTube, some male commenters wrote mean comments like, “Make me a sandwich.” This is a catchphrase used by internet bullies to try and make women feel small. It means, “Your achievements don’t matter. Your place is at home in the kitchen.”
Jade’s next skiing adventure was to the South Pole. For more than a month, storms blew across the mountains of Antarctica. Jade and her team pushed on to the bottom of the world anyway. Finally, standing in her pink snowsuit under a bright sky, Jade had her photo taken.
She was holding a plate with a sandwich on it. It was for her internet bullies. Jade posted the picture online. She captioned it, “I made you a sandwich (ham & cheese). Now ski 37 days and 600km to the South Pole and you can eat it.”
Like almost no other event within living memory, the COVID-19 pandemic has painted our world with a very dark brush. While there finally appears to be light at the end of the medical tunnel coming from the scientific quarter, during our most troubling hours, what many people turned to for solace was art.
Whether in the form of visual imagery or music, dance or poetry, the vivid power of art to take us out of the moment and uplift us from despair is a reminder that hope endures.
Unfortunately, as essential as art may be to the soul, with money spread thin between food, rent, and other must-haves during the lockdown, for many former patrons, being able to buy art is no longer part of the equation.
Earning a living as a fine artist is rarely easy in the best of times. As pandemic restrictions tightened their hold, closing galleries and shutting down regular shows, for many, it became close to impossible.
The realization that so many creative people were struggling was the catalyst that spurred NYC-based painter Guy Stanley Philoche—whose own Abstract canvasses can command in excess of $100,000 each—to launch a one-man crusade in support of his fellow artists.
“The art world is my community and I needed to help my community,” Philoche told CNN. “People say New York is dead, but it’s far from that. There’s an artist somewhere writing the next greatest album. There’s a kid right now in his studio painting the next Mona Lisa. There’s probably a dancer right now choreographing the next epic ballet. People forgot about the artists in these industries.”
In March, Philoche posted an Instagram shout-out to artists around the world asking them send images of their work. Since then, he’s spent in the neighborhood of $65,000 and purchased over 150 unique works of art from both friends and total strangers. His only criteria is that the art speaks to him.
Philoche and his family came to America when he was 3 years old. Like many immigrants, he says he learned to speak English by watching TV.
He was also inspired at a young age to make drawings of his favorite Disney characters. From those early efforts, his fascination for the art that would one day become his career was born.
It took Piloche decades to achieve success, however, now that he’s arrived, the 43-year-old feels honor-bound to pay his good fortune forward. “Art saved my life,” he said. “I owe it a debt I could never repay, but the only way to really repay it is by buying other art from someone who hasn’t gotten a big break yet. And that’s what I’m going to keep doing.”
Vincent Van Gogh once observed, “There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.”
While Philoche favors the Abstract style for his paintings, the tangible expressions of support he delivers to his fellow artists shine from a perspective that’s stunningly real—and may just well be his true masterpiece.
Feature image: Philoche Studios
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Quote of the Day: “If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.” – Epictetus (Greek Stoic philosopher, born a slave in 55 AD)
Photo by: Robert McGowan
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 letter-writing initiative that sees bundles of uplifting, personal notes being delivered to individuals in need of kind words is back with its ’12 Days of Love Letter Writing’ campaign, and you can join in on the action.
There are four more days to go in More Love Letters’ December drive, and the organization says: “We need your cursive to make this year the most impactful yet!
Sign up, and each morning you’ll find a new letter request. You’ll then have the day to write your letter to someone who might be feeling lonely or in need of some extra encouragement in the form of a handwritten note, and you can write as many letters as you’d like.
Everyone taking part sends their letter to More Love Letters’ listed address, and all those notes then get bundled and passed on to the person on the receiving end of the action.
The people who receive all those kind words, all those handwritten notes and letters and cards? They’ve been nominated by a friend or a family member.
We told the story of MLL’s beginnings earlier this year, with founder Andrea Brechner saying: “I published a simple question on my blog: ‘Do you need someone to write you a love letter today?’ and my inbox filled up with heartbreaking stories.” She explained to Good News Network, “That one question changed my life forever as I spent the next year writing hundreds of love letters to strangers in all parts of the world.”
Soon after, Brechner created MLL. Now there are 42,000 Facebook members, and more than a quarter of a million letters have been passed on to surprise recipients since the organization’s inception in 2011.
Those letters make a difference. Here’s a recent note from a recipient on MLL’s Instagram:
A Canadian teenager just took first place in a global science competition for her brilliant explanation of quantum tunneling.
Breakthrough Junior Challenge/YouTube
Maryam Tsegaye lives in Fort McMurray—a city that hit headlines for devastating reasons in 2016, when 88,000 people were forced from their homes due to wildfire.
Now, thanks to her ability to explain tricky quantum physics theory with ease, this 17-year-old has taken top prize at the sixth annual international Breakthrough Junior Challenge.
The challenge is a science video competition where young people showcase their knowledge of scientific principles in various fields.
In a three-minute explainer, Maryam likened the behavior of electrons to how her brother cheats while playing games online:
“So I was watching my brother play this video game and he used a cheat code that let his character do a walk-through-walls hack,” she says in the video. “He pushed himself against a barrier in the game, hit some buttons and boom, his character appeared on the other side,” she says in her video.
“Imagine if you could walk through walls in real life—and it turns out you can, at a quantum level.”
Alberta politician Rachel Notley spoke for many when she tweeted her congratulations to the teen.
I don't have the first clue what quantum tunnelling is but I'm glad Fort McMurray's Maryam Tsegaye is on it!
Maryam is the first Canadian to win the $500,000 international Breakthrough Junior Challenge. Congrats! #ableg#ymmhttps://t.co/ALTt7bR293
A new ‘green’ Mediterranean diet, containing even more plant matter and very little red meat or poultry, may be even better for cardiovascular and metabolic health than the traditional version suggests new research published in the journal Heart.
The Mediterranean diet, rich in plant-based foods, is linked to a lower risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes and currently forms the backbone of dietary guidelines to stave off coronary heart disease.
It’s thought that its impact is related to higher dietary intake of polyphenols, ‘healthy’ fats and fibre, and lower animal protein intake.
Researchers in Israel, Germany, and the USA wanted to find out whether a greener version of this diet, higher in green plant food sources and even lower in red meat intake, might be even better for health.
The first group received guidance on boosting physical activity and basic guidelines for achieving a healthy diet.
The second received the same physical activity guidance plus advice on following a calorie-restricted (1500–1800 calories per day for men and 1200–1400 calories per day for women) traditional Mediterranean diet.
This was low in simple carbohydrates, rich in vegetables, with poultry and fish replacing red meat. It included 28 grams per day of walnuts.
The third group received physical activity guidance plus advice on following a similar calorie-restricted green version of the Mediterranean diet.
This included 28 grams per day of walnuts, avoidance of red/processed meat, and higher quantities of plant matter. It also included 3–4 cups a day of green tea and 100 grams frozen cubes of Wolffia globosa (cultivated Mankai strain)—a high protein form of the aquatic plant duckweed, taken as a green plant-based protein shake as a partial substitute for animal protein.
After six months, the effect of each of the diets on weight loss and on cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors was assessed.
Those on both types of Mediterranean diet lost more weight: those on the green Mediterranean (green Med) diet lost 6.2 kg; those on the Mediterranean diet lost 5.4 kg; and those on the healthy diet lost 1.5 kg.
Waist circumference—an indicator of a potentially harmful midriff bulge—shrank by an average of 8.6 cm among those on the green Med diet compared with 6.8 cm for those on the Mediterranean diet and 4.3 cm for those on the healthy diet.
The green Med diet group achieved larger falls in ‘bad’ low-density cholesterol of 6.1 mg/dl, a reduction of nearly 4%. The equivalent figures were 2.3 mg/dl (nearly 1%) for those in the Mediterranean diet group, and 0.2 mg/dl for those in the healthy diet group.
Similarly, other cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors improved more among those on the green Med diet, including falls in diastolic blood pressure, insulin resistance, and an important marker of inflammation, C-reactive protein, which has a key role in artery hardening. The ratio of ‘good’ to ‘bad’ cholesterol also increased.
These changes resulted in a substantial nearly two-fold fall in the 10-year Framingham Risk Score—a calculation used to predict the likelihood of serious heart disease over the next decade—among those on the green Med diet.
The researchers caution that their sample included just 35 women, nor were they able to identify the specific factors in the green Med diet responsible for the observed effects.
But they write in their peer-reviewed research: “Education and encouragement to follow a green Med dietary pattern in conjunction with physical activity has the potential to be a major contributor to public health as it may improve balancing of cardiovascular risk factors, eventually preventing cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.”
And they conclude: “Our findings suggest that additional restriction of meat intake with a parallel increase in plant-based, protein-rich foods, may further benefit the cardiometabolic state and reduce cardiovascular risk, beyond the known beneficial effects of the traditional Mediterranean diet.”
Source: BMJ
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Tesco, the world’s third-largest grocery store chain, has announced that as millions of Yule-tide products appear across its shelves, they do so lacking 20 million individual pieces of what would have been single-use plastic.
The always-proud-to-help-the-environment grocer, who embraced the five pence tax on bags, and places carbon footprint labeling on its products, switched to recycled cardboard for packaging of Christmas lights, crackers, pudding, cards, and more.
This is partly down to new regulations entering force in 2022 that taxes plastic packaging which doesn’t include at least 30% recycled material.
“It is an absolute priority of ours to remove and reduce the amount of plastic in our stores to the minimum and ensure everything we use is recycled and kept out of the environment–Christmas time is no exception and we want to do our bit to help customers have more sustainable celebrations,” said Sarah Bradbury, Tesco’s Quality Director said in a statement.
With a bit of alliteration, it’s easy to see how they arrived at this milestone of 20 million pieces, as the quality department’s “4R” motto is “Remove it where we can. Reduce where we can’t. Reuse more. Recycle what’s left.”
Simple decisions, such as removing the plastic layer around a box of Christmassy puddings, spared 1.78 million pieces of plastic, while removing the plastic packaging components of their own-brand crackers alone left their operations 14 million plastic pieces lighter.
In Tesco’s 2020 holiday report, the British grocer noted that they went into the holiday season with a different attitude, and that surveys they conducted helped guide their decisions.
“Over two thirds of Brits expect world events to impact their celebrations, turning the nation towards the festive fundamentals of family, friends and tradition,” says the opener of the report which found that 50% of the 2,011 people questioned said they had started reusing Christmas decorations.
It also found that a third of participants said they will only buy loose fruit and veg to reduce plastic packaging, and that a quarter will reuse wrapping paper.
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Australian wildlife ecologists were overjoyed to find endemic pygmy possums surviving on Kangaroo Island after it was torched by wildfires.
Facebook/Kangaroo Island Land for Wildlife
In what was the equivalent of finding a very little needle in a haystack hundreds of thousands of acres wide, the survival of the possum on the South Australian island is a sign that wildlife escaped the almost 200,000 hectares burned by this year’s bushfires.
Weighing only seven grams, and having been recorded only 113 times officially by science, it was by no means obvious that ecologists and volunteers working for the Kangaroo Island Land for Wildlife NGO would find the cercartetus lepidus—the pygmy possum—after fire destroyed so much of its habitat.
The world’s smallest possum, C. lepidus is found only on Kangaroo Island, Tasmania, and in very small numbers on the South Australian coast.
Speaking with ABC News Australia, ecologist Pat Hodgens, working with the NGO said: “…the summer bushfires burnt through much of [the] habitat that species had, but we were certainly hopeful that we would find them.”
“It’s very important now because it is kind of like the last refuge for a lot of these species that really rely on very old long, unburned vegetation,” he said.
Facebook/Kangaroo Island Land for Wildlife
In mid-November about 16 people from the NGO surveyed 20 sites, finding 200 different individual animals of over 20 different species, all of which are endemic and some of which are endangered.
These included southern brown bandicoots, western and little pygmy possums, brush-tailed possum, and the tammar wallaby, as well as amphibians like the eastern banjo frog, common froglet, painted frog, spotted grass frog, and Bibron’s toadlet.
Australia’s marsupials are found nowhere else in the world, and they suffer from many invasive species through predation and competition for food. Add in destructive wildfires and their survival odds seem non-existent; but as we know from Jeff Goldblum’s role in Jurassic Park, life finds a way.
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