The World Health Organization reported that malaria deaths fell last year to the lowest level ever recorded.
Zach Vessels
The mortality rate has dropped by almost 60% in the last two decades, and 1.5 billion malaria cases have been averted globally in the period between 2000 and 2019. Together, the various organizations have achieved 7.6 million fewer deaths from the mosquito-born disease.
The 2020 edition of the World Malaria Report takes a look back at key events and milestones that helped shape the global response to the disease over the last 2 decades—a period of unprecedented success in malaria control.
This year’s 2020 report also features a special section on malaria and the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as a detailed analysis on progress towards the 2020 milestones of WHO’s global malaria strategy.
It also tracks the monetary investments by 91 nations. An estimated $3 billion was spent last year on malaria control and elimination, compared with $ 2.7 billion in 2018 and $ 3.2 billion in 2017.
The highest contributions in 2019 came from the government of the United States, which provided $1.1 billion, followed by the United Kingdom donating $ 0.2 billion.
An estimated two-thirds of deaths are among children under the age of five.
Malaria is preventable and treatable, and with generous support by these and other nations and nonprofits, the mortality rate has dropped from 24.7 per 100,000 people in 2000 to just over ten deaths per 100,000 in 2019.
One of the oldest trees in Canada, a towering red oak believed to be more than 250 years old, was facing the axe when a new homeowner bought the property. But now, thanks to a last-minute vote by the city, the tree will be saved for future generations.
Concept illustration of park – Toronto City Council
On November 26, the Toronto City Council voted to preserve this mighty oak by authorizing the purchase of the property for the creation of a mini-park.
Due to its size, age, beauty, and cultural significance, the magnificent tree is already recognized as a heritage tree under Forests Ontario’s Heritage Tree Program.
Fully matured, the red oak’s branches span 78-feet (24 meters) with a trunk circumference of over 17 feet (5m).
With generous monetary support from 1,300 donors helping to raise money, the city will make up any shortfall to secure the property’s purchase and establish the space as a parkette, to preserve and showcase this beautiful oak.
A decade ago, Heritage Toronto unveiled a commemorative plaque, which captured this great oak’s place in the city’s natural heritage, which reads in part:
“The large red oak (Quercus rubra) situated in the backyard of 76 Coral Gable Drive is more than 250 years old, making it one of the oldest in the city. Before Europeans colonized this area, the Humber River branch of the Toronto Carrying Place trail system Opens in new window passed nearby. The tree was part of its delicate savannah ecosystem. This network of trails and portages was used by Indigenous peoples to travel between Lake Simcoe and Lake Ontario and to trade throughout what is now Southern Ontario and beyond. The tree survived European settlement despite logging along the Humber River, clearance of the land for agriculture, and the development of this suburban neighbourhood in the early 1960s. The Coral Gable Drive red oak is a remarkable specimen of its species.”
The ecological, social and economic benefits inherent to preserving and fostering canopy cover are many, including reducing fine particulate matter air pollution, cooling the air by shading surfaces and releasing water vapor, providing habitat for wildlife, reducing storm-water runoff, sequestering carbon from the atmosphere and providing a link to the natural history of the area. In 2020, it was calculated that this oak stores 2.5 tons of carbon dioxide per year.
Donors from across the city, province, and beyond, have helped ensure the property is secured and will help create a new home for Toronto’s tree. People can donate money to support the creation of the parkette, and help create a befitting setting for the magnificent tree.
You may feel like things are challenging at this moment in your life. But let’s get this straight right now. It’s not because you’re failing, or broken.
The Doorway
You’re standing at the doorway. On one side of the door, you can decide that life has not turned out the way you desire. It’s unfair. It’s too hard. Maybe the same thing keeps happening to you—or not happening.
You might feel anxious or discouraged. You don’t have real money. Stable true love. The recognition or freedom you deserve. It almost works out sometimes—but then it rains. The job is taken away.
Part of you knows, it doesn’t have to be this way.
This is a life that is “happening to you.” This perspective denies your own power. I am not demeaning your feelings of frustration. It’s just that I have something more useful in mind.
You can walk through this doorway.
You may have to crawl. You may need to breathe deeper than you have ever breathed. You may do it while kicking stones and cans in resentment, but doing it nonetheless, giving yourself a shot. You may have to grow. You may have to choose to do things in a way that you have never done them before. You may have to become a superhero in your own lifetime.
I want you to step into the life you didn’t plan. I want you to loosen up on your control over everything you think needs to happen.
Everything that hasn’t exactly worked out in your life brought you to this wooden doorstep. It is the doorstep of willingness. It is a precipice. It is an adventure. It is a cliff. It is a choice. It is time to unlock your powers or your destiny. Congrats, you’ve arrived.
Uncertainty is your new best friend. It will help you discover your certainty. It will help you reach for freedom. Because when you let go of your plan, you open to a powerful path, the path of being led. It’s the beginning of your True Life, the one of following your inspired instincts instead of your fear.
This takes courage. Or desperation. Or curiosity. Or ambivalence. I don’t care how you get here. Let’s just do this. Let’s begin in this second. Let’s give life a new chance. It’s the only life you have. I’d say bet your life on it.
You are growing beyond where you have been. Your life isn’t diminishing. Your old life is diminishing. Your True Life is expanding. It’s roaring for your love and commitment.You may think you’re stuck. I’d say you’re standing at a threshold.
Things change when you decide to thrive
Where is uncertainty creating discomfort for you? Making you feel small? Or making you play small in your life? That’s where you’re getting fooled. You’re letting the circumstances of your life define who you are.
Oh, but butterfly-grasshopper-lover of transformation, you are here to define (or redefine) your circumstances. You are the storyteller in your life. And you are here to live a Great Story with a happy middle, as well as a happy ending.
Because as you show up for your true desires, life shows up for you. You feel alive when you show up. You feel flattened and hollow when you don’t. You may have your “reasons.” But it doesn’t matter. Anything that keeps you from showing up, is poison.
Why do some people keep going? Why do some people come up with creative angles that immediately get attention? Why do some people meet the right connection? Or bounce back from setbacks? Find the right doctor? Get funding? Meet that incredible partner? Get the breaks? Enjoy where they are, no matter the circumstance?
They have mastered the art of showing up with love for their lives. Acting with love. Choosing with love. Glowing. Having that something extra. They are not forcing their lives. They are discovering them. Working with their own spirit, instead of against it.
I’m sensitive this way, because I have almost given up or settled, lost my own fight to anxieties and frustration too many times. And it’s unbearable to me to think of the life I would have missed—and I so don’t want you to miss the life that is calling to you.
I know what it’s like to have everything change and to have to make up your life out of thin air and fight back tumultuous fears to do it. It took a different voice within me to create a different life.
I just couldn’t find my way in the world. I had to find myself first. I found myself by learning how to listen to a loving voice inside myself. It’s been a quantum shift in how I think and approach everything in life. When I began, I thought I was just going through a massive career transition. But that career transition turned out to be an identity transformation. It’s been a spiritual pilgrimage of shedding old, limiting, and “rational” beliefs. I couldn’t have a different life until I realized I was so much more than who I thought I was. We all are.
I’ve now been a career, life, and success coach for almost 30 years. I’ve also worked with thousands in workshops and retreats. Having sat with individuals at the frontiers of their most pressing moments in relationships, work, health, true desire, grief, and everything else, I know firsthand the pivotal difference it makes when we change how we see our possibilities.
You have a process
If you’re in transition–the things you decide right now will affect your entire life. And because you’re going through change, you feel more vulnerable. And when you’re feeling weak, it’s possible to make weaker choices than you really want to make. I want to help you choose from strength, love and the astounding guidance of your inspired mind. Because when your plans fail, that’s when your real life begins. This is a precious opportunity to create the life that is calling your name right now.
Fears and resistance will talk you out of showing up for yourself in every way you can. But it is showing up for yourself that will end your pain.
My yoga teacher Jen once said, “You think you are hitting obstacles on your path. But the obstacles are your path.” Now of course she’s a yoga instructor and specializes in stretching people into physical torture for a living, while she shares philosophy, so there’s that. But I’ve shared this same wisdom with my clients: whatever is in your way, is your way. Because your life is your life. It’s not an accident. It’s a miracle.
If you and I were working one-on-one together, I would assure you, you have a path. It’s already within you. It’s better than you imagine. In fact, it’s so much better, you can’t imagine it. It’s time to follow your innate intelligence,encour instead of doubt it.
You’re not just going to shift your circumstances. You’re about to shift your identity. You may be thinking, that’s great but can I pay the mortgage? Can I help my son stop drinking? Can I find a publicist for my work? Can I find another job? And I will tell you, yes you can. This and more.
Albert Einstein said “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” It’s time to realize you don’t have a problem. You have a process. You are in transformation. And that means you’re moving forward into the next, best part of your life.
Every circumstance you are in is a chosen conversation designed for your good. There is a scent to follow. The wind is pushing you in the right direction or whispering what is necessary. The rain is a wild unfettered priest dousing your existence in holy water. Everything is in your favor. The moments of realizing this are worth a lifetime. Really, it’s one thing to be alive. It is a whole other thing to be awake.
This is what it means to thrive through uncertainty. This what it means to show up for your life. Walk through this door.
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A “miraculous” haul of gold coins dating from the late 15th century was discovered by a family digging in their garden.
The highlight of the hoard was a collection of four coins bearing the initials of the wives of Henry VIII—Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour, according to the British Museum.
The 63 gold coins were found in the New Forest area of Hampshire by a family who wanted to remain anonymous.
The pandemic stay-at-home orders have led to a boost in finds from home gardens, including some very special and intriguing discoveries, like a Roman furniture fitting dating from nearly 2,000 years ago.
These treasures are among more than 47,000 finds that were registered this year with the British Museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS)—with 6,251 discoveries reported during the first lockdown in the UK.
John Naylor, from the Ashmolean Museum, told PA News the hoard was likely to have been hidden either by a wealthy merchant or clergy fearful of Henry VIII during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, in which he took control of many of the religious community’s assets.”
“Some monasteries and some churches did try to hide their wealth hoping that they would be able to keep it in the long term.”
Trustees of the British Museum
To all who are inspired now to dig, happy hunting!
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Quote of the Day: “That rule about having to act one’s age? I just don’t buy it. Emotionally, I’m about 13.” – Dick Van Dyke (turns 95 today)
Photo by: Chirag Thapa
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New Yorkers are the most savings-conscious compared to any other state, according to a new poll of 5,000 Americans from all 50 states.
Interestingly, the results also showed that 58% of those polled said COVID-19 has completely changed how they approach savings, with 53% saying they’ve started saving for different things since the pandemic started.
Of those surveyed, the top thing they were saving for was found to be an emergency of some kind (32%) followed closely by retirement (31%), with a new car coming in at a distant third (20%).
But the respondents are also making a much greater effort to put money away. Nearly six in ten (59%) say they are officially cutting back on their spending towards this effort.
The survey, conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Slickdeals, aimed to uncover data around how people in different states are reacting to their finances in the wake of the pandemic.
Of those cutting back, taking advantage of deals and discounts instead of buying at retail price (45%) was a popular method, as well as getting less take-out (44%) and making coffee at home rather than getting their caffeine fix from a pricey cafe.
“Cutting back on your spending does not always require drastically altering your lifestyle,” said Ryan Tronier, senior personal finance editor at Slickdeals. “Once saving money becomes a priority, you can start to make minor changes that start to add up over time.”
The saving-conscious New Yorkers are putting away, on average, 14.5% of their income towards savings goals or investment accounts.
Georgia came in second place with 12.9%, and Texas placed third with 12.7%—with residents from nearly every other state tucking less than 10% away for future goals.
The average respondent was found to have $17,135 locked away in a savings or investment account, with people from South Dakota leading the way with an overall average of $24,497 in savings.
The states with the least amount of savings were found to be West Virginia ($6,936) and Tennessee ($9,628).
TOP STATES FOR MOST MONEY SOCKED AWAY…
South Dakota $24,497
New Hampshire $24,187
Wyoming $22,626
Montana $22,522
Pennsylvania $20,252
Rhode Island $20,227
Hawaii $19,613
Massachusetts $19,565
North Dakota $19,185
Wisconsin $18,725
Nebraska $18,517
Georgia $17,562
Alaska $17,491
Delaware $17,451
Virginia $17,245
Nevada $16,752
Iowa $16,738
New York $16,609
Minnesota $15,884
New Jersey $15,151
Utah $15,066
New Mexico $15,039
Michigan $14,928
Texas $14,832
Alabama $14,813
Maine $14,657
Washington $14,431
Indiana $14,396
Kansas $13,900
Maryland $13,815
Vermont $13,573
Illinois $13,416
Kentucky $13,238
North Carolina $13,237
Connecticut $12,823
Colorado $12,490
South Carolina $12,240
Oregon $12,094
Florida $11,955
California $11,815
Arizona $11,804
Ohio $11,436
Oklahoma $11,414
Louisiana $10,939
Arkansas $10,805
Missouri $10,478
Idaho $10,208
Tennessee $9,628
Mississippi $9,306
West Virginia $6,936
What began as a single act of kindness ignited a chain of good cheer stretching 900 cars long.
KARE TV mashup
A Dairy Queen restaurant in Brainerd, Minnesota was the scene of the pay-it-forward chain that lasted nearly three days.
The store manager Tina Jensen was excited on December 3 when a man said he’d like to pay for the car behind him, so she gave the heart-warming news to the people in that car, and then asked if they wanted to do the same.
“If you like I can pay it forward and you can pay for the order behind you and we can keep this going,” Jensen recalled in an interview with KARE-TV. “She’s like ‘really, why would he do that?’.”
She agreed to make that Thursday a ‘lucky day’ for the car behind her—and after that, the next car kept paying for whoever came next.
Jensen says, “One lady, she was so excited, she threw us a 20 dollar bill almost in tears. ‘Are you serious. This is really going on?’ I said, yep, you are about 125 cars into it. She said, ‘For real, can you believe this?'”
The longest chain this drive-through ever experienced was 15 to 20 cars, but in 2020 with the holiday spirit in the air, everyone wanted to keep it going.
Tina posted about it on Facebook, and people started driving to the restaurant just so they could participate—all day Friday, and most of Saturday, they kept coming, and paying the tab for the person next in line.
Nigella sativa plant by AndreHolz, and its black cumin seeds by Mountainhills – CC license
Using a variety of cumin, scientists in India have patented their innovative herbal gel for affordable, effective treatment of mild to moderate psoriasis.
The inflammatory skin disorder that causes itchiness and irritation from red and scaly rashes already affects millions of people around the world and the numbers may be up during the pandemic.
Treatments are available in the market today, but existing treatment options, including steroid and UV radiation therapy, tend to be expensive, with possible side effects.
There is still no cure for psoriasis, but scientists at Shoolini University developed a plant-based gel, which contains a natural anti-inflammatory chemical compound that could be considerably cheaper.
The invention by scientists at the Himachal Pradesh-based university contains thymoquinone, a pharmacologically active chemical found in the seeds of the plant Nigella sativa—commonly known as black cumin and widely used in Asian cooking and herbal medicine.
Nigella sativa
Dr. Poonam Negi, Charul Rathore, and Ishita Sharma harnessed thymoquinone’s known therapeutic effects into a gel that can provide instant relief from the itchy rashes and thereby improve a patient’s quality of life.
Nigella sativa plant by AndreHolz, and its black cumin seeds by Mountainhills – CC license
Sativa oil is traditionally used for treating skin conditions, including psoriatic rashes. But, Dr. Negi says, “This oil contains low thymoquinone levels, which forces patients to apply large amounts of it. Our developed gel, however, maintains therapeutically effective concentrations of thymoquinone at the psoriatic lesions.”
The product was shown to be more effective than the oil, and it has been tested pre-clinically for its efficacy and safety, with clinical trials yet to be completed.
Increased importance during the pandemic
It is worth noting that many conventional treatment options for psoriasis, such as steroids, work by suppressing the immune system. This is a matter of serious concern, given the current spread of COVID-19, which requires a strong, balanced immune system to combat the infection. Shoolini’s gel would relieve psoriatic rashes without compromising the immune system.
The water-based patented gel is also attractive now because of its affordability.
Global sales of psoriasis treatments are growing at approximately 7% per year and are expected to reach US$ 13.1 billion by 2025.
Dr. Negi predicts their therapy would cost under $7 per month in cases of mild psoriasis and under $15 for cases of moderate-to-severe psoriasis.
They are in stage 2 of the development of the product and they told GNN they are looking for an industry partner, and hope to get this to the market in the next 2 years. We will be sure to post an update when they do.
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Because of the ESA, Arctic oil drilling was not allowed – Photo by Hans-Jurgen Mager
Now that the U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled on an offshore oil drilling project in the Arctic, polar bear protectors finally have a reason to celebrate.
Young polar bear in Alaska by Hans-Jurgen Mager
Bastions of unusually-rich biodiversity in the waters of the Beaufort Sea will remain undisturbed with the project’s defeat, as it would have required building not only the oil derrick itself, but a gravel mine in the bay to make the rig’s pylons, as well as many supporting installations.
After the Trump administration gave approval for the project in 2018 to Hillcorp Alaska, its Liberty oil project in Foggy Island Bay was immediately slapped with lawsuits decrying the permits. The decision came on December 7 from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
“I’m pleased that the court today rejected the administration’s inaccurate and misleading analysis of this project’s impact to the climate,” said Earth Justice attorney Jeremy Lieb in a statement from the Center for Biological Diversity following the decision.
“In the face of a worsening climate crisis, the federal government should not be in the business of approving irresponsible offshore oil development in the Arctic.”
“Today’s news is a victory for Alaska’s imperiled polar bears that are threatened by oil and gas development throughout virtually all of their terrestrial denning critical habitat—in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, and in the nearshore marine environment, as well,” said Nicole Whittington-Evans, Alaska program director at Defenders of Wildlife, another of the environmental groups which filed lawsuits.
Foggy Island Bay is home to a wealth of threatened and endangered marine mammals, including polar bears, six species of whales, three species of seals, sea lions, sea otters, and Pacific walruses. Seabirds, numerous species of fish, and larger mammals all frequent the shallow waters around the Bay.
The presence of some of these animals, including polar bears which are listed as ‘vulnerable’, means that the construction would engage the Endangered Species Act protections. Furthermore, there were also omissions on how much carbon the project would add to the atmosphere through oil extraction.
The prosecution argued that the Liberty project, containing about 120 million barrels, would extract oil to be sold on the global market, decreasing prices, and allowing more nations to afford more oil, and that this would contribute many more millions of metric tons of CO2 than if the oil were not extracted, and we purchased it from other countries.
The defense argued that by ensuring the highest quality environmental standards at the Liberty project, it would benefit the environment since oil wouldn’t be produced in countries with much less-stringent regulations.
The court ruled that the omission of foreign oil emissions estimates, poor-quality modeling including unproven assumptions, and a failure from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to adequately measure the risks to the endangered polar bears was enough to shoot down the Liberty project.
The decision comes on the heels of the Trump administration’s Army Corps of Engineers deciding in November to scrap the infamous Pebble Mine project in Alaska. Now, the whales, seals, birds, and the vulnerable polar bears, will have the area all to themselves.
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Quote of the Day: “Don’t hide your scars. They make you who you are.” – Frank Sinatra (born 105 years ago today)
Photo by: Shane
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Some of the below was reprinted with permission from World at Large, a news outlet focusing on space, health, conservation, environmental and foreign policy, and travel.
Researchers at Harvard Medical School have successfully restored vision loss and reversed glaucoma-induced damage in mice.
In the mice, the retinal ganglion cells, a principal cell that enables vision, were restored to a youthful state in cases of glaucoma, as well as when the optic nerve, another key component of eyesight, had been damaged. Both were achieved through expressing certain transcription factors—proteins that turn genes on and off.
“The study sheds light on the mechanisms of ageing, and identifies new potential therapeutic targets for age-related neuronal diseases such as glaucoma,” reads a statement from researchers at Harvard Medical School.
The new study, published in Nature, was conducted by Dr. David Sinclair, of the world’s foremost experts on ageing-related research in mice.
Along with genetic research, Sinclair has also looked at how supplement-ready compounds like resveratrol and Metformin affect aging, and his book, Lifespan: Why We Age and Why We Don’t Have To, is a New York Times bestseller.
Repairing a scratched CD
The science behind Sinclair’s new paper involves the curious process of methylation. Governed by epigenetics—that is, changes in the genetic expression of the cell over time—the researchers found that methylation in mammalian tissues prevents the cells from replicating proteins properly while simultaneously encoding a kind of genetic history.
One can imagine this as scratches on the bottom of a CD. If the scratches could be removed, the record of proper function is still there, and could still be read by the laser in a CD player.
In his book, Sinclair details the modern theory of aging, which is that changes in epigenetics and damage to cells and tissues prevent the body from properly reading protein-encoding genes, resulting in either faulty, less-functional, i.e. older genes being transcribed, or the proteins not being replaced at all.
Here the authors found that when the mouse neurons were recovering from damage related to glaucoma, the methyl groups which built up over time left, like the scratches being removed from a disk.
This resulted in a process called demethylation. Demethylation was associated with younger genetic expression, in other words, the mouse’s genes remembered how to be young again, only after demethylation had occurred.
“These data indicate that mammalian tissues retain a record of youthful epigenetic information—encoded in part by DNA methylation—that can be accessed to improve tissue function and promote regeneration in vivo,” write the authors in their summary.
It remains to be seen whether records of youthful genetic expression are contained within other mammalian tissues, the liver for a random example, through methylation, and whether or not they can be accessed through demethylation.
If it’s true that simply altering some transcription factors is enough to clear the dust off the rule book for how to build young proteins, Sinclair stands to make a major breakthrough.
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Far from the rolling plains of the Dakotas, Wyoming, and Montana, wild bison in Europe are also recovering in large numbers.
The European wood bison population has grown so much as to no longer be considered “Vulnerable” according to the global authority on conservation, the IUCN, in their latest Red List update.
Present in Poland, the Netherlands, Russia, Belarus, the Baltics, Ukraine, Bulgaria, and Romania, the bison totals 6,200 individuals across 47 free-ranging herds.
The result of large-scale conservation strategies, it’s an example of what can be accomplished with large herbivores when one gives them time, space, and safety.
A century ago, only 50 European bison remained on Earth, and they were mostly confined to breeding sanctuaries.
In Russia, one of the prime habitats for European bison, the national WWF-chapter has been introducing genetically distinct wood bison in the Caucuses Mountains for 11 years, and their herds total 143 in three different groups, though there could easily be thousands of them in the North Caucuses—a goal WWF-Russia is eager to achieve.
“The conservation successes in today’s Red List update provide living proof that the world can set, and meet, ambitious biodiversity targets,” said Dr. Jane Smart, Global Director of IUCN’s Biodiversity Conservation Group in a statement.
Eight of the 47 bison herds are genetically viable for long-term survival, so scientists need to rotate animals in and out of herds in order to ensure healthy genetic lineages. Establishing greater numbers of separate herds will also help prevent irreparable loss due to things like disease or natural disasters.
This led to the creation of a project called “Wilder Blean” where Blean Woods in Kent, England, will receive Dutch and Polish bison to create the first wild herd on the island for 6,000 years.
English conservationists and wildlife managers are interested in the effects bison have on the landscape. As large grazing herbivores, the constant foraging, digging, scuffing, and breaking they do on the forest floor has been hypothesized as having tremendous revitalizing effects on the ecosystem.
Bison kill weak or dead trees by eating their bark or rubbing against them to remove their thick winter fur. This turns the tree into food and habitat for insects, which in turn provide food for birds. The resulting pocket of sunlight allows new plants to grow, replenishing the woodland.
In this way they act like forestry experts, and the Kent Wildlife Trust hopes that this “keystone” species will prop up declining populations of plants, birds, insects, and mammals by way of their unique habits.
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What’s better than being utterly in love? How about being “otterly” in love?
Cornish Seal Sanctuary
When we last reported on erstwhile Asian short-clawed otter Harris who’d lost his mate, he’d just dipped his toe back into the dating pool. Now, thanks to the online otter dating service Fishing For Love (because there apparently is such a thing), Harris has met his match.
Sea Life Scarborough
With a profile pairing that looked particularly promising, Harris was relocated from his home at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary to SEA LIFE Scarborough on the coast of Yorkshire where his new mate, Pumpkin, who’d similarly lost her prior life partner, awaited him. (According to experts on the species, otter blind dates work best when the male hooks up with the female on her own turf—or in this case, aquarium enclosure—rather than the other way around.)
The newly-met otter couple’s brief-getting-to-know-you and honeymoon period went off without a hitch. Aquarium staff report the pair has since bonded beautifully and all signs point to a long and happy union.
“After an extremely sad period for both Pumpkin and the Animal Care team here at Scarborough we are delighted to report that not only is Pumpkin happy once again, but Harris has settled in extremely well and has already become part of the SEA LIFE Scarborough family,” said program curator Todd German.
While he’s missed at his former home, Harris’s friends and keepers are thrilled for him as well. “We are absolutely delighted that Pumpkin and Harris are getting on so well and he has settled in so quickly,” Cornish Seal Sanctuary curator Tamara Cooper told CNN.
Sea Life Scarborough
And in the words of SEA LIFE Scarborough, may they “live happily otter after.”
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For many of the servicemen and women who’ve bravely served in war zones, leaving the horrors of the battlefield behind isn’t as simple as just hanging up their uniforms when they get home.
Post-traumatic stress disorder encompasses a wide range of symptoms. When Tyler Skluzacek, son of combat vet Patrick Skluzaceksaw saw his father’s life unravel as the result of recurring debilitating nightmares, he knew he had to do something about it.
Carmen Ferderber
In 2015, when Tyler, then a senior at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, learned of an upcoming collaborative computer programming “hackathon” event in Washington, D.C. focused on developing apps to help people like his dad, he was determined to participate.
With technology patterned on the intuitive countermanding measures PTSD service animals provide, Tyler and his team came up with the prototype for the “anti-night-terror” smartwatch app. The program detects the onset of nocturnal disturbances by measuring the wearer’s heart rate and movement. Before the nightmare can take hold, the app delivers a subtle disruption (equivalent to a gentle nudge or a lick from a dog) to reset the wearer’s sleep pattern.
Calibrating the correct vibration level for the watch proved to be a challenge. It had to deliver “just enough stimulus to pull them out of the deep REM cycle and allow the sleep to continue unaffected,” Tyler told NPR.
With his dad serving as a volunteer Guinea pig, Tyler continued to tweak his creation until the algorithm was pretty much pitch-perfect. Once the glitches were worked out and the app was performing as intended, both father and son were floored by the immediate difference it made in Patrick’s life.
“It was night and day when I put that watch on and it started working,” Patrick said. The vibrations worked like “little miracles.”
Tyler, now a graduate student in computer science at the University of Chicago, realized the potential for the “little miracles” he’d created to help other PTSD sufferers. With the goal of putting his life-changing app into widespread distribution, he sold the rights to an investor.
According to the VA, the newly FDA-approved Apple Watch-compatible technology (marketed under the brand name Nightware) should be available by prescription—transforming nightmares into sweeter dreams and bringing hard-earned rest to deserving military veterans everywhere—in the near future.
Quote of the Day: “There is a Passion natural to the Mind of man, especially a free Man, which renders him impatient of Restraint.” – George Mason (born 295 years ago today)
Photo by: SwapnIl Dwivedi
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While there aren’t any species of mushroom large enough to live in, one Bay-area designer thinks he can make one if he only cranks out enough of his patented “mushroom bricks.”
Copyright Philip Ross, Mycoworks
In fact, he knows he can do it, because he’s already build a showpiece called “Mycotecture”—a 6×6 mushroom brick arch from Ganoderma lucidum or reishi mushrooms.
Phil Ross doesn’t use the mushroom, or fruiting body of the reishi; he uses mycelium, the fast-growing fibrous roots that make up the vast majority of fungus lifeforms.
Mycelium grows fast, and is incredibly durable, waterproof, non-toxic, fire-resistant, and biodegradable.
Ross uses it to build bricks by growing mycelium in bags of delicious (to mushrooms) sawdust, before drying them out and cutting them with extremely heavy-duty steel blades.
This works because mushrooms digest cellulose in the sawdust, converting it into chitin, the same fiber that insect exoskeletons are made from.
“The bricks have the feel of a composite material with a core of spongy cross grained pulp that becomes progressively denser towards its outer skin,” explained Discover Magazine. “The skin itself is incredibly hard, shatter resistant, and can handle enormous amounts of compression.”
Copyright Philip Ross, Mycoworks
One design/architecture website described these mushroom bricks as “stronger than concrete,” while another quotes Ross in an interview suggesting that it could replace all manner of plastic polymer building materials.
Indeed, designers have already used mycelium to make cloth hats, sea-worthy canoes, and eco-friendly coffins. Ross’ next plan, according to the same interview, is to build an entire house for 12-20 people out of reishi mycelium.
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A geomagnetic storm is set to send the northern lights rippling through the dark tonight, in an event so active it’s predicted to reach much further south than Greenland or Iceland or Alaska.
Aurora watchers can expect to see green flashes when the sky turns dark on December 10, and again on December 11.
These shimmering bands of light may be visible in the following US locations, according to an October 9 alert from NOAA: northern Idaho, northern Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, northern Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming, in addition to all of Alaska and Canada.
Known as the ‘Merry Dancers’ in Scotland, the aurora borealis might also be seen in UK–as far south as the English Midlands.
The intensity of this week’s northern lights is, according to meteorologists, because of a solar flare which recently sent charged particles towards our planet in huge numbers, and the strong solar wind coming from the geomagnetic storm.
Geomagnetic Storm Watches in effect Dec 9 - 11, 2020, due to anticipated CME effects. The CME occurred on December 7th, and was associated with a C7 flare from Region 2790. For the full story visit https://t.co/mzq8JTer8q@NWSpic.twitter.com/EKOKtiyz3e
The aurora is not the only exciting dark sky event on the near horizon. Other celestial gifts for December 2020 include the most active meteor shower of the year, the Geminids, to peak on the nights of December 13 and 14.
Then there’s the ’Christmas star’ conjunction–in which Jupiter and Saturn will appear closer to each other than they have in 800 years–on winter solstice.
Erin Durga and Patrick Mertens; photo by Lynda Mertens
The dictionary definition for the word “custodian” is someone who has responsibility for or looks after something. This past summer, one fortunate Minnesota grade-school custodian learned there was an unexpected custodial someone who was not only looking out for him but destined to save his life.
Erin Durga and Patrick Mertens; photo by Lynda Mertens
Patrick Mertens, 64, was in dire need of a kidney transplant. The generous staff at Kimball Elementary School had already spearheaded fundraisers to help him pay for ongoing dialysis treatment.
Even with their aid, Mertens’ condition continued to deteriorate. His daughter, Kayla, posted a Facebook plea for potential donors to come forward. Someone did—and it was someone they knew, third-grade Kimball Elementary teacher Erin Durga.
Durga and Mertens were more than nodding acquaintances. In addition to working at the same school, Durga’s three children attended the daycare facility run by Mertens’ wife, Lynda.
The co-workers often chatted about their families with one another after school. Durga also got to know and like Lynda, with whom she bonded at the daycare center while picking up her kids.
Lynda Mertens
Even so, it was a huge leap from swapping casual stories about your families to donating a kidney, but Durga knew it was something she was simply had to do.
“I felt in my heart, from the very beginning, that this was my thing,” Durga told The Washington Post. “Once I decided that, yes, I’m going to donate to Pat, I felt really good about it, and I was at peace with it throughout the entire thing.”
After tests confirmed she was a match, Durga drove to Mertens’ home to break the news. But she didn’t have to utter a word. The tee-shirt she wore emblazoned with “DONOR” said it all.
The procedure was scheduled for this past July. Mertens was nervous going in, but Durga reassured him just prior to surgery she was certain everything was going to be all right. Buoyed by her positive attitude, Mertens felt ready to face the coming ordeal.
M Health Fairview
Both patients emerged from the operation with flying colors and were well enough recovered to return to their jobs when the school year began in August.
Mertens says since the operation, things have truly turned around for him. As thankful as he is to be able to spend time with his loved ones and resume enjoyment of his favorite pastimes, the thing he and his wife are most grateful for is the amazing woman who was willing to make sure that he could.
“She’s our miracle, our angel,” Lynda Mertens said. “We’ll forever be grateful for her.”
Whether or not Durga is a real-life guardian angel isn’t our call, but one thing’s for sure—when you look up the word “custodian” in the dictionary, if her picture’s not there, it definitely should be.
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Greece’s first underwater museum allows visitors to dive down in time to the era of the Peloponnesian War while viewing ancient shipwrecks and pristine coral gardens.
Diving down to depths of 80 feet, guides are able to show visitors the 90-foot-long Peristera shipwreck sitting where it sank 2,400 years ago while carrying a cargo of wine and black-glazed clay tableware.
The Peristera shipwreck museum, named for a neighboring uninhabited islet along whose coast it was discovered, was opened to the public during a pilot period which just ended at the closing of October. In total more than 300 people arrived, including 250 visitor-divers.
The optimistic opening, COVID-19 permitting, will be June 2021. Experienced divers can go with a guide, while non-divers can take a class at the nearby accredited diving centers.
Located in the National Marine Park of Alonissos and Northern Sporades, the first Marine Protected Area established in Greece and the largest in Europe, divers will also have the chance to come face to face with over 300 fish species, Mediterranean monk seals, and beautiful coral beds.
For those not intending to dive, five underwater cameras can show visitors a glimpse of what’s underneath the waves, including one which runs on a 24-hour live stream.
A casualty of war
The shipwreck was likely Athenian and was believed to have sank during the Peloponnesian War, a period after the golden era of Greek city-state civilization when Sparta and Athens fought each other down to the nub.
It was discovered in 1985 by a local fisherman, but wasn’t explored by archaeologist Elpida Hatzidaki and his colleagues until seven years later.
According to National Geographic, the ship was bigger than any merchant vessel from the period (4th to 5th century BCE), and its dimensions, 39-82 feet, are normally assumed to have been achieved during Roman times.
Its archaeologically significant cargo of 4,000 clay amphora—or two-handed clay wine jugs—have remained intact after all these years, and diver-visitors can literally see how they were stacked in the boat.
Archaeologists speaking with Nat Geo said that only some burned timbers remained from the hull, though the shape of the of the ship, much like a fossil, can be clearly seen based on the natural features that grew on its skeleton.
Even though little physical remains of the shipwreck can be found, local dive guide Kostas Efstathiou told the magazine there has been interest from “all over the world” and that the panoramic view of the 4,000 amphorae surrounded by the outline of where the ship sat for so many centuries, with coral-covered seabed around it, is something “awe-inspiring.”
(WATCH the YouTube video of divers exploring the shipwreck below.)
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Christmas came early to the town of Canton, Mississippi when a generous and very secret Santa picked up the tab for more than 300 layaway tickets at the local Walmart.
A donor who chose to remain anonymous approached the store’s management and made an offer they had no reason to refuse: The jolly old elf volunteered to make good on every layaway ticket they were holding for customers who had yet to pay or fully pay for their merchandise.
The exact amount of the donation has not been revealed, but guesstimates are that Santa laid out a sizable chunk of change to ensure his neighbors’ holidays would be merry, bright, and a whole lot more stress free. In a year that’s been especially hard for people, those who benefited from Santa’s generosity are truly grateful for the gesture.
One Madison County woman named Belinda Brooks who was gifted several times over told WLBT News not only would the unexpected boon mean she could take some days off but that her child would get everything on his wishlist. “I will get everything he asked for, so I’m good on that as long as he’s happy. I’m fine with that,” she said.
A Walmart spokesperson later revealed that even after all the layaways had been paid for, since many of the on-hold items had been reduced in price, thanks to cash register adjustments there’d been a not-so-small stocking-full of funds left over.
In the spirit of the season, the store passed the good cheer along to a pair of local toy drives and the hunger relief organization Feeding America—putting an extra helping of merry ho-ho-ho in the holidays for some folks who needed it most.
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