If sportswriter Andy Larsen writes his autobiography one day, he just might have to title it, ‘The Accidental Philanthropist’.
That’s because when Larsen, who covers basketball for the Salt Lake Tribune, inadvertently found himself the recipient of a $55,000 Venmo bonanza, he used the money to help families in need for the holidays.
The story begins just before Thanksgiving—with SpongeBob SquarePants.
Larsen’s mom called to give him a head’s up that she’d just come across the distinctive yellow container he used as a kid for stashing loose coins in his bedroom and wondered if he might want to come to fetch it.
The chunk of change amounted to over $165. Larsen, feeling in the holiday spirit, decided to donate the booty to folks who could really use a few extra dollars this time of year and put the word out to his 27,000 Twitter followers:
“So I had a big jar of coins hanging around,” he tweeted. “I went to the bank today & had them counted. $164.84. Rather than keeping it, I want to give that out to a few people who could use the help for their household’s Thanksgiving dinner or for Christmas presents. My DMs/replies are open.”
By Diane Helentjaris
As expected, requests for assistance began to roll in—but on the flip side of the proverbial coin, came requests from people who wanted to boost the bounty.
The first arrived from a man named Jeff Jones, who asked Larsen to put up his Venmo deets so he could contribute to the good cause.
“I was shocked that someone would do that,” Larsen told the Washington Post. “Even more amazing was that minutes later, people began retweeting everywhere and sending me money out of the blue. It just exploded.”
Even more amazing? Close to a thousand people donated about $55,000 in a single day.
All in all, Larsen fielded close to 200 requests for help. Figuring out who would get the money and how it would be distributed became his next concern.
“I did my best to verify the stories I was told, typically through conversations with those asking and light social media research. The vast majority checked out,” Larsen explained in The Salt Lake Tribune.
In the end, Larsen gifted people with cash for the holidays as well as funds for car repairs, utility bills, and groceries. And, in addition to sending $200 sums to dozens of families to help them cover medical bills, he gave $10,000 to RIP Medical Debt, a national nonprofit organization that buys debts from collection agencies—and forgives them. (Larsen was told his $10,000 donation would translate to roughly $1 million in debt-reduction relief.)
Also on the unintentional holiday “Nice List” were several local charities that focus on food insecurity, including a $1,000 donation Larsen made to a high school food bank that serves low-income families.
“I cried when he contacted me,” said Meg Thunell from Kearns High School in Salt Lake County. “The compounded goodness of all those people giving without even knowing where it was going restored my faith in people after a long and rough year.”
And it was all thanks to an accidental philanthropist—and SpongeBob SquarePants.
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Rhea family of birds snack in soy field - Lisa Rausch, study co-author
Over the last 14 years, a unique public-private initiative has reduced soy farming deforestation in the Amazon, so much so, that almost no soy coming from the Amazon currently contributes to deforestation.
It began in 2006 when Greenpeace launched a campaign exposing the damage of forest clear-cutting for soy the previous year—more than 1,600 square kilometers (nearly 4 million acres)—and demanded action to curtail the devastation.
In response to the public outcry, major soy companies in the region reached a landmark agreement as signatories to the Amazon Soy Moratorium (ASM), pledging not to purchase any crops grown on recently cleared land—and the success has been remarkable
Today, new research shows that 98.6% of all soy grown in the region complies with the moratorium.
Assistant professor Robert Heilmayr at the University of California-Santa Barbara and his colleagues at the University of Wisconsin Madison have now quantified the ASM’s effects and documented how it achieved its goals. The researchers found that while the agreement prevented millions of acres of deforestation in its first decade, the policy did not appear to hamper agricultural growth or push deforestation to other sectors or regions.
“Over one decade the ASM saved 18,000 square kilometers of forest (almost 7,000 square miles),” said Heilmayr, an environmental economist in the Environmental Studies Program and at the UCSB Bren School of Environmental Science & Management. “This is an area bigger than the state of Connecticut.”
Rhea family of birds snack in soy field – Lisa Rausch, study co-author
The authors estimate that between 2006 and 2016, deforestation in soy-suitable portions of the Amazon was 35% lower than what would have occurred without the ASM.
“First time, we were able to control for other policies and factors outside the ASM to quantify its unique contribution to forest conservation,” explained coauthor Holly Gibbs, associate professor at UW Madison.
Scientists and conservationists were concerned the ASM might prompt soy farmers to begin planting in pastures, thereby pushing ranchers to clear more forest, essentially passing the buck to a different sector. However, the study suggests this did not happen. Gibbs explained it’s likely due, at least in part, to similar campaigns aiming to stem deforestation in the cattle sector. These efforts began in 2008 and resulted in similar zero-deforestation agreements in the cattle industry. The team also saw little evidence that the ASM was pushing deforestation into the nearby Cerrado biome.
Although some Brazilian policymakers worry that strict environmental commitments may weaken economic growth, soy production in the Amazon has continued to expand since adoption of the ASM. It increased from 4.9 million tons of production in 2006 to 17.2 million tons in 2019. Ultimately, the moratorium has demonstrated that soy expansion is possible without deforestation, Gibbs explained.
What contributed to the moratorium’s effectiveness?
“One of the strengths of the Amazon Soy Moratorium is that it was a nearly unanimous decision among all the soy buyers in that sector,” said Heilmayr. The signatories account for about 90% of all soy purchases in the region, and this high market share ensured that the agreement would transform agricultural practice.
If farmers wanted to sell their soy, they’d have to abide by the policies set out by the ASM.
Another factor that contributed to the ASM’s success was the cooperation of non-profit NGOs and government agencies. The involvement of environmental organizations like Greenpeace, The Nature Conservancy and World Wildlife Fund boosted confidence that the agreement isn’t merely a form of greenwashing. Government investments in satellite monitoring systems and local property registries provided the backbone for monitoring and enforcing the moratorium.
Ten years on, the parties involved chose in 2016 to renew the ASM indefinitely. While this represents a major victory for sustainable agriculture, the researchers noted that commercial viability is preserved. The Amazon soy sector maintains access to valuable international markets, according to industry trade groups, and at low cost to Amazon soy farmers.
Coauthor Lisa Rausch, a researcher at UW Madison is convinced that the ASM served also to reduce any incentives to clear land on non-soy farms—even in unregistered areas for future soy production.
Current deforestation rates are double what they were at their low point in 2012, though they’re still dramatically lower than what they were back in 2003 and 2004, thanks to the benefits of the ASM’s unique mix of public and private policymaking.
Heilmayr believes the consistent global demand for zero-deforestation soy will continue to discourage new deforestation despite any weakening of public policies.
“The ASM is a nice example of what is possible when companies take aggressive, transparent steps towards supply chain sustainability,” he said. “It provides hope that private actors can trigger meaningful improvements in the way society interacts with our environment.”
Quote of the Day: “Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement. Get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted.” – Abraham Joshua Heschel
Photo by: Nicola Abrescia
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Two special friends in the Cincinnati, Ohio area have created merrier Christmases for children and families who were affected during the pandemic—and it was inspired by the experience of gratitude they both felt growing up.
Jordynn Jenkins and her best friend Skylar Beavers started ‘Make a Kid Merry,’ an organization that provides holiday gifts to kids—the same support their own moms received years ago.
Growing up, both Jordynn and Skylar were raised by single mothers and this fueled their passion this year to make sure they “pay it forward” to offer support for other kids of single-parent homes during the holidays.
COVID-19 has impacted numerous families, so the dynamic duo decided to set as their goal providing gifts for 50 kids. The university students asked for community donations, and enlisted friends as elves to beautifully wrap the gifts and deliver them.
“We both come from single-mother households, so we both had to be sponsored for Christmases before,” Jenkins told WCPO news. “We just wanted to be able to create a way to give back to our community.”
CHECK Out their Santa’s workshop in the video below…
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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY – Week beginning December 23, 2020
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
The birds known as red knots breed every year in the Arctic regions. Then they fly south—way south—down to the southern edge of South America, more than 9,000 miles away. A few months later they make the return trip to the far north. In 1995, ornithologists managed to put a monitoring band on one red knot’s leg, making it possible to periodically get a read on his adventures over the subsequent years. The bird’s nickname is Moonbird, because he has traveled so many miles in the course of his life that it’s equivalent to a jaunt to the moon. He’s known as “the toughest four ounces on the planet.” I nominate him to be your magical creature in 2021. I suspect you will have stamina, hardiness, persistence, and determination like his.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
An Aquarian park ranger named Roy Sullivan was struck by lightning seven times in the course of his 71 years on the planet. (That’s a world record.) None of the electrostatic surges killed him, although they did leave a few burns. After studying your astrological potentials for 2021, I’ve concluded that you may be the recipient, on a regular basis, of a much more pleasurable and rewarding kind of lightning strike: the metaphorical kind. I advise you to prepare yourself to be alert for more epiphanies than usual: exciting insights, inspiring revelations, and useful ideas.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
Coral reefs, the “rainforests of the sea,” are being affected by ocean acidification, toxic runoff from rivers, rising temperatures, and careless tourists. Why should we care? Because they’re beautiful! And also because they’re hotbeds of biodiversity, providing homes for 25 percent of all marine species. They also furnish protection for shorelines from erosion and storm damage, and are prime spots to harvest seafood. So I’m pleased people are finding ways to help reefs survive and recover. For example, a group in Thailand is having success using superglue to re-attach broken-off pieces to the main reefs. I hope this vignette inspires you to engage in metaphorically similar restorative and rejuvenating activities, Pisces. In 2021, you will have an enhanced power to heal.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
Your capacity for pioneering feats and impressive accomplishments will be at a peak in 2021. So you could become the best human ever at balancing a ladder on your chin or typing with your nose or running long-distance while holding an egg on a spoon with your mouth. But I’d prefer it if you channeled your triumphal energy into more useful innovations and victories. How about making dramatic strides in fulfilling your most important goal? Or ascending to an unprecedented new level of inspiring people with your passionate idealism? Or setting a record for most illusions shed?
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
Ark Encounter is a fundamentalist Christian theme park in Kentucky. Its main attraction is a giant replica of Noah’s Ark. Constructed mostly from spruce and pine trees, it’s one of the world’s largest wooden structures. Even though I don’t believe that there was in fact such a boat in ancient times, I do admire how its builder, Ken Ham, has been so fiercely devoted to making his fantasies real. I encourage you to cultivate an equally zealous commitment to manifesting your own visions and dreams in 2021.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
From 1961 until 1989, a concrete barrier divided the city of Berlin. Communist East Berlin lay on the east side of the Berlin Wall, and capitalist West Berlin on the west. It was an iconic symbol of the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union. More than 100,000 people tried to escape from east to west, but just 5,000 succeeded. The standoff ended in 1989, during the peaceful revolutions that swept through Eastern Europe. In subsequent months, the Berlin Wall was slowly demolished. Today, tiny fragments of the wall are marketed as medicines for asthma, headaches, narcolepsy, and ulcers. Now I will propose that in 2021, you adopt the demolished Berlin Wall as your metaphor of power. May it inspire you to be gleeful and forceful as you dismantle psychological obstacles and impediments.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
The year 2021 will contain 525,600 minutes. But I suspect you might enjoy the subjective sensation of having far more than 525,600 minutes at your disposal. That’s because I think you’ll be living a fuller life than usual, with greater intensity and more focus. It may sometimes seem to you as if you are drawing greater riches out of the daily rhythm—accomplishing more, seeing further, diving down deeper to capitalize on the privilege of being here on planet earth. Be grateful for this blessing—which is also a big responsibility!
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Our lives are filled with puzzles and enigmas and riddles. We all harbor aspects of ourselves that we don’t understand. I hope that in 2021, you will be on a mission to learn more about these parts of yourself. One of your superpowers will be a capacity to uncover secrets and solve mysteries. Bonus: I suspect you’ll be able to make exceptional progress in getting to the root of confusing quandaries that have undermined you—and then fixing the problems so they no longer undermine you.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
When actor Gene Wilder was eight years old, his mother began to have heart-related health issues. The doctor that treated her suggested he could help her out if he would try to make her laugh. From then on, Wilder cultivated an ability to tell jokes and got interested in becoming an actor. Ultimately he appeared in 22 films and was nominated for two Oscars and two Golden Globe Awards. I foresee a comparable development in your life in 2021: A challenging situation will inspire you in ways that generate a major blessing.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
In my astrological opinion, love won’t be predictable in 2021. It won’t be easily definable or comparable to what you’re experienced before. But I also suspect that love will be delightfully enigmatic. It will be unexpectedly educational and fervently fertile and oddly comfortable. Your assignment, as I understand it, will be to shed your certainties about what love is and is not so that the wild, fresh challenges and opportunities of love can stream into your life in their wildest, freshest state.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Until 1893, Hawaii was a sovereign nation. In January of that year, a group of wealthy foreigners, mostly Americans, overthrew the existing government with the help of the US military. They established a fake temporary “republic” that excluded native Hawaiians from positions of power. Their goal, which was to be annexed by the United States, was fulfilled in July 1898. I propose that you use this sad series of events as a motivational story in 2021. Make it your goal to resist all efforts to be colonized and occupied. Commit yourself passionately to preserving your sovereignty and independence. Be a tower of power that can’t be owned.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
In 2021, you may be smarter than you have ever been. Not necessarily wiser, too, although I have reason to hope that you will leverage your smartness to also deepen your wisdom. But as I was saying, your intelligence could very well soar beyond its previous heights. Your ability to speak articulately, stir up original thoughts, and solve knotty riddles should be at a peak. Is there any potential downside to this outbreak of brilliance? Only one that I can imagine: It’s possible that your brain will be working with such dominant efficiency that it will drown out messages from your heart. And that would be a shame. In order to do what I referred to earlier— leverage your smartness to deepen your wisdom—you’ll need to be receptive to your heart’s messages.
WANT MORE? Listen to Rob’s EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES, 4-5 minute meditations on the current state of your destiny — or subscribe to his unique daily text message service at: RealAstrology.com
The owners of a Florida McDonald’s restaurant have bestowed some incredible holiday joy on one local family whose 15-year-old son with autism has been prolifically drawing the golden arches since he was a little boy.
Tim and Tracy Johnstone met Devon two years ago after Hurricane Michael destroyed their McDonald’s building in Panama City.
Devon’s mom, Tiffany Winters, had posted on social media asking if anyone could recover the famous “golden arches” from the storm debris to give to her son.
“When we heard about Devon’s story and his love for the golden arches, we knew we had to do something special for him and his family,” said McDonald’s Owner/Operators Tim and Tracy Johnstone who own seven restaurants, four in Panama City.
Not only did they deliver the iconic golden arch signage that was saved from the wreckage, they also brought Devon into his local McDonald’s to experience being an employee for the day.
“Our team felt a lot of emotions after Hurricane Michael two years ago, and to be able to turn around that fear and grief when the golden arches came down and make that into a celebration for such a deserving kid makes this really special to us,” said Tracy.
So they kept in touch with the teen and wanted to make his holiday super special this year, “just like that day.”
On Wednesday, the restaurant owners surprised the family members, who live 40 miles from any town, with a much-needed new car. The vehicle will ensure Devon can get to school, and any doctor or therapy visits.
“This is so far above and beyond,” said Brent Winters, Devon’s father. “To receive a car in a real time of need is going to change our lives.”
“In a year of unprecedented challenges, we’re reminded of how an act of kindness can uplift one another,” said the Johnstone’s. “It was truly such an honor to see Devon’s face light up when he saw his gifts—and to know that we could help him and his family means everything.”
The most popular television news magazine show in America shared an inspiring story about a group called Justice Defenders this week. The nonprofit trains people—and prison staff—in nearly 50 prisons in Kenya and Uganda to become paralegals and lawyers to provide legal services for themselves and others.
60 Minutes reporter Anderson Cooper traveled to Kenya to speak with Founder Alexander McLean and to see Justice Defenders’ work firsthand. He visited prisons and met with the paralegals who earned a formal law education from the group’s partner, the University of London.
In the segment, Cooper introduces former prisoner, Morris Kaberia, who shared his story of successfully representing himself by appealing his conviction, and overturning a lifelong sentence after spending 13 years in prison.
Isaac Ndegwa Kimaru, a prisoner in Kenya, was also given a second chance and went on to complete his law degree and is now advocating in court for other prisoners.
McLean articulated believes that justice can be achieved when the power of the law is put into the hands of the poor. His work is rooted in a core belief of creating equal access to fair trials and justice, or as they like to call it, “bridging the justice gap.”
Since its founding in 2007, Justice Defenders has served nearly 40,000 imprisoned clients with free legal advice, and 341 auxiliary paralegals are running legal practices at 46 prisons in Uganda and Kenya.
Within 10 years, the UK charity hopes to have served 1 million defenseless individuals… “to protect rights while addressing wrongs” in East Africa, in refugee communities in Europe, and even in the US.
Quote of the Day: “Do not spoil what you have; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” – Epicurus
Photo by: Hert Niks
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 13-year-old from Mililani, Hawaii, is being honored for galvanizing youth to organize Christmas celebrations for children in need and initiating a variety of volunteer opportunities for young people.
Rylee Brooke Kamahele
Rylee Brooke Kamahele grew up volunteering with her parents in a program for at-risk youth, but by age 8 wanted to start making an impact on her own. “We had to fight for me to get involved,” she said, “because programs didn’t want to babysit kids during community service.”
But with a lot of persistence and hard work, she gradually persuaded charitable organizations to let her volunteer with them—and they recruited other young people to join her.
From there, Rylee started an organization called “Love Is A Verb” that organized numerous beach cleanups, provided Thanksgiving dinners for the homeless, and entertained kids at shelters. During Thanksgiving week, Rylee and her team passed out 320 turkeys with the NFL running back Marshawn Lynch.
But the jolliest project of all is her “Secret Santa Project” that makes Christmas brighter for children in need of holiday cheer. She holds donation drives and raises money to provide gifts for kids staying in shelters—and then hosts holiday parties for them.
Rylee Brooke Kamahele
This project has since expanded to include three shelters and one youth program, treating more than 300 kids to a memorable day with food, gifts, games, shaved-ice trucks and slush machines.
All of her initiatives, including environmental awareness campaigns, are under the umbrella of “The Catalyst Club,” an organization she founded to equip young people to be agents of change.
Throughout the pandemic Rylee has continued her volunteer efforts and this holiday season is continuing food distributions for families in need, distributing 2,500 boxes of food every other week.
Rylee is also running a donation drive for a nonverbal little boy who needs an iPad to communicate—raising money for the iPad, the programs he needs, and a protective case.
Rylee Brooke Kamahele
Named one of America’s Top Youth Volunteers by the 2020 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, it’s young people like Rylee Brooke who make us remember what the holidays are all about.
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A nine-year-old has written a letter to Santa asking him to give away his hoverboard to a grieving child who wanted the same gift.
SWNS
41-year-old Jason and Sandi Boyer wanted to help another family at Christmas and were anonymously matched with a little boy being cared for by his grandmother.
The boy, who had just lost his grandfather to cancer, had a hoverboard at the top of his wishlist to Santa—just like their son Hudson.
When Hudson found out, he wrote to Santa and asked if his Christmas gift could be given to the other boy.
The Boyer family are going one better—they’re going to make sure that both boys get their hoverboard from Santa this year.
SWNS
Meteorologist Jason from Asheville, North Carolina, said: “Every year we try to think about someone or an organization to help out, normally focusing on children, and this year we found the Barry L. Joyce Cancer Fund in Madison.
“They put us in contact with a child who is parentless and was being looked after by his grandparents, but just recently his grandfather had passed away with cancer.
“Now he only has his grandmother to look after him and his siblings, so we knew they would be stressed and that this time of the year would be hard on them, particularly with the cost of medical care.
“We explained the story to our son and asked him if he would be willing to give up his hoverboard for this little boy,
“He immediately said yes which surprised us, because at that age you don’t really think they would do that.”
Non-profit executive Sandi added: “We wanted to help a little boy who was the same age as Hudson just so it would hit home a bit more, and it just so happened that he wanted exactly the same thing as my son.
A local man in Idaho Falls has been anonymously gifting more than $500,000 to deserving people in his city in the run-up to Christmas.
Now he’s changed the life of a woman who’s endured 96 jaw surgeries and chronic pain after an accident at work.
YouTube/East Idaho News
Last week we shared the story of Diana Boldman, a hard-working grandmother who received a big surprise in the form of a much-needed new vehicle.
Then we shared the story of Alyn. When he was down on his luck and homeless, he made the tough decision to have his teeth pulled. He was overwhelmed a few days ago when surprised with a brand new smile.
Now it’s time to get to know Jennifer.
When Secret Santa’s elf at East Idaho News, Nate Eaton, came to her door to give her a gift, she wasn’t there. She was shoveling snow from the neighbor’s driveway.
As she and Nate spoke, Natalie shared some of the difficulties she and her family have been going through: It isn’t just the 96 surgeries, the constant headaches and pain, the MRSA infection that has spread through her body, or having to blend foods and drink smoothies because she can no longer chew. Last week, her dad died of COVID complications.
“We know that money can’t take away that pain but hopefully you can know that somebody loves you and cares about you,” says Nate.
She’s overcome when she sees the amount. She says, astonished, “I don’t know how this happened but I promise to try and pay it forward.”
Jennifer already volunteers weekly at Ethel Boyes Elementary helping young children learn to read. “Working with the kids gives her something to look forward to and gives her hope,” says East Idaho News. “She is truly the most giving and charitable person you’ll meet. She puts everyone’s needs before her own.”
(WATCH the emotional video where Jennifer receives her incredible gift below.)
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Seven in 10 Americans are planning to participate in more holiday gatherings this year—because they’re being held virtually, according to a new poll
A survey of 2,000 Americans revealed 72% of respondents are participating in at least one virtual celebration this holiday season, and of those, 68% plan to be more social than in years past.
Results also revealed 60% of Americans surveyed said virtual celebrations will be the norm for themselves and their family this holiday season, between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.
For those celebrating virtually, 93% said it was thanks mainly or in part due to COVID-19.
Conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Asurion Home+ home tech protection and support, the survey revealed the ways in which the pandemic is changing how America is celebrating the holiday season.
What they found is that many holiday get-togethers, big and small, will largely be virtual this year—the average online holiday gathering will last nearly two hours and include 11 people on the video celebration.
For those holding virtual celebrations, 69% said more of their extended family is expected to join this year than in years past.
Forty-seven percent of respondents celebrating virtually even said they expect to see someone join their gathering who they’ve been out of touch with as of late.
And for some of these respondents, they’ve been really out of touch—the average person plans to reconnect virtually with someone this holiday season whom they haven’t seen in four years.
Despite the move to more virtual holiday celebrations thanks to COVID-19, more than half of respondents (56%) said their family is coming up with creative ways to preserve holiday traditions this year.
Many respondents plan to save a seat for their laptop at the holiday dinner table. In fact, over a third of respondents celebrating virtually will participate in three or more virtual holiday dinners (37%).
And three-quarters of respondents (76%) celebrating virtually said they plan to cook or bake holiday recipes with friends and family via video this holiday season.
Over half (52%) of those partaking in video gatherings will participate in three or more video Christmas Day celebrations with family and friends.
So, with many virtual gatherings happening this season, what are respondents planning to do on these video calls with their loved ones?
In addition to talking and catching up, respondents are doing some casual holiday well-wishing and will even toast the New Year through their screen.
“This year as COVID prevents many extended families from celebrating together in person, video celebrations will play a crucial role in keeping them connected for the holidays. But as we know, tech doesn’t always work when we need it to. It will be important for families to prep their tech to ensure their video celebrations will run smoothly – so they can stay focused on what matters most, rather than fretting about their devices,” said Sarah Day, VP of Marketing at Asurion.
Unfortunately, some people may have trouble joining in on the virtual celebrations—of those planning virtual celebrations, 45% said they have family members who will be unable to join.
For those who might be missing out, respondents said it was due to their loved ones not knowing how to use their tech (37%), not having internet (33%) and not having the right tech devices (31%).
A great-great-grandmother has been inundated with more than 1,000 Christmas cards from around the world, an experience she says has restored her faith in humanity.
SWNS
92-year-old Nancy Letham usually receives only four cards around the holidays as her friends have gotten older and died.
After an online appeal was posted late this October, though, Nancy has received around 50 cards a day, including from schoolchildren in Portugal, who drew pictures for her.
Nancy’s granddaughter Leo Sheppard posted the appeal, expecting to receive around 40 cards from neighbors in Fife, Scotland where the family live. Now cards are coming in from India and the States, from Canada and Australia and Italy and Spain.
SWNS
Mom-of-seven Nancy, who has 17 grandchildren, 46 great-grandchildren, and ten great-great-grandchildren, has also received chocolates, flowers, and Christmas ornaments from well-wishes.She said, “There are some beautiful cards and they’re from all over the world…. I didn’t expect that.”
Leo reads the cards out to Nancy, who can no longer see very well. “It’s just really nice to see how many people have taken the time,” she said. “It’s not just cards, people are writing letters and letting her know about their lives and struggles. It’s letting my gran know that she’s not alone in the world.”
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Plato, the Greek philosopher who lived in the 5th century B.C.E., believed that the universe was made of five types of matter: earth, air, fire, water, and cosmos. Each was described with a particular geometry, a platonic shape. For earth, that shape was the cube.
Giant’s Causeway, Joel Nevius
Science has steadily moved beyond Plato’s conjectures, looking instead to the atom as the building block of the universe. Yet Plato seems to have been onto something, researchers have found.
In a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team from the University of Pennsylvania, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, and University of Debrecen uses math, geology, and physics to demonstrate that the average shape of rocks on Earth is a cube.
“Plato is widely recognized as the first person to develop the concept of an atom, the idea that matter is composed of some indivisible component at the smallest scale,” says Douglas Jerolmack, a geophysicist in Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences’ Department of Earth and Environmental Science and the School of Engineering and Applied Science’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics. “But that understanding was only conceptual; nothing about our modern understanding of atoms derives from what Plato told us.
“The interesting thing here is that what we find with rock, or earth, is that there is more than a conceptual lineage back to Plato. It turns out that Plato’s conception about the element earth being made up of cubes is, literally, the statistical average model for real earth. And that is just mind-blowing.”
The group’s finding began with geometric models developed by mathematician Gábor Domokos of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, whose work predicted that natural rocks would fragment into cubic shapes.
“This paper is the result of three years of serious thinking and work, but it comes back to one core idea,” says Domokos. “If you take a three-dimensional polyhedral shape, slice it randomly into two fragments and then slice these fragments again and again, you get a vast number of different polyhedral shapes. But in an average sense, the resulting shape of the fragments is a cube.”
Domokos pulled two Hungarian theoretical physicists into the loop: Ferenc Kun, an expert on fragmentation, and János Török, an expert on statistical and computational models. After discussing the potential of the discovery, Jerolmack says, the Hungarian researchers took their finding to Jerolmack to work together on the geophysical questions; in other words, “How does nature let this happen?”
“When we took this to Doug, he said, ‘This is either a mistake, or this is big,'” Domokos recalls. “We worked backward to understand the physics that results in these shapes.”
Fundamentally, the question they answered is what shapes are created when rocks break into pieces. Remarkably, they found that the core mathematical conjecture unites geological processes not only on Earth but around the solar system as well.
“Fragmentation is this ubiquitous process that is grinding down planetary materials,” Jerolmack says. “The solar system is littered with ice and rocks that are ceaselessly smashing apart. This work gives us a signature of that process that we’ve never seen before.”
Part of this understanding is that the components that break out of a formerly solid object must fit together without any gaps, like a dropped dish on the verge of breaking. As it turns out, the only one of the so-called platonic forms—polyhedra with sides of equal length—that fit together without gaps are cubes.
“One thing we’ve speculated in our group is that, quite possibly Plato looked at a rock outcrop and after processing or analyzing the image subconsciously in his mind, he conjectured that the average shape is something like a cube,” Jerolmack says.
“Plato was very sensitive to geometry,” Domokos adds. According to lore, the phrase “Let no one ignorant of geometry enter” was engraved at the door to Plato’s Academy. “His intuitions, backed by his broad thinking about science, may have led him to this idea about cubes,” says Domokos.
To test whether their mathematical models held true in nature, the team measured a wide variety of rocks, hundreds that they collected and thousands more from previously collected datasets. No matter whether the rocks had naturally weathered from a large outcropping or been dynamited out by humans, the team found a good fit to the cubic average.
However, special rock formations exist that appear to break the cubic “rule.” The Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland, with its soaring vertical columns, is one example, formed by the unusual process of cooling basalt. These formations, though rare, are still encompassed by the team’s mathematical conception of fragmentation; they are just explained by out-of-the-ordinary processes at work.
A messy, fascinating world
Boulders in New Zealand, Christoph Theisinger
“The world is a messy place,” says Jerolmack. “Nine times out of 10, if a rock gets pulled apart or squeezed or sheared—and usually these forces are happening together—you end up with fragments which are, on average, cubic shapes. It’s only if you have a very special stress condition that you get something else. The earth just doesn’t do this often.”
The researchers also explored fragmentation in two dimensions, or on thin surfaces that function as two-dimensional shapes, with a depth that is significantly smaller than the width and length. There, the fracture patterns are different, though the central concept of splitting polygons and arriving at predictable average shapes still holds.
“It turns out in two dimensions you’re about equally likely to get either a rectangle or a hexagon in nature,” Jerolmack says. “They’re not true hexagons, but they’re the statistical equivalent in a geometric sense. You can think of it like paint cracking; a force is acting to pull the paint apart equally from different sides, creating a hexagonal shape when it cracks.”
In nature, examples of these two-dimensional fracture patterns can be found in ice sheets, drying mud, or even the earth’s crust, the depth of which is far outstripped by its lateral extent, allowing it to function as a de facto two-dimensional material. It was previously known that the earth’s crust fractured in this way, but the group’s observations support the idea that the fragmentation pattern results from plate tectonics.
Identifying these patterns in rock may help in predicting phenomenon such as rock fall hazards or the likelihood and location of fluid flows, such as oil or water, in rocks.
For the researchers, finding what appears to be a fundamental rule of nature emerging from millennia-old insights has been an intense but satisfying experience.
“There are a lot of sand grains, pebbles, and asteroids out there, and all of them evolve by chipping in a universal manner,” says Domokos, who is also co-inventor of the Gömböc, the first known convex shape with the minimal number—just two—of static balance points. Chipping by collisions gradually eliminates balance points, but shapes stop short of becoming a Gömböc; the latter appears as an unattainable end point of this natural process.
The current result shows that the starting point may be a similarly iconic geometric shape: the cube with its 26 balance points. “The fact that pure geometry provides these brackets for a ubiquitous natural process, gives me happiness,” he says.
“When you pick up a rock in nature, it’s not a perfect cube, but each one is a kind of statistical shadow of a cube,” adds Jerolmack. “It calls to mind Plato’s allegory of the cave. He posited an idealized form that was essential for understanding the universe, but all we see are distorted shadows of that perfect form.”
Source: University of Pennsylvania
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In the remote Chinese county of Zhong, villagers have been saved from a deadly wasp infestation by a fire-breathing drone.
The remote-controlled flying flamethrower was built by Blue Sky Search and Rescue after legions of stinging wasps moved into the village and surrounding area, near the city of Chongqing.
A fundraiser for a solution to the wasps, whose stings can cause renal failure, liver failure and cardiac injury—sometimes resulting in death in as few as two hours—saw villagers donate around 80,000 RMB, or about $12,250 to cover the cost of the drone, a petrol tank, a nozzle, and the assembly.
In a video released by Blue Sky Rescue, which conducts mountain search and rescue and other emergency services in the more remote parts of China, one can see the drone hover across to just one of over 100 nests and blast it with several gouts of flame, the ash and rubble falling to the floor, dispersing the wasps.
While not the most eco-friendly solution, rural Chinese are often poor, underprivileged minorities living beyond the reach of modern medicine.
(WATCH The Indpendent’s video of the drone in action below.)
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Quote of the Day: “Live out of your imagination, not your history.” – Stephen Covey
Photo by: Jr Korpa
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?
We’ve all heard of an “Aha! moment”—when something confusing suddenly makes sense or a brilliant idea shows up out of the blue. Well, it seems that in Hawaii, there’s also something known as an “Aloha! moment”—an occasion that offers the opportunity to bestow an act of love or kindness.
Chloe Marino, Aina Townsend
Chloe Marino was shopping at a Kahului, Hawaii supermarket with her 5-month-old son. As sometimes happens, she got distracted and accidentally left her wallet behind.
Luckily, the wallet was spotted by eagle-eyed store security guard Aina Townsend, who volunteered to return it to its owner after his shift. Not having a car, the plucky 22-year-old took it upon himself to bicycle for nearly an hour—uphill three miles in the dark—to the Marinos’ door.
“You know, I lost a wallet before too and it’s the worst thing in the world,” Townsend said. “I was just doing what I felt was the right thing to do.”
Chloe, who didn’t even realize she’d misplaced her wallet, was blown away by Townsend’s determination as well as his willingness to help out a total stranger.
Her husband, Gray, was so impressed that he posted an account of Townsend’s good deed to his Facebook page, and one reader was so moved that he started a GoFundMe campaign after learning Aina’s story:
“This young man moved to Maui 5 years ago, and works as a security guard at the grocery store to support the family and put himself through college. What really got me was that he rides his bike to work and school everyday because he doesn’t have a car, and has been doing this for 5 years,” wrote Gregory Gaudet on GoFundMe.
“When I put myself in his position after a long day of work and school, wanting to go home to see my family and go to bed, but choosing to ride my bike to the next town miles away, instead, to return this women’s wallet, I know this guy has a huge heart.”
On New Year’s Eve, the friends and family of Aina and Gray gathered at a local car dealership and presented a brand new automobile to the Townsend family after collecting $25,000 in Aloha donations.
WATCH the moment below…
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MacKenzie Scott, who was married to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos for 25 years, has donated more than $4 billion in the past four months to hundreds of organizations and charities—in particular to food banks and emergency relief funds across the USA.
A month after her divorce from the world’s richest man, Scott signed the Giving Pledge—an initiative sparked by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett a decade ago—and promised to give away her billions “until the safe is empty.”
This July, she began making good on her promise, with GNN reporting that she had already donated $1.7 billion of her $60 billion fortune to 116 charities.
Last week, the 50-year-old announced that she’d given even more money away. Since summer, the world’s third-wealthiest woman has donated more than $4.15 billion to 384 organizations in Puerto Rico and the States—taking her 2020 donations so far to $6 billion.
According to the New York Times, these donations “might be among the most ever handed out directly to charities in a single year by a living donor.”
In a blog post that begins with an Emily Dickinson poem, Scott–a lauded novelist as well as a philanthropist—writes, “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling. Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.”
Scott goes on to say she has been working with a team of advisors to help her accelerate her giving to organizations that need immediate support in the face of the COVID crisis.
Using a “data-driven approach” to identifying organizations with strong leadership teams, and paying “special attention to those operating in communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital,” recipients of Scott’s funding include the YMCA, Meals on Wheels, the Global Fund for Women, civil rights organization the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs, many dozens of food banks, Goodwill, and various centers of education such as Blackfoot Community College.
According to Scott, these organizations help by delivering vital services, “and also through the profound encouragement felt each time a person is seen, valued, and trusted by another human being.”
The holidays have been especially hard this year with COVID-19 restrictions putting a huge damper on many family gatherings. But for one pair of siblings, an unexpected reunion turned out to be so joyful, it might be too cute for words.
Dolly and Wally; photo by Mary Zico
Did we mention the brother and sister duo are goldendoodles?
Littermates Dolly and Wally originally hail from Senseney’s Dazzling Doodles in Wheaton, Missouri. They hadn’t seen each other—or played together—since they were eight weeks old.
“We adopted a precious pandemic pup this May and named her Dolly since we live in Tennessee and so admire Dolly Parton,” dog mom Mary Zic told GNN.
This past Friday, Zic and her daughter, Jessica (Dolly’s co-mom) were walking with Dolly in Centennial Park. “We had never taken Dolly to Centennial Park before but needed to pick up food at a nearby restaurant for a friend who’s ill. Jessica suggested we bring Dolly [along].”
Though they didn’t know it yet, Dolly was about to be gifted with a pretty amazing early Christmas present.
They’d only been walking a short while when Jessica spotted a pup that looked remarkably similar to their precious pup. Though the Zics had yet to connect the dots, the doppelganger doodle was in fact Dolly’s brother, Wally.
As they drew closer, the other dog’s owner, Becky Birg, recognized Dolly (who was wearing a scarf with her name on it) from pictures she’d seen on Instagram taken when the doggos were puppies.
Totally by coincidence, Birg and Wally were making a stop in Nashville on a Chicago to Florida road trip and had chosen to stretch their legs at Centennial Park. Dolly and Wally, who both knew a sibling when they saw and scented one, were ecstatic. Jubilantly, they ran to greet one another, tails wagging.
“We still can’t believe it,” Mary Zic said, “We were all stunned by the serendipitous encounter!” (But she and Birg made sure to snap plenty of pictures and videos to prove it.)
The New Zealand government has announced it will be supporting its Pacific neighbors by helping ensure they have access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines through the coming months.
“Pacific countries have worked hard to keep COVID-19 out, or to stamp it out, and New Zealand has been committed to supporting them in this,” Foreign Affairs Minister Hon Nanaia Mahuta said in a statement. “But their success has been hard-won. A safe and effective vaccine will be key to the region’s economic and social recovery.”
Nanaia Mahuta confirmed NZD $75 million ($53 million) of Official Development Assistance had been earmarked to support Pacific and global vaccine access and roll-out.
“New Zealand is pursuing a portfolio of potential COVID-19 vaccines to ensure we have flexibility and choice in the fast-moving global marketplace. We want to make sure Pacific countries can also access suitable options, and have the support they need to run successful immunisation campaigns.”
Associate Foreign Affairs Minister Aupito William Sio said New Zealand’s support has to be flexible, given the uncertainties around vaccine development.
New Zealand’s approach will be to purchase sufficient vaccines to cover the Realm of New Zealand (Tokelau, Niue, Cook Islands) and its Polynesian neighbors (Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu) should their governments wish to take these up.
“We are best placed to support these countries directly because of our constitutional relationships in the Realm, and the strong links between our health systems and our close people-to-people ties across Polynesia,” Aupito William Sio said. “We will also be scaling up existing health investments to enable us to play our part in vaccine roll-out.
Included in the multi-million support package, New Zealand plans to make a further NZD $10 million ($7 million) contribution to the COVAX Facility Advance Market Commitment, which is the key multilateral mechanism that has emerged to support equitable global access. New Zealand is also ready to contribute to wider Pacific regional initiatives as they take shape.
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