As the U.N. Reclassifies Cannabis, Landmark Study Shows CBD Does Not Impair Driving

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Dec 5, 2020

Who said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?

One company’s groundbreaking Apple Dog Accessories are stronger than leather, yet made from fruit.

As an alternative to the leather industry, Project Blu says it created a vegan-friendly pet collar line without compromising on quality.

Their collars, leashes, harnesses (and even poop-bag holders) are handmade in Italy from apple skins mixed with an organic polymer to create “an incredibly strong, waterproof material that is also kind to the planet.”

Through their Kickstarter campaign, they are offering, for a limited time, special early-bird prices available now. The main features are:

Made from simply apple skins and an organic polymer (the apple skins derive from organic apples grown in the Italian Alps)
Super strong and safe
Handmade by Italian artisans
3 Classic Styles
Waterproof & stain resistant
Comfy feel and 100% cruelty free – PeTA approved vegan

And, with every sale made, the company plants a tree in partnership with Eden Reforestation Projects to help combat deforestation.

On a mission to remove pollution from the pet industry, Project Blu wants to revolutionize the pet product market offering products that are sustainable, affordable, and built to last.

The pet accessory business is based in Wales, with manufacturing facilities in Tuscany, Italy. They won an award for ‘Best Startup in Wales 2020’.

“We pride ourselves in delivering high quality products while helping out the planet that we are lucky enough to live on,” says Founder Geryn Evans.

A market leader in Europe for sustainable pet products, the company boasts a leadership team that has been distributing pet merchandise for over 40 years.

The Kickstarter campaign is their worldwide launch, after needing to postpone their expansion into the US markets this year due to COVID.

Project Blu states their products are already in the production line to ensure prompt delivery times—though they will not begin mailing them until the campaign ends, for delivery in January. Check out their vegan-friendly pet line here on Kickstarter.

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Australia Blows Science’s Collective Mind by Mapping 3 Million Galaxies in 300 Hours

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Dec 5, 2020

Reprinted with permission from World At Large, a news website of nature, politics, science, health, and travel.

The world-leading CSIRO telescope in Australia has mapped the entire southern sky in stunning detail and record time, identifying 3 million never-before-seen galaxies all in just 300 hours.

Announced on December 1 by the Australian national science agency CSIRO, the achievement has quickly made headlines around the world for producing a new atlas of the universe.

Previous telescopic all-sky surveys of the cosmos have taken years, and required tens of thousands of images to assemble.

The telescope, known as the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) is a collection of 36 radio dish antennae in the Western Outback spread out over 4,000 square meters that work in tandem to sew together high-resolution images to create panoramic photos of the universe.

High-resolution is different for ASKAP than for your iPhone, and the eventual 903 images it took to create the new atlas are made up of 70 billion pixels amounting to 26 terabytes of data according to CSIRO. This monumental load, which began as 13.5 “exabytes” was processed by a supercomputer called the “Galaxy” at the Pawsey Supercomputing Center.

“ASKAP is applying the very latest in science and technology to age-old questions about the mysteries of the Universe and equipping astronomers around the world with new breakthroughs to solve their challenges,” says CSIRO Chief Executive Dr. Larry Marshall.

3 million new galaxies is a lot of territory to explore, so presumably ASKAP is only just getting started.

“This census of the Universe will be used by astronomers around the world to explore the unknown and study everything from star formation to how galaxies and their supermassive black holes evolve and interact,” lead author and CSIRO astronomer Dr. David McConnell said in a statement.

He continued to suggest that potentially tens of millions of galaxies await discovery with this new telescope/supercomputer pairing in the future.

WATCH a time-lapse video of the array in action…

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The Red Cross Reports Massive Surge in Volunteer Numbers Worldwide in Response to COVID-19

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Dec 5, 2020

Mongolian Red Cross volunteers-released — Mongolian Red Cross

The world’s largest humanitarian network has reported that hundreds of thousands of new volunteers have stepped up to work for free this year during the pandemic.

Today is International Volunteers Day—first celebrated by the United Nations 35 years ago, so it is fitting that the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), formed in 1919, is capping off a century of service by welcoming the many kind-hearted new volunteers worldwide.

Some of the highest numbers for volunteering came from the American Red Cross with 78,000 new sign-ups. The Italian Red Cross welcomed nearly 60,000 new sign-ups as part of its ‘Time of Kindness’ initiative. The Netherlands logged 48,000 new volunteers recruited through their Ready2Help citizen aid network—and Kenya is training 35,000 new people.

Significant increases were also reported by the Argentina, Kyrgyzstan, and even Tuvalu, an island country in the west-central Pacific with no recorded cases of COVID-19 welcomed over 130 new volunteers.

Collectively, they have reached tens of millions of people in nearly every country of the world, while also responding to hundreds of other disasters.

WATCH: Coronavirus Patient Who Couldn’t Talk Thanked Hospital Staff With Violin Serenade

New and long-standing volunteers have dedicated their time to wide-ranging COVID-19 response activities, including:

delivering essential food and medical items;
transporting patients to health facilities;
supporting with testing and contact tracing;
providing psychosocial support to vulnerable and quarantined people;
distributing personal protective equipment (PPE);
and providing trusted and accurate health information to their communities.

“This year, in response to unprecedented humanitarian need, the IFRC has witnessed equally unprecedented humanity and kindness – with hundreds of thousands of people joining the Red Cross Red Crescent family for the first time, all the while contending with the terrible impacts of COVID-19 on their own lives,” said Francesco Rocca, President of the IFRC.

“Though the future can seem bleak and the world divided because of this virus, every individual action of solidarity, of peace, of lending a hand and supporting your community matters,” he added.

In the first 6 months of the global COVID-19 response, the IFRC allocated over 120 million Swiss francs to support compassionate responses in 153 nations.

New volunteers came from all ages and backgrounds – teachers, parents, nurses, students, bankers, artists, potentially now unemployed or furloughed, young and old – and motivated by a common desire to serve their communities.

Tracy Kyomuhendo, a student in Kampala, joined the Uganda Red Cross in March when COVID-19 hit and a national lockdown halted her studies.

“I joined because I wanted to sensitize my community about the virus and help protect them – some people here didn’t even think coronavirus was real. Volunteering has helped me build my skills as a person and also achieve my dream of serving humanity. It’s now part of me! I feel more connected with my community than ever before.”

All the millions of volunteers are a true light in uncertain and troubling times. Learn how you can become a volunteer at the IFRC website.

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“Things do come out of the blue. They come out of the blue to remind us that things do come out of the blue, and that life could get crazy good at any second.” – Tama Kieves

Quote of the Day

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Dec 5, 2020

Quote of the Day: “Things do come out of the blue. They come out of the blue to remind us that things do come out of the blue, and that life could get crazy good at any second.” – Tama Kieves

Photo by: Sebastian Staines

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 Rare ‘Christmas Star’ is Coming in December for the First Time in 800 Years

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Dec 4, 2020

night-sky-public domain-joe-yates — Joe Yates

Look up at the night sky on winter solstice this year, and you’ll be able to catch a rare sight. On December 21, Jupiter and Saturn will appear closer to one another than they have in eight centuries.

Alignments between the planets, known as a ‘conjunction’, is “rather rare,” Rice University astronomer Patrick Hartigan explained in a statement, “but this conjunction is exceptionally rare because of how close the planets will appear to one another.”

The last time these gas giants appeared so closely, at a visible separation of only 0.1 degrees, was in the Middle Ages: at predawn on March 4, 1226.

Of course, the appearance of the ‘Christmas Star’ or ‘Star of Bethlehem’—so named because the closeness of the planets creates a shining point of light—is a phenomenon only observed from Earth. In reality, Jupiter and Saturn remain millions of miles apart.

Where to see the ‘Christmas Star’

Saturn and Jupiter have been moving steadily closer to each other since summer 2020.

Taking the time to look for these planets over the coming nights is worth it. “You can watch [the planets] move which is super cool, because you’re actually seeing planets in orbit” Hartigan told USA Today, and watching for the pair coming together before solstice night will make identifying them that bit easier on the 21st.

Though visible around the world, the best place to see the conjunction is close to the equator, between dusk and just after nightfall, when the sky is dark enough for fainter Saturn to appear, but when it’s not so late that the planets have moved below the horizon for the evening.

Looking low on the western horizon, on winter solstice the two planets will appear to be separated by less than a fifth of the diameter of a full moon.

If you can access a telescope, several of the planets’ largest moons will also be visible in the same field of view that night.

If it’s cloudy where you are on December 21? Jupiter and Saturday will still appear extra near to each other for the week surrounding solstice. And if you miss the phenomenon completely? There’s always March 15, 2080. That when the next close conjunction of the planets is expected to occur.

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When a Man Gives a Car to a Substitute Teacher the Gift Ignites a Ripple of Good Deeds

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MORE: No One Came to Student’s Graduation—So His Teacher Took Him Out to Dinner and Bought Him a Car

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Dec 4, 2020

2003_Ford_Crown_Victoria_white-public domain-U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — A Ford Crown Victoria similar to the one Schneider gifted.

It’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that any headline that begins with the words “Florida Man” is likely to wind up with a twisted punchline straight out of a Carl Hiaasen novel. The meme’s been floating around since 2013.

You know…

Florida Man Breaks INTO Jail to Hang With Friends

Florida Man Who Tried to “Run” to Bermuda in Inflatable Bubble Rescued by Coast Guard—Again

Florida Man Steals Neighbor’s Peacock, Gets Changed by Angry Birds

Florida Man Says He Danced on Patrol Car in Order to Escape Vampires

Florida Man Wearing Mop on Head “Terrifies” Neighbors With Demands for Eggs

And those are just the ones we can print in mixed company.

But now, thanks to a trio of guys in the Tampa Bay area, “Florida Man” may be getting a long-overdue makeover.

Florida Man Number One, Cory Schneider, when it was time to let go of the car his late grandmother had given him years before after he’d been in a wreck, he wanted to do something nice with it.

“1997 Ford Crown Victoria—white—around 100k miles, almost all driven by grandma,” he posted to Reddit. “Damn good physical appearance for a 24-year-old car. I want to help someone who needs it with a free vehicle.”

A Ford Crown Victoria similar to the one Schneider gifted.

He was swamped with requests. After sifting through them, Schneider decided to gift the car to Florida Man Number Two, a 31-year-old substitute teacher named Mark Selby who’d suffered a wreck of his own. Selby’s vehicle was totaled and he was living with his mom while recuperating from his injuries.

“When I first got the call, I felt like I was going to cry,” Selby said in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times.

Enter Florida Man Number Three, Marcel Gruber of St. Petersburg, who upon hearing of Schneider’s generous gesture, upped the ante by putting $400 bucks into the car’s glove compartment to pay for registration and incidentals.

The kicker? Selby’s dream is to one day build a home for abandoned children. He says getting this gift out of the blue at one of the worst times in his life has really turned things around for him and given him the encouragement he needs to keep moving toward that goal.

Who knows? Maybe someday in the not too distant future, we’ll all be reading a headline that says, “Florida Man Builds Orphanage.”

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Rare Wangarru Wallaby Colony Grows in Leaps and Bounds After Australian Rains

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MORE: Rescue Dog Helps Save Endangered Whales By Sniffing Out Their Poop as a Conservation Canine

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Dec 4, 2020

yellow-footed rock wallaby-CC-Peripitus — CC, Peripitus

After years of decline, a critically endangered species of rock wallaby in Australia is finally growing in population following recent rainfall.

The beloved Wangarru, or yellow-footed rock wallaby as it’s commonly called, is found only in Mutawintji National Park and Nature Reserve in the Far West and outback-South Australia.

In New South Wales’ longest ariel population survey program, the NSW government has been keeping tabs on the Wangarru for 40 years. Recently, drought and invasive predators like foxes and cats have reduced their numbers from 150 to just 60 individuals.

“But rain from March caused the ground cover to grow back and the wallabies have started breeding again, and this latest count in July we recorded 75 wallabies,” says project officer, Sarah Bell.

Dr. Bell works for the Save Our Species conservation action program facilitated by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which works to save endangered species the world over.

“We were getting quite concerned, because 60 in one population is such a small number of animals to represent a species distribution in NSW,” noted Dr. Bell.

“If you put the population count on top of rainfall data, it’s really quite amazing how closely it corresponds.”

Leroy Johnson is a Barkindji Aboriginal man, and the Park Manager of Mutawintji. For him, the Wangarru is a special animal. The Mutawintji Aboriginal Land Council has it on their logo, and Johnson told ABC news Australia that his people “take it very seriously to look after not only those animals, but the habitat they live in.”

He and his staff put out feeding and watering stations throughout the park to help the animals through the dry period.

“If the numbers are good then the land and the country is healthy too… we take pride in the fact that they’re there.”

However attached the Barkindji are with the cute rock wallaby, another bad drought could easily wipe out the remaining population, so Dr. Bell is working with the Mutawintji Land Council on relocation projects to create subpopulations elsewhere in the state.

This tactic, used to help restore California condors for example, is quite common when there are few animals but ample territory where they can live.

Natural disasters, drought, or a new disease can all decimate a delicate population, and the more places in NSW that Dr. Bell and Leroy Johnson can create stable populations, the better the chance that the Mutawindji Land Council can have them on their logos for years to come.

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Amateur Astronomer Tracks Possible Source of the Famous ‘Wow!’ Signal – a Mystery Since 1977

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Dec 4, 2020

43 years is a long time to solve a puzzle, but when the result could reveal whether or not intelligent alien civilizations exist in the universe, it’s worth waiting.

When Jerry Ehman, working at the radio telescope desk at Big Ears Observatory, Ohio, recorded an enormously complicated radio signal arriving from space, he famously scrawled “WOW! next to the reading on the computer printouts.

At the time it was hypothesized to have come from an advanced civilization, and now 43 years later a citizen scientist has plumbed the depths of the Gaia Star Catalogue and determined the most likely place, down to the star, the WOW! signal originated from.

Alberto Caballero claims that the signal made berth from a body in the habitable zone surrounding a Sun-like star called 2MASS 19281982-2640123, approximately 1,800 light years from Earth in the Sagittarius constellation.

This was based on data from the Gaia Archive, a massive database of positions, mass metrics, moving velocities, and brightness of 1.3 billion different stars assembled by the European Space Agency.

Caballero concludes that 2MASS is “therefore an ideal target to conduct observations in the search for potentially habitable exoplanets.”

CHECK OUT: ‘Unprecedented’ New Photos of the Sun’s Surface Are Being Hailed as Landmark Achievement for Science

Big Ears Observatory has looked over 100 times towards the region of space that produced the long complex radio signal to see if it ever repeated itself or broadcasted others, as the radio signal took up all 72 potential seconds of Big Ears’ capacity for measurement, but nothing like the Wow! signal has ever been recorded again.

Speaking a year after he retired, Jerry Ehman noted how much the totally absent-minded scribble came to define his career, as everytime Big Ears accomplished anything of note, journalists would call and ask about him and his Wow! moment.

“I just wish when I talked to journalists, there was really something more to say about it. I’d like to say, ‘Gee, that’s a signal from extraterrestrial intelligence,” Ehman told Big Ears Magazine in 1994. “I honestly can’t do that.”

MORE: Hawking’s 50-Year Mystery About Falling into Black Holes Has Finally Been Solved

The distance of the star from Earth means it’s too far to send any kind of reply. If scientists wanted to see if aliens existed around 2MASS, they would have had to send a radio signal greeting of their own under the auspicious of the Roman Emperor Hadrian for it to arrive there in present day.

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This High School Opened a Campus Grocery Store–And Students Pay in Good Deeds

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MORE: Tennessee High School Students Collect 10K Face Masks For Those in Need, Sharing Advice For Other Youth

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Dec 4, 2020

Linda Tutt High School-copyright-anthony lane — Anthony Lane

When most of us make a trip to the grocery store, we pay with credit cards, cash, and coupons. But for a unique supermarket that’s been set up at a North Texas high school, the cost of staples is good deeds. And the change? Human kindness and valuable life lessons.

The unique enterprise, set up with the aid of Texas Health, Albertsons, and First Refuge Ministries, has been a boon to the students, families, and faculty that form the close-knit Linda Tutt High School community in Sanger, Texas.

Students purchase goods via a point system. The currency is based on completing criteria such as helping clean up around the school and forms of positive reinforcement.

“A lot of our students come from low socioeconomic families,” school principal Anthony Love said in an interview with CBS. “It’s a way for students to earn the ability to shop for their families. Through hard work, you can earn points for positive office referrals. You can earn points for doing chores around the building or helping to clean.”

CHECK OUT: Welsh Teacher Hailed as ‘Math Whisperer‘ After All His Students Got an A+ on Tricky Exam

But aside from being able to help families cope with food insecurity, students who participate in the program on the sales side are also learning about everything from math and supply management to customer service and a solid work ethic; lessons that will serve them in good stead when they start to look for first jobs.

“We all had our first jobs and it taught us how to work, and what you got for your work,” said Sanger’s mayor, Thomas Muir. “I think this will do that for them too, and [also] meet an immediate need.”

Hunter Weertman, the grocery store’s student manager says he’s already learned important life skills such as budgeting and making good spending choices based on what you’ve got.

In addition to partnering with local food drives and other neighborhood initiatives, its founders hope that once the program hits its stride, this good deed grocery store can serve as a pilot program for other small communities where food insecurity has become an all-too-common way of life.

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“Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords.” – Samuel Johnson

Quote of the Day

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Dec 4, 2020

Quote of the Day: “Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords.” – Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) was a poet, essayist, moralist, biographer, and editor, whose contributions to English literature cannot be understated—especially his massive work, “Dictionary of the English Language,” which after nine years of research was first published in 1755, a century and a half before the “Oxford English Dictionary”.

Photo by: Jeswin Thomas

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?

Missing Boater Rescued 86 Miles From Shore Clinging To Capsized Boat: ‘I thought that was it’

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Dec 3, 2020

“You know the world’s most interesting man? Well, I’m just the opposite,” 62-year-old Florida resident Stuart Bee told a news reporter.

Interesting or not, when Bee and his 32-foot pleasure boat, Sting Ray, went missing from Port Canaveral Marina in Florida last Friday he became the focus of an intensive ocean search and rescue mission.

Bee experienced engine trouble early in the trip. Figuring he’d be able to fix it himself, he didn’t radio for help. He’d fallen asleep Sunday night after tinkering with the motor, only to be awakened by a gush of water flooding the cabin that pushed him up toward the bow and out through the front hatch as the stern sank.

That was sometime after midnight.

An experienced sailor, Bee knew he was in real trouble. Once the Sting Ray stabilized, he made several dives back inside to try to retrieve his personal locator beacon, to no avail. Unsure how much longer he’d be able to hang on, just after sunrise, Bee was preparing to make another attempt when he caught sight of a cargo freighter—aptly named the Angeles.

Using his shirt as a flag, Bee was able to get the watch crew’s attention. After the Angeles’ pulled as close as possible, a flotation device was dispatched to reel him in. The crew then used a ladder to haul Bee on board.

CHECK OUT: Two Surfers Save a ‘Starving, Cold’ Dog From Sea Cave After It Had Been Missing For 3 Months

“We just rescued one person from a capsizing boat at sea,” the captain of the Angeles confirmed in a satellite call with the Coast Guard. “Bee. Stuart Bee.”

#MustSee: Stuart Bee is recovered by the 225-foot motor vessel, #Angeles. The crew spotted the man clinging to the bow of the vessel and took him aboard and will transport him to shore. #BREAKING
Photo credit: crew member aboard the m/v Angeles. pic.twitter.com/1MSKcVRYG5
— USCGSoutheast (@USCGSoutheast) November 30, 2020

That Bee was found at all floating 86 miles from shore was a matter of pure providence. “This case, honestly, it’s an incredible outcome,” Petty Officer First Class David Micallef, spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard told the New York Times.

“I think it demonstrates the strong ties that the maritime community has with one another. We’re thankful that he’s going to be able to be on dry land soon.”

After confirming Bee’s identity, the Coast Guard search was disbanded. Bee opted to remain aboard the Angeles until its next scheduled stop in Wilmington, Delaware, where the Liberian container ship was set to deliver a cargo of bananas.

MORE: Lucky Dog Gets Adopted By Oil Rig Worker Who Found Him Swimming 135 Miles From Thai Coast

“They’re just the nicest people ever,” Bee said humbly of the men who’d saved his life.

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Justin Timberlake Buys Wheelchair-Accessible Van for Teen With Cerebral Palsy: ‘It’s a blessing’

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Dec 3, 2020

justin timberlake-cc-Gage Skidmore-jake stitt-copyright-jake stitt — Justin Timberlake, CC Gage Skidmore, Jake Stitt

Chances are, when the Stitt family was raising money to buy a wheel-chair-accessible van to give their 17-year-old son who has cerebral palsy a better quality of life, they weren’t wishing on a star—but that didn’t stop music legend Justin Timberlake from stepping in and making their dream come true.

When fellow Tennesseean Timberlake learned of the Stitts’ crowdfunding campaign, he didn’t just hop on the bandwagon, he decided to pay for Jake’s custom-built van and arranged to have it delivered to the family.

Justin Timberlake, CC Gage Skidmore, Jake Stitt

“He caught the story and was just very touched… and he wanted to reach out,” Tim Stitt told news channel WJHL. “It was just a blessing to be able to speak to that gentleman and for him to be able to meet Jake and see what he needed.”

Timberlake broke the news to Jake during a Zoom call. Then, on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, a parade made its way to the Stitts’ house, heralding the van’s arrival.

The entire family, including Jake, was ecstatic. Almost as priceless as the van itself is the independence it can afford Jake and his caregivers in Morristown.

While the Stitts had already raised a substantial sum toward the purchase of the van, Timberlake’s gift made it possible for that money to be used for Jake’s future care and expenses.

MORE: Shaq Pulls Over to Help Florida Woman After Her Car Crashed

“God’s always provided for us and we keep our faith and we’re thankful every day,” Tim Stitt said. “It is a true meaning to thanksgiving and all that’s happened… It’s a blessing to our family to make us be able to have peace and relax more and not have to have worries is amazing. It’s very humbling.”

(WATCH Jake’s story in the WKHL video below.)

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First-of-Its-Kind Med School Makes History For Cherokee People

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MORE: Huge Indigenous Solar Farm Opens in Remote Northern Community: ‘We work with the sun for the children of the future’

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Dec 3, 2020

cherokee-medical-graduation-women-OSU Center for Heakth Sciences — OSU Center for Health Sciences

In rural Oklahoma, a brand new medical school sits in the Cherokee Nation, training Nation members to become physicians at Nation clinics

Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine at the Cherokee Nation (COMCN) is the first tribally associated medical school in the country, and they just had their inaugural class after opening this fall.

Bill John Baker, the former principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, is widely credited with spurring the project as far as it has come, which even included the decision to sell the Nation’s private jet to help begin the new investment in a Cherokee Nation medical system, which first drew the attention of Oklahoma State University (OSU) to the idea of opening a medical school on reservation land.

“After we were removed from tribal lands and there were no teachers, we invested our treasury into teachers,” said Bill John Baker, according to MedScape. “This is a natural progression. Just as our ancestors grew their own teachers 150 years ago, we want to grow our own doctors.”

Indeed less than half of 1% of physicians in the country are eligible for tribal citizenship, but before growing their own doctors, Bill John Baker refurbished rural Nation clinics and financed the largest tribally owned outpatient facility in the country; a stunning four-story, 469,000-square-foot piece of architecture at W.W. Hastings Hospital campus, offering optometry, audiology, physical rehabilitation, dental, behavioral health, radiology, lab, and pharmacy services.

“The Cherokee Nation is excited to open this beautiful new facility that allows us to serve more of our citizens, and offer more services than they ever had before,” Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said in October at the grand opening.

“This facility is a real game changer that will improve our overall health system and is a huge investment in our local economy. It is a blessing for me to see former Chief Bill John Baker’s vision come to fruition because of what it means for our citizens.”

OSU and the tribes take notice

Bill John Baker was still the Principal Chief when OSU approached the Nation with the idea of opening a medical school.

Rendering of the medical school, OSU Center for Health Sciences

They jumped at the opportunity to have a medical school at home rather than sending their kids off to Harvard or Stanford.

The Cherokee Nation general fund paid $40 million for the 84,000-square-foot facility, the construction of which, while being delayed to spring 2021 by the pandemic, is nearing completion. Like the outpatient facility, the building is striking to look at, and will marry modern medicine with traditional healing practices in both service and decor.

Interior art and decoration will be provided by Cherokee artisans, and the landscaping for the building will be exclusively medicinal plants used by Cherokee medicine men and women for generations such as yarrow, blue indigo, rattlesnake master, coneflower, and elderberry.

While the school sits on Cherokee land, the agreement to create it was supported by four other tribal nations: the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminole. All five tribes are providing funds for scholarships and clinical rotation sites within their tribal clinic systems.

Being a state school, COMCN isn’t beholden to train Cherokee or Chickasaw physicians, however 22% of the inaugural school identify as Native American, whether Cherokee or otherwise.

In an effort to keep them connected with their communities and their heritage, COMCN is preparing residency programs in Nation clinics and volunteer programs to be able to work and study traditional healing medicine and its benefits.

“We’re hoping an unwritten curriculum will emerge from the healing practices of the Cherokee people,” Natasha Bray, the school’s associate dean for academic affairs, told Medscape.

The success of these new Cherokee medical facilities involves marrying the future with a rich cultural past, and could go a long way to improving the lives of rural Oklahomites, Cherokee, Choctaw, or Chickasaw alike.

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Temperature Analysis Shows UN Climate Goals ‘Within Reach’ Thanks to International Pledges

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Dec 3, 2020

A new report from a climate research group suggests that updated policies from major countries have put the targets of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement within reach.

This good news comes off the back of recent political announcements in Asia, and has climate-focused experts excited of the possibility of more countries following suit and updating their commitments.

The report, from a think tank called Climate Action Tracker, states that if every country which has made a net-zero carbon emissions pledge targeted for 2050 fulfils it, that would be enough to limit warming in this century to 2.1°C, strikingly close to the Paris Agreements made five years past.

Previous estimates have suggested that earlier commitments might create a limit of around 2.7, which is dangerously close to the 3°C threshold where general climate hypothesis suggests many major catastrophic effects would take place.

President-elect Joe Biden seems to want to make carbon emissions a major focus of his administration, and announcements from Japan and South Korea also involve carbon-neutrality by 2050.

Xi Jinping told the UN in June that his country, which recently installed some of the world’s largest renewable energy infrastructure, is aiming for carbon-neutrality by 2060.

“Five years on, it’s clear the Paris Agreement is driving climate action,” said Prof Niklas Höhne of NewClimate Institute, a Climate Action Tracker partner organization.

“The Paris Agreement introduced the goal of global net zero greenhouse gas emissions, and now we’re seeing a wave of countries signing up to it. Can anyone really afford to miss catching this wave?”

These are the sorts of commitments from the sorts of countries which organizations like Climate Action Tracker are constantly pushing for. Large carbon producers like China, Japan, and the U.S. can affect real change when they make commitments like this, not only because of their production of carbon, but their significant place as center pieces in world carbon markets like oil, coal, and gas.

Their policy sends out market signals that are important for driving private sector reductions in carbon as well.

“We now have north of 50% of global emissions covered by big countries with a zero emissions by mid-century goal,” said Bill Hare from Climate Analytics, another partner organization.

“When you add all that up, along with what a whole bunch of other countries are doing, then you move the temperature dial from around 2.7C to really quite close to two degrees.”

MORE: New Zealand Prime Minister Pledges to Reach 100% Renewable Energy Across Nation by 2030

“It’s still a fair way off from the Paris Agreement target, but it is a really major development,” he told BBC News.

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“Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought.” – Matsuo Bashō

Quote of the Day

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Dec 3, 2020

library philosophy thinking books wisdom-pubdomain-Giammarco Boscaro — Credit: Giammarco Boscaro

Quote of the Day: “Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought.” – Matsuo Bashō

Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694) was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan and internationally recognized as the greatest master of haiku with many of his poems reproduced on monuments and traditional sites. He was also well known for his travel essays beginning with “Records of a Weather-Exposed Skeleton”.

Photo by: Giammarco Boscaro

With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?

This Week’s Inspiring Horoscopes From Rob Brezsny’s ‘Free Will Astrology’

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Dec 2, 2020

We’ve partnered with our friend Rob Brezsny, who for years has championed a positive approach to life through astrology. His weekly wisdom can enlighten your thinking and motivate your mood with ‘PROnoia’ instead of paranoia. Rob’s Free Will Astrology, is a syndicated weekly column that appears in over a hundred publications. He is also the author of Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How All of Creation Is Conspiring To Shower You with Blessings. (A free preview of the book is available here.)

Here is your weekly horoscope…

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY – Week beginning December 1, 2020
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
“Pictures of perfection, as you know, make me sick and wicked,” observed Sagittarian author Jane Austen. She wrote this confession in a letter to her niece, Fanny, whose boyfriend thought that the women characters in Jane’s novels were too naughty. In the coming weeks, I encourage you Sagittarians to regard pictures of perfection with a similar disdain. To accomplish all the brisk innovations you have a mandate to generate, you must cultivate a deep respect for the messiness of creativity; you must understand that your dynamic imagination needs room to experiment with possibilities that may at first appear disorderly. For inspiration, keep in mind this quote from Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich: “Well-behaved women seldom make history.”

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Capricorn novelist Anne Brontë (1820–1849) said, “Smiles and tears are so alike with me, they are neither of them confined to any particular feelings: I often cry when I am happy, and smile when I am sad.” I suspect you could have experiences like hers in the coming weeks. I bet you’ll feel a welter of unique and unfamiliar emotions. Some of them may seem paradoxical or mysterious, although I think they’ll all be interesting and catalytic. I suggest you welcome them and allow them to teach you new secrets about your deep self and the mysterious nature of your life.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Aquarian philosopher Simone Weil formulated resolutions so as to avoid undermining herself. First, she vowed she would only deal with difficulties that actually confronted her, not far-off or hypothetical problems. Second, she would allow herself to feel only those feelings that were needed to inspire her and make her take effective action. All other feelings were to be shed, including imaginary feelings—that is, those not rooted in any real, objective situation. Third, she vowed, she would “never react to evil in such a way as to augment it.” Dear Aquarius, I think all of these resolutions would be very useful for you to adopt in the coming weeks.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
In June 2019, the young Piscean singer Justin Bieber addressed a tweet to 56-year-old actor Tom Cruise, challenging him to a mixed martial arts cage fight. “If you don’t take this fight,” said Bieber, “you will never live it down.” A few days later, Bieber retracted his dare, confessing that Cruise “would probably whoop my ass in a fight.” If Bieber had waited until December 2020 to make his proposal, he might have had more confidence to follow through—and he might also have been better able to whoop Cruise’s ass. You Pisceans are currently at the peak of your power and prowess.

ARIES (March 21-April 19):
An anonymous blogger on Tumblr writes the following: “What I’d really like is for someone to objectively watch me for a week and then sit down with me for a few hours and explain to me what I am like and how I look to others and what my personality is in detail and how I need to improve. Where do I sign up for that?” I can assure you that the person who composed this message is not an Aries. More than any other sign of the zodiac, you Rams want to *be* yourself, to inhabit your experience purely and completely—not see yourself from the perspective of outside observers. Now is a good time to emphasize this specialty.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
“Humans like to be scared,” declares author Cathy Bell. “We love the wicked witch’s cackle, the wolf’s hot breath, and the old lady who eats children, because sometimes, when the scary is over, all we remember is the magic.” I suppose that what she says is a tiny bit true. But there are also many ways to access the magic that don’t require encounters with dread. And that’s exactly what I predict for you in the coming weeks, Taurus: marvelous experiences—including catharses, epiphanies, and breakthroughs—that are neither spurred by fear nor infused with it.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
In 1994, the animated movie The Lion King told the story of the difficult journey made by a young lion as he struggled to claim his destiny as rightful king. A remake of the film appeared in 2019. During the intervening 25 years, the number of real lions living in nature declined dramatically. There are now just 20,000. Why am I telling you such bad news? I hope to inspire you to make 2021 a year when you will resist trends like this. Your assignment is to nurture and foster wildness in every way that’s meaningful for you—whether that means helping to preserve habitats of animals in danger of extinction or feeding and championing the wildness inside you and those you care about. Get started!

CANCER (June 21-July 22):
Is there anyone whose forgiveness you would like to have? Is there anyone to whom you should make atonement? Now is a favorable phase to initiate such actions. In a related subject, would you benefit from forgiving a certain person whom you feel wronged you? Might there be healing for you in asking that person to make amends? The coming weeks will provide the best opportunity you have had in a long time to seek these changes.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Scientists know that the Earth’s rotation is gradually slowing down—but at the very slow rate of two milliseconds every 100 years. What that means is that 200 million years from now, one day will last 25 hours. Think of how much more we humans will be able to get done with an extra hour every day! I suspect you may get a preview of this effect in the coming weeks, Leo. You’ll be extra efficient. You’ll be focused and intense in a relaxing way. Not only that: You will also be extra appreciative of the monumental privilege of being alive. As a result, you will seem to have more of the precious luxury of time.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Adventurer Tim Peck says there are three kinds of fun. The first is pure pleasure, enjoyed in full as it’s happening. The second kind of fun feels challenging when it’s underway, but interesting and meaningful in retrospect. Examples are giving birth to a baby or taking an arduous hike uphill through deep snow. The third variety is no fun at all. It’s irksome while you’re doing it, and equally disagreeable as you think about it later. Now I’ll propose a fourth type of fun, which I suspect you’ll specialize in during the coming weeks. It’s rather boring or tedious or nondescript while it’s going on, but in retrospect you are very glad you did it.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
“I made the wrong mistakes,” said Libran composer and jazz pianist Thelonious Monk. He had just completed an improvisatory performance he wasn’t satisfied with. On countless other occasions, however, he made the right mistakes. The unexpected notes and tempo shifts he tried often resulted in music that pleased him. I hope that in the coming weeks you make a clear demarcation between wrong mistakes and right mistakes, dear Libra. The latter could help bring about just the transformations you need.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
“Home is not where you were born,” writes Naguib Mahfouz. “Home is where all your attempts to escape cease.” I propose we make that one of your mottoes for the next 12 months, Scorpio. According to my astrological analysis, you will receive all the inspiration and support you need as you strive to be at peace with exactly who you are. You’ll feel an ever-diminishing urge to wish you were doing something else besides what you’re actually doing. You’ll be less and less tempted to believe your destiny lies elsewhere, with different companions and different adventures. To your growing satisfaction, you will refrain from trying to flee from the gifts that have been given you, and you will instead accept the gifts just as they are. And it all starts now.

WANT MORE? Listen to Rob’s EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES, 4-5 minute meditations on the current state of your destiny — or subscribe to his unique daily text message service at: RealAstrology.com

(Zodiac images by Numerologysign.com –CC license)

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‘World’s Loneliest Elephant’ Kavaan Finally Reaches New Home, Gets Hugs From Cher And New Pachyderm Pal

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Dec 2, 2020

It’s been a big week for Kavaan the ‘loneliest elephant’. After spending decades living in poor conditions in a Pakistan zoo, he’s reached the lush sanctuary where he’ll spend the rest of his days. And he’s already made a a new buddy.

Earlier this year, GNN reported that Kavaan was ordered by Pakistan’s High Court to be freed from Islamabad’s Murghazar Zoo, which is in the process of being permanently shut down.

There were many groups and people fighting for the elephant’s release, including, most famously, Cher, who celebrated Kavaan’s win, tweeting, “THIS IS ONE OF THE GREATEST MOMENTS OF MY LIFE.”

Since that May ruling, the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) has been working behind the scenes to find the lonely elephant an ideal home. They found the perfect site in Cambodia Wildlife Sanctuary.

MORE GOOD NEWS: African Elephant Poaching Has Fallen By More Than 50% Over the Course of the Last 6 Years

In a rescue led by the animal welfare organization FOUR PAWS, alongside IWMB and Cher’s Free The Wild organization, veterinarians and elephant experts have been busy preparing Kaavan for his departure to a new location.

For weeks, the team has been helping Kavaan learn how to make a stress-free entry and exit into and out of an air-shipment crate. Given the male elephant weighs 4.35 tons, that’s been no easy task.

This weekend, though, Kavaan was finally ready for his departure. With a military escort, the pachyderm was taken to Islamabad International Airport and onto a Russian Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft. After a stopover in India, he made the 10-hour flight to a new country, arriving at Cambodia Wildlife Sanctuary in the capital of Siem Reap on Monday.

Since he’s been there?

Kaavan has left his transport crate and enjoyed a warm welcome with a fruitcake and a banana tree leaves trail made just for him.

After eight years with no animal friends, he’s made his first integration with another elephant.

He’s met one of his biggest supporters.

That’d be Cher, who tweeted that she sang to relax him.

Woke EARLY Day Be-4 yesterday,& Went 2 see Kaavan. Men Milling around made Him anxious.I Was There,but I Only given him food,& Sing 2 Him. With Asthma Sound like🐸.4PAWS IS ASTONISHING, MARK Has Moved 350🐘, Cher=🐘.Can Learn From 4PAWS & Mark.Think K Likes Me & Dumbo Song pic.twitter.com/pEjYkJzAyE
— Cher (@cher) November 30, 2020

In around a month, Kavaan will be introduced to three female elephants, and he’ll have 25,000 acres to roam in. That’s an area 50,000x bigger than the zoo enclosure he was confined to until the court ruling helped set him free.

With Kaavan’s years of isolation finally at an end, FOUR PAWS says he’ll finally have the chance to live a species-appropriate and peaceful life.

SEND The Celebratory Elephant News To Pals on Social Media…

Missy Elliott Surprised a Stranger With A Dream Dress After Bride Makes Emotional Post on Twitter

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Dec 2, 2020

missy elliott-CC 4.0-Atlantic Records — Atlantic Records

As much as being able to say “yes to the dress” looms large in many a bride’s twinkling eye, budget woes have forced compromise for more than their fair share of wedding dreams.

Such was the case for bride-to-be Ireanna Bradshaw, who between saving for the big day and moving into a new home with her intended, had a budget that was stretched to the wire.

Bradshaw found her dream dress at David’s Bridal, but fretted that even though she’d been scrimping and saving, at $1,300 it was simply beyond her means. Despondent, she tweeted a photo of the dress and some words of distress to her Twitter feed:

“Im getting Married in March &trying to move into our own place… “Excited but overwhelmed. I have been saving money; but its still a struggle. I found my dream dress and I want to get it so bad but between saving for the move- i dnt think it will be possible.”

Bradshaw also posted her cash app info hoping for a little help, never dreaming a famous fairy godmother might be waiting in the wings to grant her wish.

When music legend Missy Elliott got wind of Bradshaw’s yearning for the perfect gown, she decided to make some wedding magic of her own. The star stepped in and paid for the dress in full, tweeting:

Your Dress is paid for now🙂 I don’t know you but I saw you said the dress of your dreams & figured I would help when I saw you post ya cash app🙂May Blessings pour on your Beautiful Wedding Day with your Future husband💍🙏🏾🙌🏾
— Missy Elliott (@MissyElliott) November 18, 2020

We just love Cinderella bridal story with a happy ending, don’t you?

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Image: Atlantic Records

Celebrity Chef David Chang Won $1 Million – And He’s Giving It All to Restaurant Workers

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