Quote of the Day: “Be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire.” – Jennifer Lee
Photo: by chelsea ferenando
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?
When 94-year-old Suttie Economy is packed off for the sweet hereafter, his exit strategy is going to be a little sweeter than most. That’s because Economy plans to be buried in a casket decked out like a pack of Juicy Fruit gum.
The Roanoke, Virginia Navy veteran’s love affair with Juicy Fruit goes back to his days in the service, when as part of the Second World War effort, chewing gum manufacturer Wrigley suspended stateside distribution and sent bulk of its products to troops overseas.
Since then, Economy has become something of a self-appointed goodwill ambassador for the brand.
Sammy Oakey, president of Oakey’s Funeral Service and Economy have a friendship that goes back 45 years. “Suttie would come in here for visitation or just come in to visit and he would always bring a bunch of packs of Juicy Fruit… and put it out for the employees to enjoy,” Oakey told CNN.
RELATED: Veterans Are Finding Lasting Peace After Taking These Free Journeys into Nature for Months at a Time
Economy’s gum gifting ways weren’t just confined to funeral home visits. “He did it at restaurants and doctor’s offices—wherever he went,” Oakey said.
Memorial Day with Suttie Economy, WW2 Veteran, Roanoke, VA. #Rke https://t.co/TkeXIwZOX6 pic.twitter.com/bv6NfIt4dD
— River Laker (@riverlaker) May 26, 2014
After Economy recently suffered heart complications, he approached his longtime pal with a request: When his time came, he wanted to be buried in a coffin painted to resemble his trademark gum—and therein lay the problem.
Mars Wrigley, current owners of the Juicy Fruit trademark, gave Oakey’s plea a thumbs down. “I told him I’d do everything I could to make that happen,” Oakey said in an interview with WLS 10 News. “I immediately called Wrigley’s and they… said no.”
Unusual burial requests are nothing new. When 37-year-old oil heiress Sandra West passed away, her will stipulated she be dressed in a nightgown, placed in the front seat of her 1964 Ferrari 250GT (“with the seat slanted comfortably”) and planted in the ground—car and all.
Organic chemist Fredric Baur, designer of the Pringles potato chip container had some of his ashes buried in some of his iconic cylindrical creations. Comic book author Mark Gruenwald’s ashes were mixed with ink that was used into a first-edition printing of Squadron Supreme. Gonzo journalist Hunter S.Thompson’s ashes were shot out of a cannon, while James Doohan, known to a galaxy of adoring fans as Star Trek’s “Scotty,” fittingly had his cremated remains launched into space.
Knowing how important the chewing-gum-themed casket was to Economy, Oakey didn’t give up the fight. The viral social media campaign he launched garnered contact information for Mars Wrigley’s top brass.
Happily for all concerned, Oakey’s renewed his request to the powers that be met with success. In an email from the company president, he was told the company would go along with whatever the family wanted to do.
Not only did the gum giant grant their biggest fan’s final boon, they also sent Economy’s family 250 packs of Juicy Fruit as a thank you for his lifelong brand loyalty.
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Economy, who is currently being treated at Virginia Veterans Care Clinic, has actually taken a turn for the better. Whether his improved prognosis can be attributed to the “Juicy Fruit” effect is anyone’s call, but if there’s one thing we’ve learned from this story it’s if you think outside the box—and ask nicely—sometimes you can take it with you.
And how sweet is that?
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In what is only the third-such discovery in science, an ultra-rare manta ray nursery was found right under scientists’ noses off the busy coast of South Florida.
It was discovered after scientists observed a large concentration of juveniles off a 58-mile stretch of coast from the St. Lucie Inlet to Boynton Beach.
Most of the juveniles were seen many times over in the same area across a period of years.
Experts know of only two other nurseries, one in the Gulf of Mexico and the other in Indonesia, and the discovery of a third unlocks various new avenues of study: The graceful glider’s breeding habits are almost entirely a mystery, so an opportunity to study them close to home for U.S. scientists is good news.
How they manage to survive and stay relaxed while swimming through the waters in front of beach resorts like Margaritaville and Mar-a-Lago, however, is something that creates far more questions than answers.
Rays, an ancient animal species that evolved alongside plants, are not well understood.
CHECK OUT: Watch Beach Goers Help Giant Stranded Manta Ray Get Back to the Ocean
The two-ton manta ray, with its black and white skin colors and 30-foot wingspan, is almost universally identifiable. But the gentle giant must be among the least understood animals when you consider its fame.
“There’s so little we know about mantas,” Marine Biologist Jessica Pate tells National Geographic.
Pate is the author of a new paper regarding her discovery of the Florida manta ray nursery, and reminds the magazine that their preferred birthing grounds, lifespan, mating selection criteria, and how they give birth are all completely unknown.
Pate would further detail in her paper that the genetics of the Florida mantas were unique enough to possibly be considered a third, distinct species—serving again to reiterate the lack of knowledge about the animals.
Manta rays can’t breed until 8-10 years old, so nurseries tend to have abundant food supplies and no predators. Once they’re old enough to breed, when they have around 1-2 pups every few years, they’re also too big for most predators and can drift further afield free of fear.
CHECK OUT: Scientists ‘Blown Away’ By Discovery of Longest Animal Ever Recorded—And It’s Quite Beautiful
Learning how mantas breed and travel can help science form guidelines about how to protect them from overfishing and being wounded in contact with fishing equipment, as 46% of the Florida juveniles had been. This is extra important given that both recognized species are listed as vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
In 2018, mantas were listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, an action which requires critical habitat conservation designations to follow. Until Pate’s discovery, no such habitat could be identified, and she recommends immediate consideration of the surveyed area for protection.
MORE: Photographer Captures Incredible Video of Thousands of Ray Fish Flying Through a Mexico Sea
“These mantas are living in South Florida with millions of people, so protecting them won’t be easy,” Pate said. “But as manta rays around the world are declining, this could be a really important population to safeguard the species.”
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The roads of New Zealand will soon be worked over by long-distance trucks powered entirely by ultra-sustainable hydrogen-powered electric fuel cells.
Capable of traveling 310 miles (500 kilometers) on one tank, these special fuel cells use hydrogen stored on board and oxygen from the atmosphere to generate electricity and power the car. Since H + O = H2O, the only emission of any kind coming out of the tailpipe is water.
The news comes as Kiwi company Hiringa and Hyzon Motors—a U.S. manufacturer of hydrogen fuel cells—signed a “heads of agreement” that would allow Hiringa’s hydrogen-powered electric vehicles (HPEVs) to start hauling freight as early as 2022, positioning New Zealand as a world leader in hydrogen vehicle infrastructure.
Between late 2020 and 2026, Hiringa expects to roll out 1,500 different HPEVs varying in size from van-shaped to 18-wheelers to road-train models for the Australian market.
The company also expects to outfit the North and South Islands of the Pacific nation with the world’s most sophisticated hydrogen refueling network, slated to come online in 2021.
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HPEVs have been around for years, but are often overlooked as a font of carbon reduction assets in the transportation sector in favor of battery-powered electric vehicles. However, unlike the latter, they don’t require massive increases in battery technology to become viable. Instead they suffer, like battery EVs, from a lack of refueling stations.
Working with regional, national, and native Māori governments, Hiringa is poised to service 82% of trucking routes on the South Island, and 100% on the North Island, with a true zero-emissions supply chain.
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Currently around 60% of New Zealand’s power needs are met with fossil fuels, but the island is a wonderland of geological, hydrological, and meteorological forces. Hiringa—who take their name from a Māori word meaning perseverance, adaptability, and vitality—feel that number is far too high.
“New Zealand is set to be one of the first countries in the world to be able to offer a zero-emission national supply chain,” said Hiringa CEO Andrew Clennett in a statement. “To be developing this fully integrated solution in New Zealand is an excellent example of the joint leadership being shown by the transport and hydrogen industries in this country.”
“The Hiringa hydrogen infrastructure deployment will position New Zealand to become a global leader in the adoption of zero-emission heavy vehicle technology, and we are pleased to be playing a major part in this transition,’’ said Craig Knight, co-founder of Hyzon Motors, in a release.
New York’s Hyzon Motors have forged their own path through the HPEV market, and along with working with Hiringa, have this year signed an agreement to provide Australian ore miners Fortescue Metals Group, the world’s fourth largest exporter of iron, with a fleet of HPEVs for operations in Western Australia that will save 400-450 million liters of diesel a year.
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This week, if you looked up the dictionary definition for the word ‘sportsmanship,’ there’s a good chance you might have seen a picture of Ireland’s national lacrosse team there.
That’s because rather than looking to their own interests, they ceded their spot at the World Lacrosse Games 2022 to a Native American Iroquois squad who’d been shut out of the international competition on a technicality.
The eight teams slotted to play in the tournament were selected on the basis of where their team ranked at the end of the 2018 Federation of International Lacrosse World Championship. The Iroquois Nationals came in third. Ireland finished 12th.
Since the Iroquois are not recognized as a sovereign nation nor do they have an Olympic Committee, the International World Games Association (IWGA) initially disqualified them from championship play.
In August, the IWGA reversed its decision, but with the roster already set, the point seemed moot—until team Ireland changed the game.
RELATED: Irish Town Builds Memorial to Thank Native Americans Who Helped During the Potato Famine
In a statement, Michael Kennedy, chief executive officer of Ireland Lacrosse said, “It’s simply the right thing to do… As much as our players would have been honored to compete, we know the right thing is for the Iroquois Nationals to represent our sport on this international stage.”
For Immediate Release- Ireland Lacrosse Voluntarily Withdraws from TWG 2022 @IrelandLacrosse @IrelandMLax pic.twitter.com/637BpgtNPf
— World Lacrosse (@worldlaxsport) September 3, 2020
“You have gone above and beyond not only for us, but for what you believe is right,” the Iroquois Nationals tweeted in response. “Your actions have spoken louder than words showing everyone the true power of sport, and the spirit of lacrosse. We will never forget that.”
To @IrelandLacrosse,
— IROQUOIS NATIONALS LACROSSE (@IRQ_Nationals) September 3, 2020
You have gone above and beyond not only for us, but for what you believe is right.
Your actions have spoken louder than words showing everyone the true power of sport, and the spirit of lacrosse.
We will never forget that.
I dteannta a chéile#TogetherAsOne pic.twitter.com/qmDSYauaM5
In an interview with USLacrosse Magazine, World Lacrosse Chief Executive Officer Jim Scherr said, “Some of the most inspiring gestures in international sport are when athletes from one team reach across and lend their support to athletes from another. That’s exactly what…the membership of Ireland Lacrosse have done, and we should all be inspired by their example.”
While it might seem unusual for athletes from such far-flung locales to make this kind of sacrifice for another team, it’s far from the first time Native Americans and the Irish have reached out to help one another in troubled times.
During the Irish Potato Famine, even though impoverished themselves, the Choctaw tribe sent a monetary donation to help alleviate suffering across the ocean.
The Irish recently returned the gesture, donating generously to a GoFundMe campaign that benefits Native American tribes particularly hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
We heartily applaud Ireland’s national lacrosse team for reminding us by example that true sportsmanship is built on a foundation of fairness and courtesy. Sometimes, walking the walk means giving up glory in the name of a greater good—and that is what being a winner is all about.
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The US Central Command has recently announced they will be withdrawing roughly half of their troops from their current deployment in Iraq.
According to a statement that was issued by Central Command’s General Frank McKenzie last week, the US plans to reduce its military presence from 5,200 to 3,000 troops during the month of September.
“Moving forward, we must continue our D-ISIS [defeat ISIS] work together with our partners in Iraq and Syria,” said McKenzie, who commands the US military presence in the Middle East. “We are continuing to expand on our partner capacity programs that enable Iraqi forces and allow us to reduce our footprint in Iraq.
“This reduced footprint allows us to continue advising and assisting our Iraqi partners in rooting out the final remnants of ISIS in Iraq and ensuring its enduring defeat. This decision is due to our confidence in the Iraqi Security Forces’ increased ability to operate independently.”
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It has been 13 years since the US military reached its peak number of active troops in Iraq with 170,000 deployed service members in 2007.
According to NPR, American military presence in Iraq has remained largely steady for the last four years, although the US reportedly began withdrawing troops from Iraqi bases in January.
The news outlet goes on to report that Central Command is also planning to reduce its military presence in Afghanistan from 6,500 troops to 4,000.
This reduced footprint allows us to continue advising and assisting our Iraqi partners in rooting out the final remnants of ISIS in Iraq and ensuring its enduring defeat. #CENTCOMCDR @SOJTFOIR @CJTFOIR #DefeatDaesh
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) September 9, 2020
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Scientists at Northwestern University and Holland’s Delft University of Technology are giving the classic 8-bit Nintendo Game Boy a green makeover by powering the console with the energy of button pressing and a solar-panel in the display screen.
Looking and feeling like the original, the scientists preserved the old processor, allowing anyone who kept their antique cartridges around to immediately access them again.
Released in 1989, the Game Boy, which was originally powered by AA batteries, eventually moved in its later incarnations to a rechargeable device battery like the ones in our cellphones.
Even still, any battery is environmentally costly to manufacture and difficult to recycle.
Gaming-specific computers and laptops are often the most powerful, robust, and high-tech computers available, but also put the biggest number on an electric bill.
A powerful proof-of-concept project designed to help move toward the ultimate goal of battery-free computing, the “green Game Boy” demonstrates the effectiveness of several kinds of battery-alternatives and perhaps opens the doors to harvesting energy from our interactions with the system, like the keyboard strokes made on our laptops for example.
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“It’s the first battery-free interactive device that harvests energy from user actions,” said Northwestern’s Josiah Hester, who co-led the research. “When you press a button, the device converts that energy into something that powers your gaming.”
For gamers who are familiar with these themes, they will understand that one second of interruption for every 10 seconds of gameplay, as the green Game Boy is currently vulnerable to as a result of the infancy of Hester’s team’s technology, is fine for things like chess and Tetris, but intolerable for something like Super Mario Bros.
To address this, the scientists developed a new technique of storing the system state in non-volatile memory, minimizing overhead and allowing quick restoration when power returns.
In effect this means there’s no save button, but that the console returns you to exactly where you were when the device lost power.
There is still a long way to go before state-of-the-art 21st-century handheld game consoles will become battery-free, but it’s a start, and an example of how looking to the future often means starting in the past.
(WATCH the video of the green Game Boy in action below.)
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Quote of the Day: “After the game, the king and the pawn go into the same box.” – Italian proverb
Photo: by Randy Fath
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?
With faces straight out of Dr. Seuss, the cheeky beaks of Burmese roofed turtle hatchlings are characterized by what’s been described as a nonstop grin. These days, the turtles have plenty of reasons to be cheerful.
Not long ago, however, the existence of species, native to Myanmar’s Irrawaddy river region, was in serious doubt.
Over-hunting for food, medicinal use, and the pet trade, as well as reckless egg harvesting, improper electro-fishing techniques, and destruction of natural turtle habitat had all but wiped the once-flourishing reptiles from the face of the planet.
In fact, by the 1990s, the species was thought to be extinct. It wasn’t until 2001, when a likely smuggled specimen turned up in a Hong Kong pet shop, that conservationists began to hope at least some small portion of their population had survived.
Heartened by the news, biologist Gerald Kuchling, who’s now with the University of Western Australia, along with the Myanmar Forest Department launched a joint survey expedition of the upper Chindwin River, a site Burmese roofed turtles were once known to inhabit.
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Sadly, the project was sidelined by a summer monsoon.
On one of his days off, Dr. Kuchling happened to visit a turtle pond at a Buddhist temple in Mandalay. To his infinite surprise, he found three of the elusive critters smiling up at him from the murky water. “I was very excited and definitely flabbergasted,” he said.
With the blessing of the temple board, Dr. Kuchling and his Burmese colleagues moved one male and two female turtles to the Mandalay Zoo.
Later, while exploring the Dokhtawady, a tributary of the Irrawaddy, Dr. Kuchling discovered even more specimens which were also transported to the zoo. This was in the nick of time too, as a damnable damming project destroyed their habitat soon after.
While there were thought to be less than 10 Burmese roofed turtles—five or six adult females and perhaps two adult males—living in the wild, not all of them made the trip.
When fishermen on the upper Chindwin River reported a handful of females still nested there during the dry season, Dr. Kuchling, along with the Forest Department and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), organized and implemented a conservation stewardship program for the site.
Each year since, the beach has been fenced off by seasonally hired villagers who then track nesting females and carefully harvest their eggs. “We came so close to losing them,” WCS herpetologist Steven G. Platt, told The New York Times. “If we didn’t intervene when we did, this turtle would have just been gone.”
Thanks to subsequent WCS efforts and the Turtle Survival Alliance, approximately 1,000 of the turtles have been successfully raised in captivity and are soon to be released into the wild. The WCS reports the species faces “little danger of biological extinction” at this point.
On hearing rumors of his alleged demise, humorist Mark Twain famously quipped, “The report of my death was an exaggeration.” No doubt his public was tickled at the time, but we think bringing these cheerful turtles back from the brink of extinction will give everyone a reason to smile—including the turtles.
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This grandmother-granddaughter team have been making fairy houses for years, but when COVID-19 hit they got busy creating little magical vignettes they could place outside for the community to enjoy.
The fairy tour begins on a New York state street, at a tiny mailbox next to a tree that holds a listing of each little house and its name—14 all together.
An arrow points the way to a lovely flower-filled garden where the houses are nestled in between greenery and colorful blooms.
The first stop on the Finger Lakes tour is ‘Bernie’s Buttons’: a round mosaic house with a bright pink door and jewels that sparkle in the sun. It’s made out of a tin can, plaster of Paris, old buttons, glitter, and beads.
“We love to use things that can be recycled, and other found objects, like old buttons” says the grandmother Carol. “We especially enjoy making the pathways. We just use plaster from the hardware store and inset all types of things from pebbles to glitter and plastic jewels.”
Next stop is ‘Finley’s Shanty’, where an old stone pathway welcomes visiting fairies to enter via the round wooden door. A huge crystal ball glows with mysterious powers. A tiny handmade sign says ‘Welcome’ and a decorative wire bench invites tired fairies to sit for a spell.
Where do the fairies go for lunch? ‘Beans Pod’.
“The fairies can sit by the waterfall and sneak into my grandma’s garden to steal fresh raspberries”, according to the granddaughter. “They can also play tic tac bug.”
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After lunch the fairies can head over to ‘Flo’s Creek’ to sit under the gazebo and read or collect pink petunias.
‘Aqua’s Flip Flop Inn’, looks very inviting for a swim, boat ride, or just for relaxing in the sun and sand.
The Inn has a turquoise roof imbedded with shells, a rainbow door, and a one-inch tall sandcastle. A sparking boulder painted with a mandala pattern sits to the left of the door and a crystal covered rock to the right.
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Each teeny-tiny house has a special feel about it: They’re certainly places any fairy would love to live. Hidden under bushes and burrowed at the bases of huge trees, surrounded by the smell of showy flowers and the gurgling of a waterfall, the settings couldn’t be more enchanting.
At the end of the tour sits a three-inch tall treasure chest filled with colorful jewels. “Well, I hope you enjoyed your fairy garden tour”, say the words on the sign, “because I really enjoyed it so much. Please take a jewel to remember your visit.”
This fairy land has been put away for the upcoming winter for now, but you can still take the full guided tour through this video.
It’s a wonderful reminder of the magic all around us—and how we just need to slow down long enough to see it.
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When a Washington woman stumbled upon stacks of family albums from her husband’s grandmother while cleaning the garage, she decided to find the other living relatives of the subjects in the photos.
It’s a classic tale: photos pass on between generations telling the story of a family’s history. Then they end up untouched, gathering dust in a forgotten corner of the house until the next move or clean.
Carol Richards nearly fell into that trap, but an old brown suitcase in the garage of her Mukilteo home caught her eye.
After opening it up, she found amazing loose black and white photographs and old albums.
Luckily, 90% of the images were labeled. Setting up the Facebook group Memories from Helen’s Suitcase, the process of reuniting the photos with living loved ones began.
“That’s why I do it,” says Carol, “not for reward, but to make other people happy.”
RELATED: Stunned Couple Reunited With Wedding Photos Stolen at Their Reception Party 35 Years Ago
(WATCH the video featuring Carol’s story below.)
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A group of businesses is leading a national effort to enlist a new wave of poll workers, poll locations, and health protection gear for election day.
More than 60 Civic Alliance member companies—including Starbucks, Target, Old Navy, Salesforce, Microsoft, Expedia, Twitter, Uber, Lyft, and Warby Parker—are taking concrete steps to encourage their employees or consumers to serve as poll workers.
Various member companies are also offering PPE and safe, accessible spaces for voting to local election officials.
Elections experts have suggested that thousands of new locations will be needed this year and hundreds of thousands of new poll workers will be required to keep polling places open.
Much of this is directly related to COVID-19, which requires reduced capacity at existing polling places due to social distancing and also makes unavailable many public locations that typically serve as polling places.
Because of heightened health risks, many recent poll workers—most of whom are over the age of 60—are opting out of serving this year.
To fill the gap, Warby Parker is just one of dozens of national companies giving team members paid time off to vote and opportunities to volunteer at poll centers in their communities on and leading up to Election Day.
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With senior centers, schools, and other venues not available for polling locations this year, the Civic Alliance is also connecting companies with the appropriate election officials in order to offer publicly accessible spaces for voting.
Steve Koonin, CEO of the Atlanta Hawks, says the basketball team is “grateful that we can use State Farm Arena, our incredible staff and other resources to provide a safe and secure environment for Atlanta residents to participate in this year’s important election.”
Through a partnership with Mission for Masks and the C19 Coalition, the Civic Alliance has also helped to match election officials in need of PPE with suppliers of masks, face shields and disposable gloves.
Levi Stress & Co is donating 15,000 masks for poll workers to help ensure that no one has to choose between their vote and their health.
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“A successful democracy is reliant on the active participation of its citizens,” says Richard Lovett, Chairman and President at Creative Artists Agency, ”and we, as business leaders, must take the necessary steps to ensure that voting is protected at all costs. Being able to vote without barriers, especially during this pandemic, is vital.”
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When an entrepreneur realized all the common complaints with electric vehicles originate from the battery and not the car itself, he created an entirely new battery system for them—and earned himself the backing of automotive giant Volkswagen in the process.
Long charging times, limited range, higher costs, weight, and limited cabin space: These are all negative selling points that have to do with the battery-powered nature of electric vehicles (EVs), partially because the technology in them has so far been limited to banks of lithium-ion batteries of ever-increasing size.
RELATED: These Giant Oil Companies Are Providing EV Chargers Next to Their Gas Pumps
Jagdeep Singh started a company called QuantumScape that’s using solid-state technology for their batteries.
Thanks to immediate valuation from investors like Bill Gates, QuantumScape is now worth $3.3 billion, and major backers Volkswagen have already committed to using Singh’s technology in their next generation of EVs in 2024.
Along with presenting the problems of cost, size, and charging time, lithium-ion batteries require materials known as rare-earth minerals—which tend to be costly and environmentally destructive to mine.
Replacing the liquid graphite-silicon anode electrolyte at the center of a lithium-ion battery with a solid ceramic material, QuantumScape’s batteries provide significantly increased energy density and lower cost, along with removing a significant fire hazard in the form of the liquid anode.
Most importantly though, a solid-state battery can go from 0% charge to 80% in just 15 minutes—light speed compared to its competitors.
MORE: This New German Car is Covered With Solar Panels and Charges As It Drives
This will not only make EVs viable for things like road trip vacations, but also as transportation for an entirely new class of consumer: apartment owners. EV drivers with garages have been able to charge up overnight, making the question of range a non-issue.
However, waiting at public charging stations for 12 hours is out of the question for those who want to help speed the transition away from fossil fuels, but who doesn’t have a garage or reliable exterior electricity access with which to charge their car.
What you need to do is make electric cars competitive with combustion engines on all metrics,” says Singh in a Fast Company article.
“Those metrics include not only cost but range, charge time, safety, the life of the car. And that’s exactly why we’re doing what we’re doing with the solid-state batteries.
”We believe this also allows car companies to make electric cars that are much closer to combustion engine rivals than traditional batteries do.
”So we think that kind of breakthrough is exactly what’s required for people to start replacing their combustion cars with EVs the next time they’re out in the market to buy a car.”
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Quote of the Day: “An optimist is neither naive, nor blind to the facts, nor in denial of grim reality. A pessimist sees limited or no choices in dark times; an optimist strives to find an effective solution.” – Vera Nazarian
Photo: by Nathan Dumlao
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?
The White House presented the Congressional Medal of Honor to Sgt. Maj. Thomas “Patrick” Payne this week for heroism and selfless actions that were key to liberating 75 hostages under fire during a rescue mission five years ago in Hawija, Iraq.
The South Carolina youth had originally joined the Army after 9/11, inspired by patriotism and a desire to defend the United States. Soon, he joined the elite ranks of the legendary Army Rangers.
He would endure 14 deployments before the day of October 22, 2015, when then-Sergeant First Class Payne—as part of a joint task force assisting Iraqi security forces—raided an ISIS prison to liberate 70 hostages, after a request by the Kurdistan government.
Pat and his fellow Rangers fought through the fire and the bullets. Pat navigated to the front door and saw the captives were being held behind a metal door secured by two very heavy padlocks. The building was on fire and partly collapsed.
He grabbed a pair of bolt cutters and, through flame and smoke and bullets, succeeded in cutting one of the locks before scorching heat forced him to flee the building for some air.
Pat caught his breath in a few seconds and ran back in and managed to slice the final lock and release the rest of the hostages as the building began to collapse. He received orders to evacuate, but he refused to do so.
Not wanting to leave anyone behind, Pat ran back into the burning building two more times. He saved multiple hostages, and he was the last man to leave.
Payne, who is currently assigned to the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, received the highest military award from the President on September 11, 2020.
The Congressional Medal of Honor citation reads in part, “For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty on October 22, 2015.
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His heroism and selfless actions were key to liberating 75 hostages during a contested rescue mission that resulted in 20 enemies killed in action.
Sergeant First Class Payne’s gallantry under fire and uncommon valor are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, the United States Special Operations Command, and the United States Army.”
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Much of the media coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States has served media companies very well by creating a lot of fear in the viewers—some of it warranted.
They often focus on single anecdotal stories about young people dying, which is still rare overall, or about “milestone” numbers of cases nationwide, which sounds scary, but doesn’t reflect the whole truth.
National Geographic is one company that is doing a better job reflecting both the positive and the negative. Otherwise, it is difficult to find reporting about where coronavirus suffering is becoming uncommon, such as in most every New England state.
Arizona is continuing its vast improvement, bringing down death rates and number of cases—and the same is true for some states in the South and Midwest, as seen in the charts below.
Even Florida, which most people assume to be doing poorly, is seeing its hospitalization totals and new cases drop pretty continuously, according to a new article based on reports from the Florida Department of Health and the Orlando Sentinel.
GNN wanted to look at the trend lines to identify the positive news, especially from the US, but also from England and Italy—and, it turns out, there is a lot of good news that you and I rarely see in the mainstream media.
Share this news to help get the word out, so more people have hope.
The United States Centers for Disease Control reported on September 4 that new COVID-19 cases, overall, have been declining since mid-July. Nationally, the average number of new cases has been declining for over a month and a half.
“Indicators that track influenza-like illness and COVID-19-like illness continued to decrease or remain stable nationally and in all ten regions.”
Remember, there are still some states where the numbers may be going up. The above quote refers to regions, and numbers nationally across the USA.
Hospitalization rates and mortality attributed to COVID-19 also declined during week 35, which ending August 29. And, hospitalizations have continuously declined since peaking at 58,000 in July.
In a broader sense, taking into account other illnesses in the US, based on death certificate data, the percentage of deaths attributed to pneumonia, influenza, or COVID-19 for week 35 dropped more than 4 percent from the previous week— from 10.7% down to 6.6%.
In the UK, the number of people in hospital with Covid-19 has plummeted by 96% since the peak of the pandemic, according to The Times in the UK.
RELATED: Britain to Roll Out Five Million Coronavirus Tests That Get Results in 90 Minutes
In fact, the overall death rate in England and Wales was lower in 2020 than it was in 2019 for July, according to the Office for National Statistics.
New York has reported its lowest COVID-19 infection rate since the start of the pandemic and almost the entire Northeast region of the US has tackled the coronavirus problem very well throughout the summer.
Realistically, statistics for COVID cases and deaths in the US can be tricky, but given all the trouble getting these right, trend lines are a fantastic window into progress.
Here are some of the states with the biggest decreases in the past 7 days. The top image shows number of cases dropping, bottom image shows deaths declining.
A decrease suggests the virus is being controlled.
Science and medicine are ‘getting smarter’, even as the virus changes its characteristics.
The likelihood of someone dying after being admitted to intensive care with COVID-19 has pretty much halved since the early days of the pandemic, thanks to better understanding of how to treat the disease in the emergency room.
Our Editor-in-Chief just returned from Italy, which was devastated by the virus in early spring. Most things have returned to normal in the northern part of the country, which was the region most heavily hit.
People wear masks and use hand sanitizer as a habit whenever entering grocery stores or restaurants—but, in the case of restaurants or bars, as soon as they get to their table the masks come off.
A minority of the population, 10-15% it looked like, seemed to be wearing masks outdoors on sidewalks. Yet, they are only recording about 10 deaths per day in a country of 60 million people.
The Italians I saw in many cities and towns have a casual, but cautious, attitude that embraces life as it comes along. They enjoy everything in the moment believing in a live-and-let-live approach that many Americans could benefit from.
Need more positive stories and updates coming out of the COVID-19 challenge? For more uplifting coverage, click here.
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Two-thirds of Americans said quarantine has made them a better person, according to a new survey.
The poll of 2,000 Americans over age 21 looked at the positives changes to come from this challenging time—and the ways in which respondents are re-prioritizing what they value.
Results revealed 55% of respondents were a bit embarrassed by some of the things they valued pre-quarantine, and the many months spent at home gave 70% a chance to learn more about themselves.
Commissioned by Coravin and conducted by OnePoll, the survey found that the quarantine has, understandably, changed Americans’ outlook on life.
Some respondents gained the time and flexibility to delve into new hobbies and discover new passions— shortages of baking products in the grocery store was proof of this. And, 35% said they want to continue those hobbies once quarantine is over.
RELATED: Americans Say They Are Thankful For ‘Little Joys’ More Than Ever These Days – Their Top 10 Favorites
This opportunity to explore personal interests beyond work has led 27% of respondents to indicate they are hoping to achieve a better work/life balance coming out of quarantine.
Being close to the people we care about was a major theme for respondents, as 46% want to spend more quality time with friends and family, and 38% plan to create more meaningful relationships with those around them.
CHECK Out: 64% of Americans Have Experienced Transformative ‘Eco Wake-Up Calls’ During COVID Crisis
TOP THINGS PEOPLE NO LONGER TAKE FOR GRANTED:
Spending quality time in person with family or friends 52.28%
Hugs 41.23%
Traveling to new destinations 32.53%
A relaxing walk in the park 31.99%
Shopping in a store 31.73%
A date night at a restaurant 31.39%
Extended family gatherings 30.86%
Attending events in person 28.92%
Stopping for a cup of coffee on my way to work 25.90%
Meeting new people 25.70%
Weekly coffee dates with friends 24.36
Post-work happy hour 23.69%
Chatting with co-workers during lunch 23.56%
Having a quiet weekend at home be out of the ordinary 22.96%
An afternoon at the beach 22.36%
Sending my children off to school in the morning 21.49%
Attending sporting events 21.22%
Wandering through a bookstore 20.68%
Watching my kids’ sporting events 18.14%
Hitting the gym 17.54%
Dropping my kids off at playdates 16.06%
THINGS PEOPLE WANT TO DO AFTER LOCKDOWN SELF-REFLECTION:
Spend more quality time with friends and family 45.60%
Work to create more meaningful relationships with loved ones 37.70%
Continue new hobbies I started during quarantine 34.80%
Attend in-person events after attending their virtual counterparts during quarantine 29.40%
Move to be closer to loved ones 27.90%
Focus on achieving better work/life balance 26.60%
Change careers in order to have more meaningful work 21.80%
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Quote of the Day: “Nobody can do what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children.” – Alex Haley (Today is Grandparents Day in the U.S.)
Photo: by Ekaterina Shakharova
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?
Project Evergreen has been mowing lawns for frontline workers taking some of the stress out of their lives while beautifying the environment for when they return home.
During the pandemic, households with a first responder or healthcare worker do not need to be thinking about getting their yard work done. That’s why the national non-profit, which is fueled by volunteers from landscaping companies like Weed Man, show up at the homes of essential workers like Logan Gillen, an ER nurse, who can then spend hours with his family when he’s not at work.
The project pairs Weed Man franchisees with local heroes near them, providing free services to help 38 healthcare workers. So far, the project has delivered manicured lawns to front line heroes in six states. Other volunteers, like church groups, have been paired with heroes as well.
“The Green Care Program for front line workers has given us at Weed Man Fresno an opportunity to show our appreciation and help those who dedicate their lives to helping others,” said owner Jeff Kollenkark.
“We have a total of nine customers in the program and are blessed to be able to give back to the hard working front line workers who put their lives at risk every day.”
Cindy Code of Project Evergreen said volunteers at nine locations in seven states have been servicing military families through the GreenCare for Troops program since 2006.
Military families face many challenges when their love one is deployed, and taking lawn care off their to-do list has been a big help—and in 2020 they expanded the initiative when they saw the hospital workers feeling the same stress.
RELATED: These ‘Detroit Mower Gang’ Volunteers Have Been Competing to Maintain City’s Old Parks
Trimming some of their workload by trimming their grass has proven to be a great way to show our heroes some ‘corona kindness’.
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A German startup is bringing the lightness of kites to green energy production by building small flying wind turbines that use 10 times less material at half the cost of traditional options.
In June, KiteKRAFT hit a major milestone with a 7-foot kite prototype, completing its first figure-8 flight, the motion that will provide the system’s wind power.
The kite has small onboard spinning wind turbines, which are essentially act like regular blade tips. It does not need a tower made of hundreds of tons of concrete and steel or a foundation to hold those blade tips in the air, but instead uses smart algorithms to find the best location in mid-air.
RELATED: Wind Power is Now So Cheap, It Could Start Paying Money Back to UK Consumers
Logistics, installation, and inspections are much simpler and the kite can easily reach stronger winds at higher altitudes. “Cost savings of over 50% compared to other sources are possible,” says the company on their blog.
Another advantage is that a kiteKRAFT system is hardly visible (no towers and no huge blades), which often elicit public misgivings about such structures in their landscape.
“We are proud that we came to this point in just over one year after company foundation,” says the co-founder & CTO Florian Bauer.
CHECK Out: After Decade of Historic Growth, Wind Power is Now the Most-Used Renewable Energy Source in US
He told GNN that their kite system is probably similar to large wind turbines when it comes to interfering with birds. “That’s why we will likely implement an anti-bird-protection system relatively early on. This means, that kite simply goes to hovering (automatically) if there is a flock of birds passing, and continues production right after.”
But competition with massive wind farms is not their goal. Their mission is to provide small energy networks, which are normally powered by diesel generators and/or solar energy.
Every kiteKRAFT system has a number of sensors. The kite computer executes software algorithms and uses the sensor data for autonomous flight and to generate power from the wind efficiently. kiteKRAFT system owners and inspection personnel can access the kite remotely with an app and view the current states or live video stream from the onboard cameras. The app also allows certain commands, e.g. to land the kite for inspection.
LOOK: Tiny Wind Turbine That Generates Power From Your Apartment Balcony Wins Dyson Award
At all times, the kite logs important flight and performance data and sends those to kiteKRAFT servers for analysis by company engineers, which enhances future reliability.
As the kite is essentially “a computer with wings”, its performance and reliability is likely to improve exponentially over the years, and we look forward to seeing the company take off to great heights.
WATCH the test flight below…
RAISE Some Praise on Social Media By Flying This Story to Your Friends…
