Tama, the stationmaster of Kishi Station in 2007 - CC 3.0. Sanpei, via jp.wikipedia
Tama, the stationmaster of Kishi Station in 2007 – CC 3.0. Sanpei, via jp.wikipedia
Japan is nothing if not a servant to tradition; even if the tradition is a little strange.
Admittedly a little less strange than the annual Kanamara Matsuri festival in Kawasaki (parental guidance suggested) the custom of railway lines promoting cats to the rank of stationmaster certainly raises eyebrows, but also spirits, it must be said.
In the port town of Choshi, near Tokyo, employees of a struggling railway company found either a stray or abandoned cat last October skulking around the station, thin, sick, and eyes frozen shut.
With plenty of space at the station, the tabby was nursed back to health by the platform staff before signing up as an ‘apprentice’ in January. Then, in July, Nakano-san achieved the rank of stationmaster, and was awarded with a neat cap and medallion for her collar.
Her CV includes such crucial skills as “pushing computer mouses off the desks” and “sleeping on paperwork.”
She now figures prominently in Choshi Electric Railway Co. public relations content as a mascot, and her July debut saw the rail hub of Nakanocho Station swarmed with reporters to catch a glimpse of the new boss.
In all seriousness though, being too close to Tokyo to stand out but too far away to comfortably visit, Choshi Railway felt that more needed to be done to draw interest in the city’s numerous historic temples, lighthouses, and characteristic waterfront area.
To that end, the 4-legged stationmaster seemed a good idea. They had good reason to believe it was too. In January, at Wakayama Electric Railway Co.’s Kishi Station in the city of Kinokawa, officials welcomed their third stationmaster cat.
In 2007, the station announced Japan’s first-ever cat stationmaster: Tama. After Tama passed away in 2015, she was succeeded by Nitama (literally, “looks like Tama”) who also passed away in last November. Now, Kishi Station is run by Yontama (literally, “Fourth Tama,” after the ‘third Tama’ was adopted back into private house life).
The publicity from Tama’s original 2007 appointment led to an increase in passengers by 17% for that month as compared to same period from the previous year. A study estimated that the publicity surrounding Tama has contributed 1.1 billion yen to the local economy, and she was widely credited with saving Nishi Station from closing.
Yontama previously served as stationmaster at Idakiso Station in Wakayama City, and vowed to “follow in Nitama’s ‘pawprints’.”
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Torero, by Picasso - credit, Milwaukee Police Department
Torero, by Picasso – credit, Milwaukee Police Department
Whether it’s cleaning out an attic or a Wisconsin apartment, in one landlord’s case, finding an original Pablo Picasso work might seem like an unbelievable stroke of luck.
Milwaukee landlord Timothy Dertz was cleaning out after a tenant had left, and found a striking depiction of a man behind a door in the farthest room.
“A very odd placement for such a piece of art,” he thought at the time, according to local news.
Dertz brought it to an antique dealer to see if there was any indication it might be valuable: the Picasso signature in green crayon seemed to be a good place to start.
The two men then dug deeper and found an identical piece by Picasso; an etching made by the artist in 1949 called Torero. Moreover, the piece was reported stolen from a Milwaukee art gallery in 2018 where it was valued at between $35,000 and $50,000.
Anxious he would somehow become associated with the unsolved criminal act, Dertz wasted no time in bringing it to the police station and recounting all he had learned. In August, Milwaukee police contacted Mr. Bill DeLind, owner of the art gallery where the piece was allegedly stolen. He confirmed it was the real deal.
“I never expected to see it again,” DeLind tells the Washington Post. “The fact that it would turn up 8 years later in perfect condition is just jaw-dropping.”
At the time, the gallery had put out a reward worth $5,000 for information leading to the etching’s return, increasing it in increments periodically until, with their insurance having compensated them for the loss, they gave up hope of finding Torero.
Yet if the art world is anything, it’s archival. Indeed, Smithsonian Magazine quoted the founder of the FBI’s Art Crimes Unit as saying that the bureau always advises victims of art theft to sit tight, as stolen pieces often show up through gallery and auction house due diligence processes.
Even antique dealers like the one contacted by Dertz can only properly appraise works of art if they know what they are. Knowing what they are inevitably involves learning where they came from, and that often sees paintings reunited with rightful owners, as GNN has reported—about Picasso works no less.
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Security footage of the 2026 Nepal-China Floods hitting the Gyirong border crossing
Security footage of the 2026 Nepal-China Floods hitting the Gyirong border crossing
More than 900 students and 16 faculty members escaped before the tragic flood on the border with China and Nepal destroyed a school.
They are alive today because of a truly last-minute warning by the school’s accountant, who like Paul Revere, ran through the building shouting “the flood is coming, the flood is coming!”
His warning, while the student body sat unawares in their classrooms, is the reason that the 900 members are alive today.
On the fateful day when a collapsing glacier mouth caused a flash flood that destroyed several towns and claimed hundreds of lives, the headmaster of the Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in the town of Bidur was told by the school accountant that the destructive force was surging toward them.
Several teachers had received frantic calls from family and friends, but the accountant first got wind of the oncoming disaster when a friend from the very first town hit called to raise the alarm.
Indeed the story features 2 heroes, for at the speed the water was traveling, the accountant’s friend’s warning meant the school had 14 minutes to evacuate before, as it would come to happen, the waters utterly flattened it.
Headmaster Rajendra Dawadi became the organizing force in a panicked escape, calling bus drivers bringing yet more students to the school to turn around and seek higher ground. Parents, teachers, and locals piled students into cars, buses, and motorbikes to send them across a bridge to higher ground as the school was built on something of a peninsula along the Trishuli River.
According to Reuters, it was after the final bus crossed the most recently built bridge that the waters arrived, erasing the school as the students might erase a spelling error.
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Quote of the Day: “Life is a lot like jazz… It’s best when you improvise.” – George Gershwin
Photo by: Pierre Goiffon
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
Happy 62nd Birthday to Keanu Reeves, the actor who might be called one of the nicest guys in show business. The Canadian started his career with humor and light-hearted films like Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, before moving onto becoming an action star with his protagonist role as Neo in The Matrix trilogy, Point Break, and the John Wick movies. In addition to his career as an actor and musician, Reeves is the co-writer and creator of the BRZRKR comic book franchise. GNN reported on its release. READ more about this charismatic star… (1964)
Edited and cropped from original image shared by Eric Bahn via X
Edited and cropped from original image shared by Eric Bahn via X
A heartwarming story of a community putting values above value comes from the convention floor of Pokémon XP.
At the August 29th event in San Francisco, venture capitalist Eric Bahn shared that his son was scammed while trading Pokémon cards with an adult.
“Lost his most valuable cards in a fraudulent trade by some guy in a booth,” Bahn wrote on X. “Very tough lesson for him. Sucks to see an adult take advantage of a child.”
A series of personality card collectors quickly replied to the comment offering to help, if possible, make the boy’s collection whole again.
The first was a YouTuber by the channel name “Deep Pocket Monster,” a play on words with the Japanese translation of Pokémon [pocket monsters].
In an earlier reply, Bahn revealed that his son had lost a “PSA 9 Rayquaza VMAX #218 from Evolving Skies” an exceptionally valuable card the lad had spent a long time trading up to.
Deep Pocket Monster, who Bahn’s son had met just hours before he was scammed, replied that he would “reach out via DM,” saying he’d love to help out.
Sonoroman, whose profile lists him as Pokémon’s “Premier Event Manager for Latin America and Oceania,” saw this reply and left one of his own, saying that if he can locate the card in his vast collection, he’d be happy to hand it over. Alternatively, the gentleman card collector said he’d have a surprise for Bahn’s son if the pair decided to return to the convention.
On a happier note, thank you @DeepPocketMnstr for being so kind and generous to my son and friend today. My son got scammed right after meeting you in this pic, but despite that he said interacting with you made his day. Thank you for that. pic.twitter.com/jzOEMXRjI3
Sonoroman wasn’t the only one in the thread who offered to make the boy’s collection whole again if they had this rare Rayquaza card—a US Army veteran made the same offer. Bahn thanked everyone who had reached out, supported the family, or offered gifts, saying it helped his son learn a second lesson—that there are far more good people in the world than bad people.
It’s unclear if the card was ever indeed replaced, but as inflation has driven up asset prices considerably over the last 20 years, and as the first launch of Pokémon Trading Cards back in 1997 drifts further and further into history, many cards are attracting hair-raising valuations.
Some of these offers to replace the card may have represented 4 or even 5-figure sums.
Ugandan authorities receive a Certificate of Recognition of their country's end to the recent Ebola outbreak - credit, WHO released
Ugandan authorities receive a Certificate of Recognition of their country’s end to the recent Ebola outbreak – credit, WHO released
Even as their Congolese neighbors battle the worst Ebola outbreak in its history, Uganda has registered 42 days without any new cases.
The achievement was marked by the WHO, heavily involved in supporting the two countries in their struggle against the lethal virus, to declare Uganda Ebola-free.
“Uganda has reached 42 days since the last confirmed imported Ebola case was discharged on 16 July 2026, with no documented onward transmission associated with the case, marking an end to the outbreak,” the WHO posted on X.
“WHO commends the Government of Uganda, health workers, communities and partners for the strong measures taken to contain the outbreak and prevent wider spread.”
“Continued vigilance remains essential as transmission continues in neighboring areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with risk of importation. WHO will continue supporting the Ministry of Health and partners as Uganda transitions from intensive emergency response to risk-based readiness.”
Uganda too, has been helping to support the DRC, ringing in their own clean bill of health with the announcement that the country’s health service would open two Ebola clinics across the border.
A border is a line on a map that cannot be found in the real world if not marked by a fence or a river. In other words, neither Ebola—nor any virus—acknowledges where one country begins and another ends, and a healthier DRC ultimately means a healthier Uganda.
To wit, it’s believed the entire Ugandan outbreak centered around individuals who traveled across the border.
CELEBRATE Uganda’s Triumph Over Ebola With Your Friends…
From the Bronx comes the story of a Good Samaritan who donated what he could spare to help a woman he’d seen on the news newly-impoverished at the hands of a house fire.
Months later, and history now shows that it was this gesture of generosity which transformed the fire from a force of destruction, to a moment of rebirth.
On June 28th, Nina Chambers was sifting through the ashes of her life. Her Bronx apartment containing everything she and her 3 children had and needed was engulfed in a fire, destroying it all.
At the time, Chambers was interviewed by Naveen Dhaliwal with CBS News NY, and explained that she was living in a hotel while she figured out what to do.
Replacing necessities and the hotel fees rapidly drained her bank account until the mother of 3 was receiving notice of an overdraft on her account by TD Bank.
“This was something, one of the things that I could do something about,” he said. “I’m blessed that I can do it. We have no mortgage. We have no car payments.”
Walking into a TD Bank, they said it was against company policy to allow him to directly put money into Chambers’ account, so instead he contacted Dhaliwal, who connected him with Chambers.
His message was simple and saintly: what can I do to help?
“It’s priceless. You don’t meet people that do those type of things for nothing. It’s rare,” Chambers said, 8 weeks after Evans gave her $3,000 to help her get back on her feet—which she did.
Graduating from college with a degree human services, she has secured a new apartment as well. Though it’s messy, it’s home, and things are back on the right track.
Quote of the Day: “Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads.” – Marianne Moore
Photo by: Michael Newton
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
881 years ago today, Ibn Jubayir was born in Moorish Spain. This pilgrim and talented writer went on the Hajj to Mecca in 1183, and penned a valuable, beautiful, first-hand account of the places and people he saw, which included the Crusader states of Acre and the island of Sicily as controlled by the Norman dynasty. He included epic descriptions of the monuments of ancient Egypt, the cities of Iraq, and the goings on at Mecca during the holy month, while also mundane relatable things like the customs que in Alexandria, and the most comfortable kind of saddle to use when riding a camel. READ more about this traveler… (1145)
A typical flock camera with a solar panel - credit, Julian Focareta, licensed via CC 4.0. to Wikimedia from Flock Safety
A typical flock camera with a solar panel – credit, Julian Focareta, licensed via CC 4.0. to Wikimedia from Flock Safety
In April, millions of readers came to GNN for the scoop on Maryland’s first-in-the-nation ban on “surveillance pricing” in retail grocery stores.
Now, municipal governments around the country are ending their association with Flock Safety, a company that has cloaked the streets of the nation in surveillance cameras that automatically read license plates using AI.
Ars Technica, reporting on the proliferation of Flock cameras and their alleged misuse, released a recent report citing data that shows how in August alone, 93 US jurisdictions ended their contracts with Flock.
The data came via Secure Justice, an Oakland-based advocacy group, and shows that since 2021, 214 jurisdictions have installed, and then removed, Flock cameras. As public outcry grew against what a Berkeley law professor described as “yet another Silicon Valley product… threatening to change people’s lives [that no one asked for]” the rate of these removals has increased dramatically.
Ars Techinca received a statement from Flock Safety which said that contract cancellations were outnumbered by new county and municipal partnerships by 10 to 1, and that further improvements to its privacy standards were underway.
The United States is one of the only nations on Earth with any constitutional and/or legal protections against surveillance, so Americans don’t always look for safeguards. But Flock cameras seemingly have triggered the nation. From the citizenry to the Senate, people are calling for their removal over privacy, abuse, and mass-data-collection concerns.
Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) announced that he was “investigating Flock Safety’s collection, retention, and dissemination of the data generated by its artificial intelligence surveillance cameras.”
Hawley wrote a statement announcing the investigation, saying that in a few short years, Flock has assembled an unprecedented national surveillance network, boasting more than 120,000 cameras across 49 states and more than 20 billion vehicle scans every month.
“Instead of serving discrete local investigations, as contemplated by our constitutional processes and safeguards, these camera networks harness artificial intelligence to pool what they capture into a national database that customers can search,” wrote Senator Hawley.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called their growth across his state “out of control.”
“I’m all about law enforcement having tools to hold criminals accountable… [but] when I see, like, a police officer using this to track an ex-girlfriend, I’m like, you know what the hell’s going on?” DeSantis said in a speech.
WFLA news reported on two abuse instances under investigation in the Sunshine State. The first, as DeSantis referred to, was when a Haines City police officer was arrested by his colleagues after it was found he had used Flock to track his estranged wife’s movements. Another instance, from Sarasota, involved an officer checking the surveillance of the same plate number over 300 times without investigative reason.
A collection of such abuse cases compiled on Flock Safety’s Wikipedia page shows that stalking by police partners dominates documented misuse of the technology.
Additionally, Business Insider reported that dozens of misreads by Flock cameras have led to mistaken interactions between citizens and law enforcement that have turned violent. In Toledo, Ohio, driver Brandon Upchurch was mauled by a police dog after a Flock camera misread the “7” on his license plate as a “2.”
In Roseville, California, Flock incorrectly read the plate in 71% of 1,427 stolen-vehicle and felony alerts that were issued during 2023 and 2024, a separate Business Insider investigation found.
“Maybe in the past it didn’t feel like every red light cam really meant a pair of eyes was watching you, but with AI, that’s increasingly becoming the reality,” Jake Laperruque, deputy director of the Center of Democracy and Technology’s Security and Surveillance Project, said in an emailed correspondence with Ars Technica.
“Flock lets its cameras be searched for keywords and people, cities are incorporating real-time facial recognition into camera networks, Border Patrol is using AI to scan [license plate] data for driving patterns, and pulling people over whenever the AI deems their driving ‘suspicious.’”
Flock routinely states that its cameras have helped law enforcement prevent hundreds of potential crimes, return thousands of stolen cars, and catch hundreds of wanted criminals. In response to the growing privacy concerns, Flock CEO Garrett Langley recently announced that the data retention period for any photo has been shortened from 30 days to just 7.
Ultimately, Flock cameras are right at the heart of the age-old debate on surveillance. Proponents suggest that being able to rely on mass-data collection of private behavior would allow for robust public safety strategies, while opponents argue that doing so violates the citizenry’s right to privacy, and the relinquishment of that right in the name of safety is a bargain not worth the price.
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A visceral reminder of the dangers of air pollution comes now via an uplifting study which found lung development in children was faster in London’s ultra low-emissions zone (ULEZ).
It compared children between the ages of 6 and 9 living in Central London’s ULEZ with those living in the nearby suburb of Luton. Just over 3,400 agreed to participate.
The study period extended to before the implementation of the ULEZ in 2019, and found that as exhaust emissions like nitrogen dioxide diminished, the advance in children’s lung capacity quickened.
Children were tested for lung function on a device that measures how much air an individual can forcefully breathe out in one second, a measure for lung power, development, and recovery in the case of lung cancer patients.
PPM measurements of exhaust particles fell faster in London than in Luton over the study period, and the scientists at Queen Mary University observed a concurrent acceleration in the development of London children’s lung power, which was recorded as an additional 233 milliliters of air breathed into the device per year, compared with 223 milliliters observed in children from Luton.
At the outset of the study, Luton had less air pollution in the city, and it was the Luton children whose lungs were developing faster. 4 years after the implementation of the ULEZ, the Londoners had bridged the gap with their suburban peers.
Lung development is a key predictor of aspiratory problems in life. The study also found that in Central London, the proportion of children with impaired lung function fell from 14% to 9% as pollution levels dropped. Such impairments may include asthma, and bear consequences for health later in life.
In general, even though many cities regularly sit far above the World Health Organization’s recommendations for limits on fine particulate matter, cities around the world are reducing air pollution and London stands among them.
In March, GNN reported that 19 out of 100 cities worldwide surveyed for air quality were found to have substantially improved since 2010. The 19 included several of what could be called megalopolis-type cities like Hong Kong and Beijing. Another 7 on Mainland China achieved large pollution reductions.
San Francisco, Warsaw, Bangkok, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Rome, Heidelberg, Berlin, and Paris round out the list.
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Two South Florida teens with a penchant for volunteering have used their IT skills to build an app that facilitates the donation of pizzas from local restaurants to local charities.
It streamlines the donation process, allowing anyone to send fresh pizzas from any nearby restaurant to any nearby charity of their choice.
Designed 2 years ago by 8th grader Aashrita Kaza and her brother Anish, the Pizza for a purpose app has led to the donations of 25,000 slices of pizza to food insecure families in places like Broward County.
“The reaction really warms our hearts, their faces just light up the second they get the pizza,” Aashrita told CBS News for the ‘Miami Proud’ segment. “It’s very rewarding because it makes everything we do worth it.”
The idea first came to the siblings when volunteering at local charities. They had some understanding that there are adults who can’t always afford fresh pizza, but what really drove them on was seeing food insecure children as well, something they admitted they didn’t know existed in 21st century America.
Pizza for a Purpose is available on the Apple App Store.
WATCH the story below from Miami Proud…
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9 months ahead of schedule, and surviving attempts in both Trump Administrations to cut its budget in half, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope soared into space on Sunday afternoon aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launched from Cape Canaveral.
Designed to compliment NASA’s existing James Webb and Hubble space telescopes by acting as a wide angle field of view, it will have a mission life of between 5 and 10 years depending on its fuel.
“I have no doubt that Roman will become a household name alongside those great instruments of discovery,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told reporters after the launch, referring to Webb and Hubble.
“It feels like I’m on the edge of a precipice, and we’re just about to set a foot off into the unknown,” Julie McEnery, Roman telescope senior project scientist, told reporters at a post-launch news conference.
Named after American astronomy pioneer Nancy Grace Roman, this new first-rate observatory has a different set of tools for a different sort of job.
Rather than using infrared vision to pinpoint moments or objects from the earliest periods of the universe, or dazzling the public with images of nebulae, the NGR will look to another secretive aspect of space: dark matter and dark energy, strange material that makes up about 95% of all the matter in the universe. And while Webb can show us the atmospheres of exoplanets in extreme detail, Roman will be the master of finding them, thanks to the inclusion of a first-of-its-kind “active coronagraph” instrument.
“The combination of sensitivity, angular resolution, and speed, those are the key things that differentiate Roman from all the other observatories that NASA currently and in the future would have,” says Dominic Benford, Program Scientist for NGRST and who oversees the entire Roman project from science, through to materials and collaborations.
“The unique capabilities that Roman will bring to bear are a combination of being able to cover a relatively wide field of view, at a very high angular resolution, with the kind of sensitivity that telescopes in space are able to provide, and be able to do this relatively quickly,” he told WaL in an exclusive interview.
It could survey the entire Milky Way galaxy in about a month, compared to a century needed by Hubble.
The interview with Benford occurred in 2022, and is reproduced below.
Why are the galaxies pictured here in JWST’s deep field view positioned where they are? It could be because the mysterious forces of dark matter and dark energy are pushing and pulling them around. To get a better understanding, Roman will produce images like this in a fraction of the time, to allow astronomers to map the progressive movements of galaxies, and better discover dark matter and dark energy’s effects – credit, NASA/JPL Caltech
The dark side of the forces
The NGR arose from NASA’s 2010 “decadal survey” which is a questionnaire conducted with astronomers and physicists every 10 years that seeks to organize the space agency’s goals around what the scientific community is most interested in studying.
In 2010 that was, and today remains, and will continue to be, the desire to study dark energy and dark matter, two unique and polarized forces in the universe that cannot be seen.
“Dark matter is roughly a quarter of the universe, and it acts like regular matter gravitationally in that it pulls things together, it helps build structures,” explains Benford, who holds a PhD in infrared instrumentation and building space telescopes to observe stars and galaxies.
“It helps coalesce galaxies, bringing dwarf galaxies that then merge to form larger and larger galaxies. So you see the effects of dark matter by how quickly over cosmic time all these galaxies pull together to form the very largest structures in the universe”.
“Dark energy is if anything a little bit harder to figure out,” he adds. “It acts as a repulsive force. It pushes things apart. To some extent it counteracts the activity of dark matter. Major surveys necessary for dark matter and dark energy measurements require a variety of different techniques, but all require large datasets taken uniformly over much more sky and much more time than has been possible for any other space telescope”.
One way in which to study how these two forces act in the universe is to measure the positions of galaxies now, and compare them to where they were 1 billion years ago, and then maybe 3 billion years ago. Measuring the characteristics of the galaxies’ movements allows scientists to draw hypothetical dark matter/energy structures in a game of connect the dots in which the lines connecting them are invisible, and the placement of the dots is merely inferred.
The gradual slowing of the expansion of the universe after the Big Bang is thought to have been a result of dark matter’s gravitational pull gathering much of the visible matter together again, but the increase in the expansion rate is thought to be a result of dark energy pushing it away again.
“One of the long-term questions Roman is supposed to address is what the influence of dark energy has been across cosmic time,” says Dr. Benford. “So we can look forward and extrapolate which of these two is really going to dominate in the universe: does dark energy essentially win out and push the universe apart faster and faster, or does dark matter perhaps win and cause the universe to slow down, or is it in perfect balance?
It’s a big question, and Roman is the first real tool that will be able to come close to answering it.
#Findyourplanet
The other capability unique to Roman comes from the observatory’s namesake.
“In 1959, Nancy Grace Roman, the woman, wrote a paper predicting that it would be possible to make direct measurements of the reflected light from planets around other stars by using what she thought was a razor’s edge to block the light of the star and let the light of the planet pass by,” says Benford.
When the NGR goes up, this “razor’s edge” will take the form of a “coronagraph,” similar to a tool of the same name that has allowed ground-based telescopes to capture information about our Sun’s corona. A system of masks, prisms, detectors, and even self-flexing mirrors make up the tool that will allow Roman to create an image that places an artificial eclipse around a distant star to reveal the planets in orbit around it, just as Roman the woman predicted.
“This hasn’t been done before. And we have an excellent design and it has been working very well in a lab, but because we’re doing this for the first time in space in an observatory that has real moving parts, we don’t know exactly how well it’s going to work,” Benford admits.
This was made by “passive” coronagraphs, on earth, which Benford explains can manage to detect the subtle light signatures of orbiting exoplanets to the degree of around 1 part per million. But they have a flaw.
“They don’t compensate for all the distortions and motions of the telescope,” he said. “With a space-based telescope, using an active coronagraph, we can get to the [1] part per billion level”.
At this extreme sensitivity, we should be able to see Jupiter-size planets around other stars. If the technology is successful, Whenever Roman’s successor goes up into space, it should have a next-generation coronagraph that could detect the light signatures from Earth or Mars-sized planets.
The coronagraph is equipped with a spectroscopy instrument as well, allowing us to not only see exo-Jupiters, but detect the molecular makeup of their atmospheres.
Hubble’s ultra-deep field is the small square in the middle of an area capable of being surveyed with the same definition by Roman – credit, NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center
The total toolkit
It bears asking, between Hubble, Webb, and the SphereX surveyor that maps the entire universe every 6 months, why is another space telescope being built. What can it do that the others can’t? Well as Phil Korngut, Instrument Scientist at the California Technical Institute team that built SphereX told WaL, and to which Benford agreed, these are extremely complimentary beasts.
SphereX takes a picture of the entire sky over 6 months, while JWST can take extremely high-resolution images in infrared of individual objects.
One might say that Roman sits in a “Goldilocks zone” of wide yet detailed view, in infrared, that compliments both.
“So with something like JWST which is very good at focusing on a single object or a small number of objects and studying them in great detail, Roman will be a way that you can find those most distant galaxies, or the clusters of galaxies that need great study,” reasons Benford.
“For something like SphereX which is a survey mode instrument that occurs at much longer wavelengths, it has a relatively wide field of view, but it’s a shallower image, and it’s not as sharp, so the interesting areas you might see in a SphereX survey can be seen in great detail in the Roman survey of the same area”.
“If you want to do something like the Hubble Deep Field, Roman can do this hundreds of times, to a thousand of times faster. So you can contemplate doing in a month what would have taken Hubble a century”.
It remains flexible. A quarter of total use time will be set aside to help answer questions that arise from the astrophysics community after NGR comes into operation. An example could be star formation in our own galaxy.
With infrared, and the wide field of vision, NGR offers a unique opportunity to look at massive stars on the other side of the Milky Way, without all the gas, dust, and light that can get in the way.
NGR will need 90 days to perform pre-operation checks and tests before the public will be able to get a sample of what will no doubt be its incredible capabilities.
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Quote of the Day: “Don’t go through life, grow through life.” – Eric Butterworth
Photo by: By Joshua Earle for Unsplash+
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
And, on this day 29 years ago, the Good News Network made positive news available on the web for the first time. Geri Weis-Corbley, the founder, worked in TV news, freelancing for CNN and other media companies, until the advent of the internet when she created what is now the #1 source for inspiring news. After learning how to code in html, Geri designed and built the site—and launched it with a click of a button—delivering good news to anyone in the world. READ more… (1997)
Kemp’s ridley sea turtle named Rhossi that was rescued in Wales gets treatment at Houston Zoo (Courtesy photo)
Kemp’s ridley sea turtle named Rhossi that was rescued in Wales gets treatment at Houston Zoo (Credit: Barbara Alicea-Aponte/Houston Zoo)
It’s a tale two years in the making, including a helicopter ride from Wales to London and a transatlantic flight to Houston for a long-awaited homecoming for a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle—one of the most endangered species in the world.
After making the 5,000-mile journey to Texas, Rhossi is settling into his new surroundings while Houston Zoo’s veterinary team takes a closer look at his overall health before determining whether he’s ready to return to the warm waters of the nearby Gulf of Mexico.
Renowned senior veterinarian Dr. Joe Flanagan even briefly came out of retirement to treat the turtle.
He got a check of all his organs, eyes, mouth, shell, and flippers, along with x-rays and a CT scan to take a closer look at his lungs, where lingering pneumonia was detected.
Overall, Rhossi does appear healthy, active, and vigorous, according to the zoo’s team who will continue treating him until they can “ensure the best possible chance of a successful return to the wild”.
Rhossi’s survival story started on a Welsh Beach in December 2023 when a local dog discovered a tiny injured 2-pound turtle 5,000 miles away from home.
Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, Rhossi in rehab – Courtesy of Houston Zoo / Barbara Alicea-Aponte
Cold-stunned from the dangerously frigid north Atlantic waters, Rhossi was rescued and sent to rehab at Anglesey Sea Zoo, which stepped in and spent two years nursing him back to health. In that time, he’s grown stronger and more than tripled his weight—tipping the scale at 46 pounds.
Kemp’s ridley sea turtles are native to the Gulf of Mexico, but can occasionally be swept into powerful ocean currents and carried thousands of miles across the Atlantic.
After years of care in Wales, Rhossi finally made his way home to Texas on August 10, marking the beginning of a new chapter.
Rhossi’s incredible journey required coordination between so many people and groups—the U.S. Fish & Wildlife, NOAA, Anglesey Sea Zoo, the Texas State Aquarium and Welsh helicopter pilot Darren Briggs—together, giving Rhossi an extraordinary lift spanning two continents.
While his return to the Gulf of Mexico will take a little longer than expected, Rhossi’s story is a testament to the power of collaboration and compassion in wildlife conservation. For now, the focus remains on getting this resilient sea turtle healthy and ready for his long-awaited return to the wild.
A portion of each admission ticket to Houston Zoo goes toward supporting their sea turtle rescue and rehabilitation program.
CONTINUE RHOSSI’S JOURNEY – By Sharing His Story on Social Media…
1930s Patek Philippe - Courtesy of Hansons Auctioneers / SWNS
1930s Patek Philippe – Courtesy of Hansons Auctioneers / SWNS
A rare vintage Swiss watch discovered hidden away in a late mother’s jewelry box while the family was cleaning out her home has sold for £59,000 at a British auction—$80,000 in US dollars.
The 1930s Patek Philippe wristwatch smashed expectations after experts originally valued it at just £5,000.
The owner’s daughter remembers her mom once telling her she possessed an expensive watch, but no one expected the stainless steel timepiece to be worth almost 12 times its estimate.
“When I finally had the watch in my hands and was able to examine it properly, I knew we had something extremely rare,” said Darren Ashley, senior valuer at Hansons Cornwall, who held the public auction in Penzance on Tuesday.
He explained that Patek Philippe produced very few stainless steel watches during the period, and that rarity makes surviving examples incredibly desirable to collectors—along with its “mechanical perfection”.
“This was a watch dating back around 90 years, which had spent decades within the same Cornish family and—when it was placed in my hands—it was still finely ticking away.”
1930s Patek Philippe – Courtesy of Hansons Auctioneers / SWNS
The rare Patek Philippe & Co Calatrava Reference 448 belonged to the seller’s grandfather who passed it to his daughter. It’s believed that their grandmother had a love for designer clothes and luxury items, and bought it as a gift for her husband decades ago.
“The pre-sale interest was phenomenal, from serious collectors across the world, but nothing quite prepares you for watching that level of bidding unfold in the room.”
“Having three members of the family there made it even more special. They were absolutely thrilled, while other members of their family were following the auction live from work on their laptops and phones and couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
“The final battle between (bidders in) Japan and China was incredibly exciting. To see the hammer finally fall at £59,000 was a fantastic moment for the family.
“It is one of those results that reminds you why this business is so exciting.
“Something extraordinary can still be sitting quietly in a jewelry box just a few miles away.”
“What a wonderful result,” added Charles Hanson, owner of Hansons Auctioneers. “Never overlook what is tucked away at home.”
“This little watch had passed quietly through generations of a Cornish family, its late owner knowing she had something valuable, but perhaps never imagining quite how sought-after it would become.
“To see bidders in America, Japan and China competing for something discovered in a Cornish family home is the magic of auction.
“When rarity, quality and provenance come together, the results can be spectacular.”
The watch will now begin a new chapter thousands of miles away in Hong Kong.
TELL FRIENDS TO CLEAN OUT THEIR JEWELRY BOXES–Share This on Social Media…
A million-dollar fund has been launched to provide dental treatment to the most vulnerable members of Britain.
The mydentist Foundation announced it is supporting charitable organizations assisting underserved communities, including those recovering from addiction or suffering extreme poverty.
Its first initiative will be the launch of an eco-conscious mobile dental unit which will deliver care directly to people at homeless shelters and women’s shelters. It will also visit hostels, community centers, family hubs, and soup kitchens.
Procedures including fillings, extractions, scaling and polishing, fluoride varnish applications, X-rays, and oral cancer screenings will all be available within the vehicle, nicknamed Freja, which is set to hit the road in October.
In the first year, after Freja joins the fleet of 12 mobile dental units, more than 850 of the hardest-to-reach members of communities across the country will be seen onboard by volunteer dentists and dental nurses.
The initiative was launched with £1 million ($1.3 million) in a partnership between the Foundation for mydentist, the UK’s largest dental operator, and Dentaid The Dental Charity, which has been outfitting and operating the mobile dental units since 2017.
Dentaid’s fleet of mobile dental units – Courtesy of Dentaid The Dental Charity
“It’s encouraging to see such strong support for improving access to dental care for those who need it most,” said Nilesh Pandya, CEO of mydentist, an “affordable dental care provider”.
“Through our new foundation and partnership with Dentaid, we’re committed to helping vulnerable and underserved communities access the treatment they need and deserve.”
Quote of the Day: “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” – Henry David Thoreau
Photo by: Alexei Maridashvili
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