Quote of the Day: “It was fortunate for South Africa that Mandela and I found it possible to work together even though big strains developed between us.” – F. W. de Klerk, former president of South Africa (began dismantling apartheid 30 yrs ago today)
Photo: February morning on Capitol Hill with a fox, by Lorie Shaull, CC license
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The majority of Americans say they would shell out an extra 36% above the retail price if they knew it meant their purchase was ethically sound, according to new research.
The poll of 2,000 Americans found 63% of respondents voicing their willingness to pay an additional one-third more in price for responsibly-made and transparently-sourced products.
87 percent reported they would be more likely to buy something if they knew and understood all the ingredients in the product.
Conducted by OnePoll in conjunction with Nutrilite by Amway, the survey found that a resounding 87% of respondents agreed that companies aren’t transparent enough about the ingredients they put in their products.
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It may be difficult for consumers to keep track of the claims on packages today, whether it’s ‘cage free’ or ‘cruelty-free’, but those companies that are going the extra mile to ethically source products are benefitting from an increase of dollars spent. Research released in June confirms that consumers are actually putting their money where their hearts are.
NYU Stern’s Center for Sustainable Business did extensive research into U.S. consumers’ actual purchasing of consumer packaged goods and found that 50% of the growth in 2013–2018 came from sustainability-marketed products.
Products that had a sustainability claim on the packaging delivered nearly $114 billion in sales—up 29% from 2013. Additionally, these products grew 5.6 times faster than those that were not marketed as sustainable, in more than 90% of the 36 categories of goods researched.
Be Sure And Share These Tasty Tidbits With Your Friends On Social Media… (Photo by SWNS)
In Denver, Colorado, the price of housing continues to rise, but opportunities to create low-income housing are expensive and, take years to build.
So when the Quality Inn and Suites on Quebec St. went up for sale, the president of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless (CCH) saw a golden opportunity.
John Parvensky snapped up the 139-room complex for $8.4 million, secured with a mixture of private, city and state funds, and completed some brief renovations before christening it Fusion Studios. Fusion Studios, serving a variety of people in need, represents the 17th building he has opened in 3 decades of work.
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Rooms are expected to be available for the people who come right in off the street or from shelters across the city, as soon as the end of the month.
For renters, vouchers can be secured by prospective tenants from the state and city to ensure that no more than 30% is required from their incomes for rent. Parvensky said on average, tenants can manage about $100 a month, with a lot of it coming from other benefits such as disability payments received.
The floor and room plan is divided up by a person’s circumstances rather than by size and luxury. 28 rooms will be set aside for those awaiting trial for low-level crimes like public urination and trespassing. Another 10 are reserved for homeless folks who find themselves frequenting Denver Public Hospitals.
For individuals looking to move on to other forms of affordable and permanent housing or who have housing currently being constructed for them, another 25 rooms have been set aside. Britta Fisher, head of Denver’s housing department called Fusion Studios “practically instant housing”.
“We all know that we need more housing units, that we need them quickly,” she told Denverite during Tuesday’s opening ceremony. “I truly hope we can replicate this model and partnerships at other sites in Denver.”
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A 96 year-old Canadian woman was crying tears of joy after she accidentally fulfilled a lifelong out-of-this-world bucket list dream.
For decades, Jean Moffatt has been reaching out over the airwaves with her ham radio during her time volunteering at the Ontario Science Center teaching young whippersnappers how to use traditional amateur radio.
“You can always talk to other people, in other parts of the world,” Moffatt told CTV News Toronto. “You can send your signals to satellites. I’ve talked to people from the Arctic to the Antarctic.”
Recently Moffatt fulfilled a long-held dream of hers when her ham radio connection was relayed through northern Italy and allowed her to talk to Commander Luca Parmitano aboard the International Space Station.
She admitted to CTV that it had always been her dream to talk with an astronaut, and Commander Luca said it was his honor to speak with her. The near-centenarian asked him whether his opinions on extra-terrestrial life had changed since departing the atmosphere and what he thought about cleaning up the environment.
The idea for connecting her ham radio to the extra-atmospheric radio waves came after her 96th birthday. “She mentioned to me that one of the things she’s always wanted to do was talk to an astronaut,” Christine Pigeon, the volunteer coordinator at the Science Centre told CTV News.
An email with NASA and three months were needed, but when the rough connection finally went through, Moffatt’s conversation with Commander Luca brought tears to her eyes, with the radio gal admitting it was the “highlight” of her life.
(WATCH the inspiring CTV video below)
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Quote of the Day: “I want to take all the pain that I feel and celebrate, and turn it around.” – Stevie Wonder
Photo: by Mary Anne Morgan, CC license – cropped
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Rainwater runoff is notorious for polluting urban waterways by sweeping up all the chemicals, pesticides, heavy metals, bacteria, and automotive oils that sully dense metropolitan areas.
Thankfully, cities across the west coast of the United States are rapidly applying a simple new method for combatting rainwater runoff: gardens.
These aptly-named “Rain Gardens” (also known as “bioswales”) are specifically designed to capture runoff and filter water before it enters the urban sewer system through city storm drains—and they don’t look half bad in front of your house, either.
According to a National Water Quality Inventory 1996 Report to Congress, rainwater runoff is the 2nd greatest polluter of water in estuaries—critical ecosystems for the health of shorelines and migratory and aquatic bird populations.
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During storm events or heavy snow melts, single facilities that treat both storm water and sanitary sewage may become overloaded from urban rainwater runoff and discharge untreated waste into surface waters.
Bioswales are typically planted on a slope above the roadside or sidewalk and below the level of the front porch to a typical house or building. This allows water flowing off of roofs, stairs, gutters, and parking lots to run down across the bioswale—ensuring maximum absorption of toxins and pollutants.
The city of Portland has become just one of the many west coast cities that have hopped on the bioswale train in the US. Over the course of the last 10 years, Portland has been helping citizens install the bioswales in their front and back gardens. Not only that, legislators have even gone so far as to take care of the bill.
The bioswales are part of a massive overhaul of the Portland sewer system called the “Green Streets” initiative.
“Green Streets reduces and manage rainwater runoff through interception, evapotranspiration, throughfall, and attenuation,” details the authors of the 2007 Green Streets policy report. “One of the most closely monitored facilities—the Glencoe Rain Garden—has performed extremely well… and has retained 94% of the runoff.”
According to a report from Sunset, the project will add 83 Green Street policy rain gardens and planters to filter 7.1 million gallons of runoff, ensuring the water has greatly reduced its pollutant potential before entering the sewer system.
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As mentioned in the Green Streets report, the potential certain plants have to remove pollutants like oils, toxic chemicals, heavy metals, and harmful bacteria can be as high as 90%, while sediment content can be reduced by 80%. Since the gardens are also naturally drained and dried in 12 to 48 hours, there’s no risk of bioswales becoming mosquito breeding centers.
PPenvironmental created this simple DIY tutorial for building your own bioswale, whether in front of your house or near a creek or fresh water source, while Portland City authorities have launched this particular page where you can apply to have the percentage cost of installing a bioswale on your property recovered.
Plant Some Positivity By Sharing The Good News To Social Media – File photo by Chris Hamby, CC
Americans are rejoicing over a new report detailing how the life expectancy of US adults has increased for the first time since 2014—and it is largely because of a landmark decline in cancer mortality and drug overdoses.
According to the newly-released data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), American life expectancy increased slightly from 78.6 years in 2017 to 78.7 years in 2018.
Although this is only an improvement of 0.1 years, it is still cause for celebration; the trend is partially due to a notable 4.1% drop in overdose deaths from the previous year, which is the equivalent of about 3,000 fewer fatalities.
It is also the first time that the drug overdose rate has fallen in the US since 1999.
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“I think these numbers suggest that some positive news is starting to come out of the many efforts to try to stem the tide on overdoses,” Kathryn McHugh, a psychologist at McLean Psychiatric Hospital and Harvard University, told NPR.
Additionally, fewer and fewer people are dying from cancer in the United States every year, with 2017 showing the largest single-year drop in cancer mortality ever reported.
The cancer death rate declined by 29% from 1991 to 2017, including a whopping 2.2% drop from 2016 to 2017, which translates to approximately 2.9 million fewer cancer deaths than would have occurred had mortality rates remained at their peak. That trend continued into 2018 with another 2% drop in mortality rates.
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The report goes on to say that this decline in cancer-related deaths accounted for 30% of the increase in life expectancy in 2018.
Six of the country’s ten leading causes of death also declined, with heart disease—the number one leading cause of mortality—declining by 0.8%.
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A group of middle schoolers from Bellevue, Nebraska is being praised across social media after they rallied together to surprise their teacher with a new pair of shoes.
Earlier this month, Logan Fontenelle Middle School teacher Trey Payne was heartbroken to discover that his favorite pair of sneakers had been stolen out of his classroom.
Since the shoes were also rather expensive, Payne’s students were particularly upset over the theft.
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The students then pooled their money in order to surprise their teacher with a brand new pair of replacement shoes—and Payne could hardly contain his emotions.
In a video which has since been shared thousands of times across social media, Payne can be seen opening the shoebox and then promptly bursting into tears.
“It’s more than a pair of shoes, it’s about doing things to build everyone up around you,” said Payne. “I try to show my kids this and I think the lesson has sunk in for many, in turn, reaffirming my purpose and my ideals.”
(WATCH the tear-jerking video below)
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Effortless learning during sleep is the dream of many people—but the smell of roses may actually be the key to making that dream a reality.
According to an extensive new laboratory sleep study, German researchers found that smells have a very supportive effect on learning success when presented both during learning and sleep.
Researchers at the University of Freiburg—Medical Center, the Freiburg Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health (IGPP) and the Faculty of Biology at the University of Freiburg have now shown that this effect can be also achieved very easily outside the lab.
For the study, pupils in two school classes learned English vocabulary with and without scent sticks during the learning period and also at night—and the students remembered the vocabulary much better with a scent. The study was published in the Nature Group’s Open Access journal Scientific Reports earlier this week.
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“We showed that the supportive effect of fragrances works very reliably in everyday life and can be used in a targeted way,” said study leader Dr. Jürgen Kornmeier, head of the Perception and Cognition Research Group at the Freiburg-based IGPP and scientist at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University of Freiburg—Medical Center in Germany.
For the study, first author and student teacher Franziska Neumann conducted several experiments with 54 students from two 6th grade classes in a school in southern Germany.
The young participants from the test group were asked to place rose-scented incense sticks on their desks at home while learning English vocabulary and on the bedside table next to the bed at night. In another experiment, they also placed the incense sticks on the table next to them during a vocabulary test at school during an English test. The results were compared with test results in which no incense sticks were used during one or more phases.
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“The students showed a significant increase in learning success by about 30% if the incense sticks were used during both the learning and sleeping phases,” says Neumann. The results also suggest that the additional use of the incense sticks during the vocabulary test promotes memory.
“One particular finding beyond the seminal initial study was, that the fragrance also works when it is present all night,” says Kornmeier. “This makes the findings suitable for everyday use.”
Previous studies had assumed that the fragrance must only be present during a particularly sensitive sleeping phase. However, since this sleep phase needs to be determined by an effortful measurement of brain activity through an electroencephalogram (EEG) in the sleep laboratory, this finding was not suitable for everyday use.
“Our study shows that we can make learning during sleep easier. And who would have thought that our nose could help considerably in this,” says Kornmeier.
Reprinted from the University of Freiburg—Medical Center
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While some Super Bowl commercials might be advertising various businesses and brands, this grateful pet owner took out a 30-second ad to raise money for the veterinarians who saved his dog’s life.
This is not the first time that David MacNeil has featured his dog Scout in a Super Bowl ad; the 7-year-old Golden Retriever has previously appeared in commercials for WeatherTech, MacNeil’s company.
This year, however, MacNeil’s $6 million time slot tells the story about how he almost lost Scout to cancer.
“There’s so many companies selling this snack or this beer, that car or truck or whatever,” MacNeil told WMTV. “I’m like, ‘What can I do that’s a really good thing to do to help the university and the school and animals?’”
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Veterinarians diagnosed Scout with an uncommon heart tumor after he collapsed to the floor last year. They said that the senior pup only had one month to live, and it would be best if MacNeil euthanized Scout.
MacNeil refused. Instead, he brought Scout to the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine and begged them to help his beloved dog.
Since many cancer treatments for humans are also effective for dogs, Scout began undergoing chemotherapy—and after just six weeks of treatments, his tumor had shrunk by 78%. Two weeks later, it had shrunk by a further 50%.
As a thank you to the veterinarians who saved his dog, MacNeil then bought a Super Bowl ad encouraging viewers to donate to the university and its research.
“This is an amazing opportunity not only for the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the School of Veterinary Medicine, but for veterinary medicine worldwide,” said the dean, Mark Markel. “So much of what’s known globally today about how best to diagnose and treat devastating diseases such as cancer originated in veterinary medicine.”
(WATCH the news coverage below) – Photo by WMTV
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Quote of the Day: “We live in a society obsessed with public opinion. But leadership has never been about popularity.” – U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R–Florida)
Photo: in the public domain
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This “exciting” new study says that protective cells in the lungs of ex-smokers could explain why quitting smoking dramatically reduces the risk of developing lung cancer.
Cancer Research UK-funded researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and UCL have discovered that compared to current smokers, people who had stopped smoking had more genetically healthy lung cells, which have a much lower risk of developing into cancer.
The study shows that quitting smoking could do much more than just stopping further damage to the lungs. Researchers believe it could also allow new, healthy cells to actively replenish the lining of our airways. This shift in proportion of healthy to damaged cells could help protect against cancer.
These results highlight the benefits of stopping smoking completely, at any age.
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“People who have smoked heavily for 30, 40 or more years often say to me that it’s too late to stop smoking—the damage is already done,” said the study’s joint senior author Dr. Peter Campbell from the Wellcome Sanger Institute.
“What is so exciting about our study is that it shows that it’s never too late to quit—some of the people in our study had smoked more than 15,000 packs of cigarettes over their life, but within a few years of quitting, many of the cells lining their airways showed no evidence of damage from tobacco.”
He later told BBC News that he and the research team “were totally unprepared” over the seemingly “magical” occurrence of the airway regeneration.
Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death in the UK, accounting for 21% of all cancer deaths. Smoking tobacco damages DNA and hugely increases the risk of lung cancer, with around 72% of the 47,000 annual lung cancer cases in the UK caused by smoking. In the US, it is estimated that around 229,000 cases of lung cancer will be diagnosed in 2020.
Damage to the DNA in cells lining the lungs creates genetic errors, and some of these are “driver mutations”, which are changes that give the cell a growth advantage. Eventually, an accumulation of these driver mutations can let the cells divide uncontrollably and become cancerous. However, when someone stops smoking, they avoid most of the subsequent risk of lung cancer.
In the first major study of the genetic effects of smoking on “normal”, non-cancerous lung cells, researchers analyzed lung biopsies from 16 people including smokers, ex-smokers, people who had never smoked, and children.
They sequenced the DNA of 632 individual cells from these biopsies and looked at the pattern of genetic changes in these non-cancerous lung cells.
The researchers found that despite not being cancerous, more than 9 out of every 10 lung cells in current smokers had up to 10,000 extra genetic changes—mutations—compared with non-smokers, and these mutations were caused directly by the chemicals in tobacco smoke. More than a quarter of these damaged cells had at least one cancer-driver mutation, which explains why the risk of lung cancer is so much higher in people who smoke.
Unexpectedly, in people who had stopped smoking, there was a sizable group of cells lining the airways that had escaped the genetic damage from their past smoking. Genetically, these cells were on par with those from people who had never smoked: they had much less genetic damage from smoking and would have a low risk of developing into cancer.
The researchers found that ex-smokers had four times more of these healthy cells than people who still smoked—representing up to 40% of the total lung cells in ex-smokers.
The research, published this week in Nature today, is part of the $26 million (£20 million) Mutographs of Cancer project: a Cancer Research UK Grand Challenge initiative. The project detects DNA “signatures” that indicate the source of damage, to better understand the causes of cancer, and discover the ones we may not yet be aware of.
Dr. Kate Gowers, joint first author from UCL, said: “Our study is the first time that scientists have looked in detail at the genetic effects of smoking on individual healthy lung cells. We found that even these healthy lung cells from smokers contained thousands of genetic mutations. These can be thought of as mini time-bombs waiting for the next hit that causes them to progress to cancer. Further research with larger numbers of people is needed to understand how cancer develops from these damaged lung cells.”
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While the study showed that these healthy lung cells could start to repair the lining of the airways in ex-smokers and help protect them against lung cancer, smoking also causes damage deeper in the lung that can lead to emphysema—chronic lung disease. This damage is not reversible, even after stopping smoking.
Professor Sam Janes, joint senior author from UCL and University College London Hospitals Trust, said: “Our study has an important public health message and shows that it really is worth quitting smoking to reduce the risk of lung cancer. Stopping smoking at any age does not just slow the accumulation of further damage, but could reawaken cells unharmed by past lifestyle choices. Further research into this process could help to understand how these cells protect against cancer, and could potentially lead to new avenues of research into anti-cancer therapeutics.”
Dr Rachel Orritt, Health Information Manager at Cancer Research UK, added: “It’s a really motivating idea that people who stop smoking might reap the benefits twice over—by preventing more tobacco-related damage to lung cells, and by giving their lungs the chance to balance out some of the existing damage with healthier cells. What’s needed now are larger studies that look at cell changes in the same people over time to confirm these findings.
“The results add to existing evidence that, if you smoke, stopping completely is the best thing you can do for your health. It’s not always easy to kick the habit, but getting support from a free, local Stop Smoking Service roughly triples the chance of success compared to going it alone.”
Reprinted from the Wellcome Sanger Institute
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In a strange twist of fate, this suicide hotline volunteer only recently discovered that she has spent the last four years working next to the man who talked her through her own suicidal crisis.
60-year-old Georgina Laurie contemplated taking her own life 7 years ago after enduring the sudden death of her husband Dennis.
“A year prior to that, I’d had a stroke, so my whole life completely changed and I couldn’t cope with that,” recalls Laurie. “I got really depressed, really down and I really couldn’t see there was a way forward in life for me.
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Thankfully, a fateful phone conversation with a volunteer from Samaritans—an international nonprofit dedicated to preventing suicide—was enough to help her change her mind, put one foot in front of the other, and keep going.
“I had no intention of ringing Samaritans and no intention of ringing and telling anybody,” says Laurie. “I was in bed, I was coughing and I dribbled water and I went into my bedside cabinet to get a tissue and believe it or not, a Samaritans card flicked out.
“I hadn’t really considered them at all and I thought ‘I will give them a call’ and it wasn’t to be talked out of what I was doing—I wanted the universe to know what I was doing. I didn’t leave a note or anything.
“So I phoned up and this gentleman answered and for an hour listened to me wittering on, and I know I was talking about the difficulties in the family since my husband died, and it was really difficult.
“I told him what I was going to do. He didn’t judge me; there was no judgement, there was no trying to change my mind,” she continued. “I felt completely that I could trust him and open up. For an hour I was wittering away, but still determined to go through with what I had planned.
“I decided I had chatted enough and I said ‘I’m going to go now’ and at that point the Samaritan said to me on the phone, ‘I would just like to say one thing; this all sounds totally exhausting.’
“And I hadn’t thought about that and I thought, ‘Yeah, you’re right, I am exhausted; I am emotionally and physically exhausted’ and then I put the phone down.
“I started to think, ‘if I am exhausted, if I really am that mentally and emotionally exhausted, am I making the right decision?’ and it was enough just to get me thinking.”
The experience eventually inspired the English grandmother from Kent to begin volunteering for the organization so she could help those going through the same kind of despair.
About two and a half years after the phone call, Laurie decided to join the Samaritans branch in Strood, which has around 60 volunteers. She has since risen through the ranks of the organization and begun mentoring other volunteers on how they can get involved.
She has now spent 4 and a half years working in a booth alongside branch director and long-time volunteer Des McCarthy—although she only discovered it was he who had talked her through her troubles.
Laurie had been in the middle of an evening shift when she suddenly had her epiphany over the identity of her anonymous savior.
“It was about five months ago. I was training one of my mentees and my mentee was on the phone, so I had more time to listen to what Des was saying, albeit subconsciously,” recalls Laurie. “I suddenly heard Des say, ‘it must have been exhausting for you’ and it was like being transferred back all those years, I couldn’t believe it.
“It was really one of those serendipitous moments and I realized that it was Des I had spoken to.
“I couldn’t bring myself to say anything that night,” she added. “We were actually at another volunteer’s birthday party and I had confided in another volunteer and he said ‘here’s an ideal opportunity to tell him’, and it just organically came out.”
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Laurie’s call could have been diverted to any of the Samaritans’ call centers in the UK—and the fact that McCarthy was the call handler was completely random.
“I don’t have a stock of phrases,” McCarthy said about the seemingly innocuous comment. “Some people will have a comfort in using a stock of phrases when they begin, but I don’t think I ever had. It’s not something I say very often at all.”
HeMcCarthy, a former police officer, is stepping down in his role as director after three years and passing on the baton to Laurie, who will take over next month.
“It just seems like a natural little process. It was so humbling to be asked and I think it’s a nice all-round story about someone who’s been in despair who did call Samaritans,” said Laurie. “Des didn’t try and talk me out of doing anything. All he did was do what we say on the tin; we listen, and listening is just enough sometimes.”
(Interested in volunteering yourself? WATCH the Samaritans video below…)
Become a Samaritans Helpline Volunteer from Samaritans Inc on Vimeo.
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Scientists have used a new solar telescope to capture the world’s most detailed pictures of the sun’s surface—and the achievement is being hailed as a historic milestone for “ushering in a new era of solar astronomy”.
These newly-released first images from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope reveal unprecedented detail of the sun’s surface and preview the world-class products to come from this preeminent 4-meter solar telescope.
Activity on the sun, known as space weather, can affect systems on Earth. Magnetic eruptions on the sun can impact air travel, disrupt satellite communications and bring down power grids, causing long-lasting blackouts and disabling technologies such as GPS.
These first images from NSF’s Inouye Solar Telescope show a close-up view of the sun’s surface, which can provide important detail for scientists. The image shows a pattern of turbulent “boiling” plasma that covers the entire sun. The cell-like structures—each about the size of Texas—are the signature of violent motions that transport heat from the inside of the sun to its surface. That hot solar plasma rises in the bright centers of “cells,” cools off and then sinks below the surface in dark lanes in a process known as convection.
“This image is just the beginning,” said David Boboltz, program director in NSF’s division of astronomical sciences and who oversees the facility’s construction and operations. “Over the next six months, the Inouye telescope’s team of scientists, engineers and technicians will continue testing and commissioning the telescope to make it ready for use by the international solar scientific community.
“The Inouye Solar Telescope will collect more information about our sun during the first 5 years of its lifetime than all the solar data gathered since Galileo first pointed a telescope at the sun in 1612,” he added.
“Since NSF began work on this ground-based telescope, we have eagerly awaited the first images,” said France Córdova, NSF director. “We can now share these images and videos, which are the most detailed of our sun to date. NSF’s Inouye Solar Telescope will be able to map the magnetic fields within the sun’s corona, where solar eruptions occur that can impact life on Earth. This telescope will improve our understanding of what drives space weather and ultimately help forecasters better predict solar storms.”
The sun is our nearest star—a gigantic nuclear reactor that burns about 5 million tons of hydrogen fuel every second. It has been doing so for about 5 billion years and will continue for the other 4.5 billion years of its lifetime. All that energy radiates into space in every direction, and the tiny fraction that hits Earth makes life possible. In the 1950s, scientists figured out that a solar wind blows from the sun to the edges of the solar system. They also deduced for the first time that we live inside the atmosphere of this star. But many of the sun’s most vital processes continue to confound scientists.
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“On Earth, we can predict if it is going to rain pretty much anywhere in the world very accurately, and space weather just isn’t there yet,” said Matt Mountain president of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, which manages the Inouye Solar Telescope. “Our predictions lag behind terrestrial weather by 50 years, if not more. What we need is to grasp the underlying physics behind space weather, and this starts at the sun, which is what the Inouye Solar Telescope will study over the next decades.”
Solar magnetic fields constantly get twisted and tangled by the motions of the sun’s plasma. Twisted magnetic fields can lead to solar storms that can negatively affect our technology-dependent modern lifestyles. During 2017’s Hurricane Irma, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that a simultaneous space weather event brought down radio communications used by first responders, aviation and maritime channels for eight hours on the day the hurricane made landfall.
Finally resolving these tiny magnetic features is central to what makes the Inouye Solar Telescope unique. It can measure and characterize the sun’s magnetic field in more detail than ever seen before and determine the causes of potentially harmful solar activity.
Better understanding the origins of potential disasters will enable governments and utilities to better prepare for inevitable future space weather events. It is expected that notification of potential impacts could occur earlier – as much as 48 hours ahead of time instead of the current standard, which is about 48 minutes. This would allow for more time to secure power grids and critical infrastructure and to put satellites into safe mode.
To achieve the proposed science, this telescope required important new approaches to its construction and engineering. Built by NSF’s National Solar Observatory and managed by AURA, the Inouye Solar Telescope combines a 13-foot (4-meter) mirror—the world’s largest for a solar telescope—with unparalleled viewing conditions at the 10,000-foot Haleakalā summit.
Focusing 13 kilowatts of solar power generates enormous amounts of heat—heat that must be contained or removed. A specialized cooling system provides crucial heat protection for the telescope and its optics. More than seven miles of piping distribute coolant throughout the observatory, partially chilled by ice created on site during the night.
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The dome enclosing the telescope is covered by thin cooling plates that stabilize the temperature around the telescope, helped by shutters within the dome that provide shade and air circulation. The “heat-stop” (a high-tech, liquid-cooled metal donut) blocks most of the sunlight’s energy from the main mirror, allowing scientists to study specific regions of the sun with unparalleled clarity.
The telescope also uses state-of-the-art adaptive optics to compensate for blurring created by Earth’s atmosphere. The design of the optics (“off-axis” mirror placement) reduces bright, scattered light for better viewing and is complemented by a cutting-edge system to precisely focus the telescope and eliminate distortions created by the Earth’s atmosphere. This system is the most advanced solar application to date.
“With the largest aperture of any solar telescope, its unique design, and state-of-the-art instrumentation, the Inouye Solar Telescope—for the first time—will be able to perform the most challenging measurements of the sun,” said Thomas Rimmele, director of the Inouye Solar Telescope. “After more than 20 years of work by a large team devoted to designing and building a premier solar research observatory, we are close to the finish line. I’m extremely excited to be positioned to observe the first sunspots of the new solar cycle just now ramping up with this incredible telescope.”
NSF’s new ground-based Inouye Solar Telescope will work with space-based solar observation tools such as NASA’s Parker Solar Probe (currently in orbit around the sun) and the European Space Agency/NASA Solar Orbiter (soon to be launched). The three solar observation initiatives will expand the frontiers of solar research and improve scientists’ ability to predict space weather.
“It’s an exciting time to be a solar physicist,” said Valentin Pillet, director of NSF’s National Solar Observatory. “The Inouye Solar Telescope will provide remote sensing of the outer layers of the sun and the magnetic processes that occur in them. These processes propagate into the solar system where the Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter missions will measure their consequences. Altogether, they constitute a genuinely multi-messenger undertaking to understand how stars and their planets are magnetically connected.”
Reprinted from the National Science Foundation
(WATCH the short NSF clip below)
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Despite enduring the loss of his longtime friend and colleague Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal says that he still plans on hosting his annual Super Bowl party in Florida in the late Laker’s honor.
Not only that, Shaq will be donating all the proceeds generated from the event between the Kobe & Vanessa Bryant Family Foundation and the families of the helicopter crash victims.
Shaq’s Fun House Event will be taking place this weekend at the Mana Wynwood Convention Center in Miami. The party, which is set to feature such musical performers as Pitbull and Diddy, will host a variety of games, carnival rides, and circus performances in addition to streaming the Super Bowl LIV game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.
Shaq says that he had been contemplating canceling the event after he was left reeling from the death of Bryant, who played alongside him on the Los Angeles Lakers for three of Shaq’s NBA titles.
“Been going back and forth the past couple of days on if I should even have my event in Miami this weekend,” Shaq wrote on Instagram this week. “Part of me wanted to stay to myself as I reflect what my brother and his family mean to me and my family. But in thinking what would Kobe want, what would he do? Kobe would want us to push through and celebrate life. So let’s do just that.
“I’ll be dedicating and donating all my proceeds from Friday nights Fun House to all the families who lost loved ones and to the Kobe and Vanessa Bryant Foundation,” he concluded. “Together we will celebrate all those who lost their lives in Sunday tragedy. RIP my brother, my friend and my homie, The Black Mamba. Until we meet again.”
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As ticket prices for this weekend’s Lakers’ game against the Portland Trailblazers skyrocket up to $950, StubHub also announced that they would be donating all of their ticket sales generated from the game to Bryant’s charity—and they will be doing the same for the postponed Lakers-Clippers game as well.
“In honor of Kobe and Gigi Bryant, all fees for the Jan. 31 Lakers vs Portland Trailblazers game and the Lakers vs Clippers game—for whenever it is rescheduled—will be donated to the Kobe & Vanessa Bryant Family Foundation,” the company told USA Today Sports in a statement.
Shaq has been openly candid about his grief over Bryant’s death, although he also was filmed leading a rousing chorus of “Kobe!” chants outside of the Staples Center this week since the street has been flooded with fans commemorating the Lakers legend.
WATCH the video below…
Be Sure And Share The Heartening News With Your Friends On Social Media – File photo by Keith Allison, CC
Quote of the Day: “Fear is the glue that keeps you stuck. Faith is the solvent that sets you free.” – Shannon L. Alder
Photo: by Justin Jensen – CC license, cropped
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Not many people would celebrate their mailbox getting taken out by a car, but when Crystal Collins experienced the valor and kindness of the particular youth who hit it, she knew she wanted to shout his praises in public.
The teenager rang her doorbell while she was at home in Lincoln, Nebraska and told her that he had accidentally hit her mailbox with his truck due to the snow and icy conditions on the road.
Not only did the youngster offer his most heartfelt apologies for the incident, he also offered her every dollar in his wallet.
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Collins told him to keep his money, but he returned to her house two days later with a plate of homemade cookies.
Collins was so touched, she published a Facebook photo of the young man from her security camera last week in hopes of identifying him and his family.
“I’m looking for his parents,” she wrote. “They should know what an outstanding young man they have raised!”
After the post was shared several thousand times, the young man was identified as Owen Sullivan. It also reached the social media feed of his mother Jamy—and she was extremely touched by her son’s honesty.
“I honestly got teary-eyed, because it was so, it’s just nice to know your kids do good things when you’re not around,” she later told KOLN.
(WATCH the heartwarming interview below)
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A tax on carbon dioxide emissions in Great Britain, introduced in 2013, has led to the proportion of electricity generated from coal falling from 40% to 3% over six years, according to research led by University College London (UCL).
British electricity generated from coal fell from 13.1 TWh (terawatt hours) in 2013 to 0.97 TWh in September 2019, and was replaced by other less emission-heavy forms of generation such as gas. The decline in coal generation accelerated substantially after the tax was increased in 2015.
In the report, ‘The Value of International Electricity Trading’, researchers from UCL and the University of Cambridge also showed that the tax—called Carbon Price Support —added on average £39 to British household electricity bills, collecting around £740m for the Treasury, in 2018.
Academics researched how the tax affected electricity flows to connected countries and interconnector (the large cables connecting the countries) revenue between 2015—when the tax was increased to £18 per tonne of carbon dioxide—and 2018. Following this increase, the share of coal-fired electricity generation fell from 28% in 2015 to 5% in 2018, reaching 3% by September 2019.
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Increased electricity imports from the continent reduced the price impact in the UK, and meant that some of the cost was paid through a slight increase in continental electricity prices (mainly in France and the Netherlands).
Project lead Dr Giorgio Castagneto Gissey (Bartlett Institute for Sustainable Resources, UCL) said: “Should EU countries also adopt a high carbon tax, we would likely see huge carbon emission reductions throughout the Continent, as we’ve seen in Great Britain over the last few years.”
Lead author, Professor David Newbery (University of Cambridge), said: “The Carbon Price Support provides a clear signal to our neighbors of its efficacy at reducing CO2 emissions.”
The Carbon Price Support was introduced in England, Scotland and Wales at a rate of £4.94 per tonne of carbon dioxide-equivalent and is now capped at £18 until 2021.The tax is one part of the Total Carbon Price, which also includes the price of EU Emissions Trading System permits.
Report co-author Bowei Guo (University of Cambridge) said: “The Carbon Price Support has been instrumental in driving coal off the grid, but we show how it also creates distortions to cross-border trade, making a case for EU-wide adoption.”
Professor Michael Grubb (Bartlett Institute for Sustainable Resources, UCL) said: “Great Britain’s electricity transition is a monumental achievement of global interest, and has also demonstrated the power of an effective carbon price in lowering dependence on electricity generated from coal.”
The overall report on electricity trading also covers the value of EU interconnectors to Great Britain, measures the efficiency of cross-border electricity trading and considers the value of post-Brexit decoupling from EU electricity markets.
The report annex focusing on the Carbon Price Support was produced by UCL to focus on the impact of the tax on British energy bills.
The findings from UCL and the University of Cambridge were part of wider research to examine cross-border electricity trading between Great Britain and connected EU markets, commissioned by energy regulator Ofgem to inform its annual flagship State of the Energy Market report.
Reprinted from University of College London – Photo by Matthew Black, CC
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The heroic canine who won hearts across the internet after escorting a group of kindergartners across a busy street has been given a stylish new home for his bravery—and a “people’s choice” award to boot.
Although the pup has been given many names by the locals, he is currently being called Kupata—which means “Sausage” in English—because of his affinity for free snacks at the local butcher.
The stray pup became internet famous earlier this month after he was filmed running to the rescue of the children at a crosswalk in Batumi, Georgia. By the time he was done scolding the nearby vehicles, the kids were able to cross the street without interference.
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Nona Zakareishvili, a local woman who has been feeding Kupata for the last few years, told Radio Tavisupleba: “He loves kids so much. If he sees them wanting to cross [the road], he will immediately go to their aid, and may even wait for them in the park.”
Upon hearing about his good deed, the Adjara Tourism Department honored the pup by presenting him with his very own doghouse. Not only that, the doghouse is emblazoned with a “People’s Choice” star depicting Kupata’s name.
“The popular Kupata now has his own home. He was only aiming to help kids safely cross the streets, but it has amounted to so much more. The employees of the Department bought him a home with the words: ‘People’s Choice’. That is something he certainly well deserves,” reads a translated version of a Facebook post from the tourism department.
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With the help of a local Native American tribe, 21 desert bighorn sheep became part of an important reintroduction program to create a population of Nevada’s state animal in lands they’ve been absent from for almost 100 years.
The animals were deposited on the shores and hills around Pyramid Lake near the Nevada-California border.
“We’ve recovered a species lost in time,” Emily Hagler, a biologist for the Paiute Tribe, told KTVN. “It’s been a main focus of the tribe for many years, recovering our fisheries and now to be able to recover a large game species is incredibly tremendous.”
The Paiute of Pyramid Lake were heavily involved in the reintroduction efforts. In June of 2018, after consultation with bighorn sheep conservationist Larry Johnson the tribe agreed to begin coordinating with the Department of Wildlife on the project.
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A November 2018 resolution that designated the bighorn sheep as a “tribal species of protection” was the launching point towards the capture and release of 17 ewes and 4 rams into an area where the last confirmed sighting of desert bighorn was by pioneers heading west in the early 20th century.
“We’ve been trying to restore sheep to every possible mountain range that they lived in back in the day,” Mike Cox told the Vegas Review Journal, statewide bighorn sheep program coordinator and staff biologist for the department.
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All 21 sheep received a shiny, brand-new radio collar and the ewes had a blood test to ensure they were pregnant. This way at least a dozen lambs should be born onto the land in the spring of 2020 to help jump start the population and encourage the females to stay in the area, thus encouraging rambling rams to move into Pyramid Hills to breed the ewes in the fall and winter.
“It’s a perfect opportunity to remove some of those and give them a little bit more space and then allow a herd to take off here and grow on their own,” said Cox.
(WATCH the spectacular release below)
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