90 years ago today, track and field star Jesse Owens won his fourth gold medal at the Berlin Olympics—a first for any American athlete. Owens was cheered enthusiastically by 110,000 people in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium—and later, ordinary Germans sought his autograph when they saw the world-record holder in the streets. READ what Jesse said about Hitler at the games… (1936)
Once Gone From Ireland, Majestic Sea Eagles Continue Their Comeback with Rare New Chick
More than a century after the country’s largest bird of prey disappeared entirely from Ireland, a white-tailed sea eagle has been delivered—and the young fledgling became another success for conservationists to celebrate.
Fota Wildlife Park in County Cork has announced the successful birth and fledging of a white-tailed sea eagle chick—the first chick of the species born at the park in more than a decade.
The eaglet hatched on April 13 to resident parents Áine and Tony, who, according to their caretakers, have taken naturally to the demanding job of raising Europe’s largest eagle.
“The mother and father have done a great job,” said Jess Hodnett, Fota Wildlife Park’s Native Species Conservation Officer.
And there’s quite a lot of chick to raise.
Adult white-tailed sea eagles can have wingspans stretching more than 8 feet—an extraordinary 2.5 meters. During breeding season this puts great demand on the parents requiring them to eat 18-21 ounces of food every day (500-600 grams) to support their young.
The successful fledging carries particular significance in Ireland.
White-tailed sea eagles were once common along the country’s coastline, but human persecution eventually wiped them out. Ireland lost its entire population, and the species remained absent for more than a century.
Then people decided to bring back the only sea eagle native to Europe.
Beginning in 2007, Ireland’s National Parks and Wildlife Service, working with the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research as well as farmers and local communities, began releasing white-tailed sea eagles at sites around the country.
More than 200 have now been released—and the recovery effort has reached an extraordinary milestone: Ireland’s population is now considered self-sustaining.
Fota wildlife park, has participated in white-tailed sea eagle conservation since 1991 and has now successfully bred six chicks.
Hodnett said the staff hoped the youngster will eventually participate in a European endangered-species breeding program, meaning this one Cork-born eagle could contribute to conservation efforts far beyond the park where it hatched.
For Fota’s conservation team, however, the eagle is only one piece of a much larger success story—the park is helping some of Ireland’s most vulnerable native animals, from curlews to the endangered white-clawed crayfish.
EAGLE LOVE: Eagle Decides He Wants the Hawk For a Sibling, Rather than a Meal (WATCH)
Fota’s work with the endangered natterjack toad has produced great success, as the park takes toad spawn from ponds in County Kerry and raises the youngsters during their most fragile stages before returning them to the wild.
Since 2016, more than 13,600 natterjack toadlets have been released back into their native habitat—with another 750 expected to join them this August.
BEAUTIFUL RESCUE: Injured Bald Eagle Plucked From River in Daring Rescue By College Staffers in Maryland (WATCH)
For Fota, the eagle chick demonstrates the positive outcomes that come through cooperation. A species humans once eliminated from Ireland is being nurtured by another generation of birds there—with people now working together to make sure it thrives.
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Loggerhead Sea Turtles Break Nest Record in Georgia – The Most in 37 Years
Loggerhead sea turtle nests along the Atlantic coast in the US have set a new 37-year record, topping every annual count for beaches in the state of Georgia, going back to 1989.
The state’s Department of Natural Resources calls it “a slow but steady rebound” for the animal listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1978.
According to the Georgia Sea Turtle Cooperative, the nest count passed 4,110 last week—the most since 1989, when that group of volunteers, researchers, and staffers, coordinated by the DNR, began counting nests all along the state’s barrier island beaches.
In the last five summers, the record has been broken twice. The previous high was 4,071 nests in 2022—which is almost double the goal originally set in a recovery plan hatched by humans for these beloved, big-headed reptiles.
Wildlife officials are ‘encouraged’ by the progress of the species’ restoration for a couple reasons. As big as they are—300 pounds—they develop very slowly.
“Loggerheads are a long-lived species and don’t reproduce until they’re 30-35 years old,” explained Mark Dodd, a senior wildlife biologist with DNR’s Wildlife Conservation Section and Georgia Sea Turtle Program Coordinator.
Furthermore, the region’s population fluctuates. 22 years ago, for instance, Georgia count totals were estimated at a record low of 358 nests in 2004.
But, overall, the Atlantic nest count in Georgia has increased at about 4% annually since the early 1990s—with Sea Turtle Cooperative members patrolling beaches each day at dawn, marking and protecting new nests.
Their work and the use of “turtle excluder” devices since 1990—to minimize the chances of turtles being scooped up by shrimp trawler nets—have been key to the resurgence of loggerhead populations.
EVEN BETTER: Sea Turtles Rebounding Worldwide as Nests and Habitat are More Protected, Says 2025 NOAA Study
Loggerheads spend almost their entire life at sea. But from May through mid-August, adult females—which can be more than 3 feet long—drag themselves onto Atlantic beaches at night to dig holes in sand dunes and lay clutches of about 100 ping-pong ball-sized eggs.
If current projections hold true, loggerhead numbers will now plateau. But, if protections remain in place, their numbers will begin to grow again.
Dodd said nesting could then reach levels not seen in the state since the 1950s.
MORE TURTLE LOVE: Sea Turtle Boom Astonished Volunteers in Florida With Best Nesting Season on Record
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Bride Calls for Metal Detector Mid-Wedding After Losing Ring Swatting a Bee on the Beach
A bride and groom were forced to find someone with a metal detector during their own wedding—after the engagement ring flew off her finger mid-ceremony.
Abi and Tony Clark were tying the knot on the beach at St. Brelade’s Bay in the Channel Islands near the coast of France, when she tried to swat away a bee.
Her engagement ring went flying and landed in the sand. The 15 guests immediately jumped from their seats and began searching, to no avail.
“During the ceremony, bees kept getting in the way, getting in her face. They must’ve liked her perfume!” said Tony.
“I didn’t know what to do,” recalled Abi. “I hoped it was in the garden, but I knew from the force I used to swat the bee away (that) the ring would have travelled far.”
Abi told SWNS news agency she was “absolutely gutted” that the ring could not be found, but Tony suggested the pair “carry on” and get married without the ring, which they did.
“Throughout the day I would talk about the missing ring but tried to block it out as I didn’t want it to ruin our wedding day, which we had worked so hard to save for.”
One friend, however, mentioned a local man named Steve Andrews who runs Jersey Lost Ring Metal Detecting.
Steve, a firefighter who recovers rings for people on a volunteer basis, came straight to the beach—and he found the rock within ten minutes.
“Abi was overjoyed,” said Tony.
“When we were about to cut our wedding cake, the toastmaster said that our guests Callum and Jess had an announcement.”
“In that moment I knew they had found the ring.
“I am so grateful to our close friends and to the metal detector for doing this for us.”
AMAZING WEDDING MOMENT: Surprise Audio Played at Wedding Shocks Everyone When Bride Accurately Predicts Husband’s Name as a 4-Year-old
“The way they revealed it had been found made it extra special as everyone was cheering and clapping and it became just an extra celebration on top of what was already a really special day.”
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Your Weekly Horoscope – ‘Free Will Astrology’ by Rob Brezsny
Our partner Rob Brezsny, whose latest book is Astrology Is Real: Revelations from My Life as an Oracle, provides his weekly wisdom to enlighten our thinking and motivate our mood. Rob’s Free Will Astrology, is a syndicated weekly column appearing in over a hundred publications. He is also the author of Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How All of Creation Is Conspiring To Shower You with Blessings. (A free preview of the book is available here.)
Here is your weekly horoscope…
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY – Week of August 8, 2026
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Within most galaxies are dense clouds of gas and dust that astronomers call “star factories.” Here and there, the magic of gravity gradually gathers together diffuse material into concentrated clusters until nuclear fusion ignites, creating brilliant new suns. I suspect you will be operating a metaphorical star factory in the coming weeks and months, Leo. Small ideas, fragments of plans, or tentative experiments could coalesce in productive ways. Through your patient attention and care, luminous concentrations of useful beauty will emerge.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Virgo biologist Stephen Jay Gould argued that evolution isn’t a ladder of progress but a branching bush of experimentation. Most species that ever existed are extinct, but they weren’t failures. For a very long time, they were successful experiments in being alive, well adapted to their environment. When conditions changed, they ended. That’s how evolution works. Let’s apply this lesson to your life, Virgo. If a part of your world is concluding, celebrate and thank it, then bid it a fond farewell. Feel grateful that it succeeded completely at what it was meant to do and gave you all it had to give.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
Your sense of purpose is intensifying. Your people need you more than ever, and your gifts are ripening just as they are most valuable to your community. But I must add that the road ahead will not be frictionless. You will have to outmaneuver diversionary tactics and dispel pockets of confusion. To serve as a shimmering catalyst of beauty and truth for your allies—and a shrewd strategist in the presence of deflections—lean into the paradoxical counsel attributed to Jesus: Be gentle and pure like a dove, yet keenly perceptive and discerning like a serpent.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Concrete continues to cure beyond the time when it’s first poured. After seven days, it has 70 percent of its ultimate strength, and after 14 days, 90 percent. It usually keeps getting sturdier for a few months, even years. I propose that we use this as a metaphor for what you’re working on, Scorpio. The foundations you established a while back are still solidifying. Projects that are working pretty well are still developing potency. This is a good thing! Everything is slowly improving through processes you’re not actively managing.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
Here’s your assignment: Find yourself a pair of enchanted pants that will bring you good luck and stir up fun. How will you know that they’re authentically charmed? Because when you put them on, you will instinctively wander toward adventures that expand your understandings about life. They may also lead you to explore places and situations that aren’t truly forbidden or taboo, but which you have oddly avoided as if they were forbidden or taboo. Finally, your enchanted pants are likely to inspire you to dream up a few crazy good ideas that will turn out not to be mostly good and not at all crazy.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
In classical music, a “fermata” is a symbol on the sheet music that instructs the instrumentalist to hold a note longer than its written duration. How long? It’s unpredictable. The musician decides. I think your life would benefit from a metaphorical fermata or two, Capricorn—maybe even more. You won’t come to a protracted pause, but you will engage in strategic prolonging, extending certain notes beyond their expected duration. Examples? Lingering longer in a conversation from which you’re inclined to exit early; staying with an ambiguous emotion rather than rushing to resolution; allowing a project to develop more leisurely than you might if you were simply pushing for sheer efficiency. Opt for what’s soulful instead of what’s crisp and neat.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Fate is subtly but insistently pressuring you to stop squandering energy on half-hearted, hand-me-down desires. Why? So your real, holy obsessions can move to the center of your attention. The tepid wishes and lukewarm yearnings are being exposed for what they are: distractions that nibble away at your time and passion without fully feeding your soul. As these mediocre drives fade in importance, you’ll be exultant to see how much more fire, clarity, and juice you have available for the few burning, churning yearnings that truly belong to you.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
The Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean is so deep that if Mount Everest were located at the bottom, its peak would be over a mile underwater. The deepest point in the ocean could swallow the highest point on land with room to spare. The world holds more below than above. Please meditate on this fun fact, Pisces. I hope it inspires you to understand that your most interesting power often lies in the depths, not the peaks. While others are summiting, you’re descending into the mysterious, fathomless interiors. Your explorations may not photograph well because they happen in darkness. But they are the source of your strength.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
In the early days of aviation, navigation instruments were rudimentary, and the skies were often a blur of clouds, darkness, or featureless horizons. Pilots sometimes relied on a technique called “dead reckoning”: good instinct bolstered by simple instruments like compasses and stopwatches. I suspect you will benefit from practicing a metaphorical version of dead reckoning in the coming weeks. You may not have all the data you would like, and the path ahead might be less than clear. But you already possess enough hints and inklings to make thoughtful approximations. If you’re alert and flexible, listening to subtle signals within you and around you, your evolving estimates will guide you uncannily close to the right destination.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
19th C. poet Emily Dickinson rarely left her comfortable home in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her favorite activity was to sit in her bedroom and compose her odd, unique, brilliant poems. Eventually, she wrote 1,800 of them, though few were published during her lifetime. Today she is renowned as one of America’s great literary geniuses. Her story reminds us that magnificent growth may emerge from simple and humble circumstances. I suspect you will thrive if you borrow her strategy during the coming weeks. You don’t need a hubbub of flashy events to evoke your beauty. A period of creative stillness could amplify your imagination and inspire your dazzle.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
In Renaissance workshops, apprentice painters learned their craft by assisting masters with small tasks. They mixed pigments, prepared canvases, and cleaned up. There was a valuable trade-off for this humble work. Being in proximity to mature brilliance often spurred the fledgling artists to harness their own creative powers. I suspect this dynamic is relevant for you, Gemini. Now is a favorable time to be alert for unexpected teachers and lessons. Be ready to apprentice yourself to captivating experiences where you might learn what you didn’t even realize you needed to know. Your willingness to be a curious, gracious student is your superpower.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
If you knew you were going to live to 95 in reasonably good health, what additional careers or adventures might you pursue? Visualize your lifespan stretching out before you like a wide winding road, where you will have plenty of time not just to survive, but to experiment, wander, and reinvent yourself. Would you train for a new craft or profession? Would you move to another country for a while and apprentice yourself to a language, landscape, or tradition that has always piqued your curiosity? I invite you to take a concrete step that moves you in the direction of interesting future fun.
WANT MORE? Listen to Rob’s EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES, 4-5 minute meditations on the current state of your destiny — or subscribe to his unique daily text message service at: RealAstrology.com
(Zodiac images by Numerologysign.com, CC license)
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“Living well is the best revenge.” – George Herbert
Quote of the Day: “Living well is the best revenge.” – George Herbert
Photo by: Daiga Ellaby For Unsplash+
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Good News in History, August 8
450 years ago today, the keystone of Europe’s first modern astronomical observatory—the Uraniborg designed by Tycho Brahe, was laid. It was also the last to be built without a telescope as its primary instrument. It was the first scientific complex to be funded entirely by a state for the purpose of research, and was so expensive it cost roughly 1% of the Danish national income. Brahe made many astronomical breakthroughs and calculations from within the walls of Uraniborg, and hosted a who’s-who of European astronomical alumni. READ more… (1576)
The Tiger Returns to Kazakhstan in First-in-the-World Rewilding Project a Decade in the Making
Kazakhstan has taken a massive step towards its long-held goal of re-establishing the tiger in the country by releasing a female Amur tiger into the Ile-Balkhash Nature Reserve.
Established in 2018 for this exact purpose, what followed was a truly generational effort of reforestation and replenishing prey species of deer and antelope that the Caspian tiger, now extinct, once relied on.
“Today, we witnessed a truly historic event,” Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Yerlan Nyssanbayev said at the ceremony which saw the female tiger named “hope” in the Kazakh language, leap from the container on the back of a truck into the reserve.
“For the first time since the tiger disappeared from Kazakhstan more than 70 years ago, the first tiger has been released into its historical range. This is the result of many years of work by the state, our Russian colleagues, scientists, and international partners,” he said.
The extinct Caspian tiger, also called the Turanian tiger, was most closely related to the Siberian, or Amur, tiger, and so Russian collaboration was essential to the project.
In 2020, Bukhara deer were re-established in the reserve, before the saiga antelope, and the Asiatic wild ass, or kulan, followed.
Before they could roam as their extinct cousins did, hope and 3 other tigers: a male named Amur and two cubs brought from Russia’s Khabarovsk Reserve were released into large enclosures to adapt to the sights, smells, sounds, and weather.
Hope was examined by veterinarians and determined to be in sterling condition, She was fitted with a GPS tracking collar and, driven out into the reserve, allowed to go her own way.
The male, Amur, remains in captivity as experts monitor his behavior to determine whether he will be capable of hunting in this new environment.
The cubs will grow up semi-wild in the reserve, with the intent to release them when they’re fully mature, or around 18 months of age, provided they pass behavioral assessments for hunting and survival instincts. This slow, gradual approach, Astana Times wrote, reflects the complexity of introducing large predators to new landscapes.
Part of that complexity involves the safety and security of the communities surrounding Ile-Balkhash. Though large, the reserve is not fenced, allowing tigers to spill out back into their ancestral environment as their populations grow.
KAZAKH COLUMN INCHES: Kazakhstan Efforts to Restore Last Wild Equine Species Receive Huge Boost of 150 Horses
“The safety of people living near the reserve is our top priority,” officials from Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Ecology said. “We’ve put measures in place to prevent conflicts between people and tigers, including a dedicated team that will respond if an animal approaches a populated area.”
If the program succeeds, Kazakhstan will become the world’s first country to re-establish the tiger into an ecosystem it had disappeared from.
WATCH the dramatic moment below…
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‘Like a Moody Punk Rocker,’ the Red Handfish is National Geographic’s 18,000th Species Photographed
National Geographic calls it the ocean dweller who struts about more like a rock &roll frontman than a fish.
No bigger than a human thumb and sporting a red-lipped frown like a moody punk rocker, the Critically-Endangered red handfish is also the extraordinary 18,000th species in the National Geographic “Photo Ark,” just in time to celebrate its 20th anniversary.
National Geographic Explorer, photographer and Photo Ark founder Joel Sartore photographed this handfish while visiting the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania.
It’s all part of Sartore’s now 20-year effort to document all species living in human care to show a world worth saving.
“I started the Photo Ark in 2006 with the idea that if we can illuminate species of all sizes — especially the little ones that don’t get a lot of love — then we might be able to ignite connection and compassion for all of the living things we share this planet with,” Sartore said in a statement.
“There’s no better example of what the Photo Ark is all about than our 18,000th milestone species,” Sartore says. “The rare and remarkable red handfish is brilliantly unique and critically important to marine biodiversity. We should care about their future as much as we care about our own.”
Red handfish live in a small patch of rocky reef on the southeast coast of Tasmania, and there are believed to be fewer than 250 individuals left in the wild. They’re benthic ocean dwellers, meaning they live on the ocean floor, and they use their fins as “hands” to walk along the seafloor instead of swimming through the water.
Because of their unique locomotion, red handfish are estimated to travel only the length of a standard basketball court in a single year, making them especially vulnerable to habitat loss and destruction from invasive species, human disturbance, pollution, and warming waters. They are one of 14 species of handfish, not all of which are endangered, but they are among the most threatened marine fish groups in the world.
Driven by a passion for nature and conservation, Sartore designed the Photo Ark to create human connections with animals and inspire people to take action for our planet’s incredible and often imperiled wildlife before it’s too late.
INCREDIBLE FISH YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF: Endangered Pupfish Found Only in a Death Valley Cave Springs Back to Life in Numbers at 25-Year High
What started as one portrait of a naked mole-rat at the Lincoln Children’s Zoo in Lincoln, Nebraska, has evolved into a global endeavor of documenting the beauty and vulnerability of Earth’s biodiversity.
Filled with thousands of animal portraits on black-and-white backgrounds, the Photo Ark eliminates distractions and size comparisons, compelling viewers to look each animal in the eye.
WILDLIFE WONDERS: Family That Owned This ‘Wildlife Wonder of the World’ for 300 Years Sells Bass Rock to Protect 100,000 Seabirds
“The Photo Ark does so much more than raise awareness. It spurs real, on-the-ground conservation. Joel’s portraits drive a shift in attitudes, proving that when people truly connect with the beauty of these animals, they’re moved to protect them,” says Ian Miller, chief science and innovation officer at the National Geographic Society.
“The legacy of the Photo Ark isn’t just what Joel’s accomplished over these past two decades, but the tremendous possibilities for saving species as we look ahead to the next 20 years.”
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Highest Resolution View of the Sun Reveals Breaking Waves and Magnetic Mysteries
Scientists using Earth’s most powerful solar telescope have snapped a picture of the Sun’s surface that helped explain—for the first time—foundational physics about our dear star.
Situated atop the summit of Haleakalā, a volcano on the island of Maui, the Daniel Inouye Solar Telescope peered down onto the surface of the Sun. Captured in the data is proof that the plasma thereupon is subjected to the same physical force that causes waves to break and whirlpools to form down on Earth’s seas, or among Jupiter’s clouds.
Published in the journal Nature, the authors of a paper on the discovery said it carries “far-reaching implications for our understanding of the creation and dissipation of magnetic fields,” on the Sun’s photosphere.
“The vortex formation on the Sun has long been a central question in solar physics. For the first time, we have identified both their origin and their driving mechanism,” lead study author Dr. David Kuridze, assistant astronomer at the National Solar Observatory in Boulder, Colorado, wrote to CNN in an email.
The phenomenon is known as Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability.
“Although theoretical models had suggested that the right conditions for Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability could exist in the photosphere, seeing these structures widespread across the surface was still a huge surprise.”
The discovery promises a wealth of further information on the mechanics of solar flares and coronal mass ejections, phenomena which, when occurring in the direction of Earth, can interfere with satellite communications and power grids, cause the Northern and Southern lights, and even destroy electrical equipment.
It also could help scientists understand why the Sun’s outer atmosphere is hotter than its surface.
Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability occurs when two fluids moving at different speeds pass each other in different directions. The perturbations caused by the interaction form vortices. The images from the Inouye telescope mark the first time the phenomenon has been seen on the Sun.
NEW TELESCOPES: Greatest Spectroscope Ever Built Can Tell What 2,400 Cosmic Objects Are Made of Every 20 Mins.
Kuridze later told CNN to think of the vortices as small engines that drive magnetism, energy, and heat up from the surface to the Sun’s outer atmosphere. This occurs, in part, through flux braiding, another potential signature of the vortices.
The vortices have the power to intertwine lines of a magnetic field, which generate heat when they snap and reform. For their research, the scientists pointed the Inouye Telescope at a magnetically-active area next to a large Sunspot.
MORE SOLAR PHYSICS: This Stunning Perspective of the Sun and Moon Comes from New NASA Mission Set to Study Solar Wind
CNN reported that the general consensus in solar physics is that these small solar whirlpools are far more relevant to the formation and expression of massive and rare solar events than other signs in the lead up to those events.
The ultimate reward of this work would be the ability to interpret the formation and movements of the vortices as signs of future, larger events that could potentially affect Earth.
WATCH the whole video below…
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SeaWorld Completes Largest Captive Whale Transportation Operation in Nation’s History
SeaWorld San Antonio recently welcomed 7 rescued beluga whales, following a nearly 2,000 mile journey, as part of an urgent, unprecedented international effort to relocate 30 belugas from a closed marine park in Canada that can no longer support their care.
They join 2 rescued male belugas who arrived on July 21st as part of the first transport, and set a national record for the largest movement of captive cetaceans ever undertaken by a zoo or aquarium.
“Given this is the largest number of belugas being moved at one time, we are so happy that all went well and the second transport of this huge rescue effort is complete,” said Steve Aibel, Vice President, Animals and Conservation for SeaWorld San Antonio, who accompanied both transports.
“All seven female belugas are now at SeaWorld San Antonio. They are receiving veterinary care, nutrition and attention as they acclimate to their new environment.”
GNN reported on the previous group of belugas to depart captivity in Ontario towards ‘bluer’ pastures stateside, when 4 female belugas flew to Chicago via a Qatar Airways Boeing 777 container aircraft.
Kept harnessed onboard in specialized water containers with 24-hour veterinarian supervision, they arrived at the Abbott Oceanarium complex at Shedd Aquarium on July 22nd.
“Moving animals like beluga whales, even under the best of circumstances, is challenging,” Dan Ashe, president and CEO of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums which organized the move, and which also partnered with SeaWorld, told CBS News Chicago at the time.
For the 7 beluga whales that headed off towards San Antonio, the process was exactly the same, only more intense.
The 7 female whales who were chosen to move together in a sub-pod are named Xena, Gemini, Skyla, Meeka, Eve, Neva, and Calypso.
The whales are currently housed in a private habitat away from public view while animal care staff focus on their transition. Caretakers are letting each whale adjust at her own pace, watching closely for signs that they are eating well, resting comfortably, and beginning to interact with one another and their new surroundings.
MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: 30 Beluga Whales are Finally Being Rescued After 2 Years Waiting in Shuttered Theme Park
Frankie and Bertie Botts, the two male belugas who arrived 3 weeks ago from Canada, are doing well. They are getting to know their trainers and, at their own pace, are being socialized with the existing belugas at SeaWorld San Antonio.
For more than 40 years, SeaWorld has cared for beluga whales, building extensive expertise in animal care, veterinary medicine, behavioral research, and rescue response, leading to the establishment of one of the largest marine animal rescue organizations in the United States, having assisted more than 43,000 animals over its history.
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“Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others.” – Rosa Parks
Quote of the Day: “Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others.” – Rosa Parks
Photo by: Raychel Sanner (cropped)
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Good News in History, August 7
10 years ago today, Ichiro Suzuki joined the “3,000 Club” of collecting 3,000 hits across an MLB career in style, hitting a triple off the right-field wall of Coors Field against the Colorado Rockies. In doing so he also became the 7th player in MLB history to hit 3,000 and steal 500 bases in a career—such was his excellence. READ more… (2016)
Japanese Team Develops ‘Eco-Fireworks’ with Water-Soluble Shells to Cut Back on Debris
When a man who loves things that go ‘boom’ met a men who loves things that go ‘bloom,’ they realized there was much to gain from an alliance.
Hence, Ryukoku University professor Takahiko Nakaoki and president of Kakinoki Fireworks Industry Co. have created and brought to market what may be the world’s first water-soluble fireworks shells and canisters.
“Of the 20,000 fireworks (we plan to produce this year), I want 10,000 to be eco-friendly ones,” said President Hiroyuki Kakinoki, according to the Mainichi Shimbun.
Mr. Kakinoki met professor Nakaoki in 2018, when the former had been trying to R&D more environmentally friendly fireworks shells, but had then lately abandoned the effort due to repeated failures working with resins.
Rather than develop an entirely new material, the new shells use a water-soluble resin commonly applied to agricultural seeds and soil improvers. Becoming sloughy like hot caramel when wet, the shell can vanish into the ecosystem through this already-approved harmless medium, and no street-sweeper need be troubled in the days after a holiday.
A lot of Japanese fireworks shows occur near water bodies, like large rivers, lakes, or the ocean, meaning most casings will vanish within hours.
Kraft paper is used to keep moisture away from the shell in packaging and storage, but compared to previous use, the water-soluble fireworks will use about half as much paper.
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Locals Succeed in Tripling Protected Seascapes Along 300 Miles of Turkiye’s Breathtaking Coastline
From Turkiye’s Mediterranean shore comes the remarkable story of how a group of unsupported conservationists and fishermen received a helping hand from an NGO and restored 300 miles of coastline into a biodiverse marine paradise.
Parts of the area had already been designated as marine sanctuaries, but limited funding, lack of enforcement, disparate connectivity, and absence of local engagement saw its sharks, seals, and turtles vanishing, driven off by lack of food from illegal fishing.
Meanwhile, law-abiding fishing communities who depended on the area’s rich marine biodiversity were suffering reduced catches and lower incomes. Something had to change.
The Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Program (ELSP), a nonprofit born out of a Cambridge University conservation initiative and funded by the billion-pound Arcadia Fund UK, organized a grant program for a team of local Turkish environmentalists to try and take protection of the area into their own hands.
Armed with $3 million, their goal was to restore the bountiful seas between Gökova Bay and Cape Gelidonya, drive out illegal fishing operations, and protect several critical marine ecosystems including rocky Mediterranean coral beds and seagrass meadows. And it started in 2019.
The effort would be led by Turkish conservationist Zafer Kızılkaya, a man who’d go on to win the 2023 Goldman Environmental Prize for the work that ELSP was preparing to fund. Kızılkaya co-founded Akdeniz Koruma Derneği (Mediterranean Conservation Society) which would play a role in the work to come.
Unifying areas and actions
The first challenge for Kızılkaya and his team was whether they could replicate the ecosystem recovery already seen from his work advocating for the establishment of the country’s first community-managed MPA in Gökova Bay, in 2012.
The coal was to expand that success across another 100,000 acres of near-coast ecosystems spanning 6 individual marine protected areas (MPA) with legal protections under Turkish law. Each one harbored a special microenvironment, like a seagrass meadow or a coral reef, but they were separated by non-protected sea.
“If you only protect one area, eventually many species have to leave it. Fish migrate. Sharks migrate. Many species move seasonally. Once they leave that protected area, they are exposed to fishing pressure again,” Kızılkaya told ELSP’s Communications and Network Coordinator Iona Haines in a long-form interview.
The initiative’s key advantage was getting locals on board. Though some fishermen along the coast were skeptical about no-fishing zones, Kızılkaya simply brought along fishermen from Gökova, who’d already experienced the increase in catch sizes following the establishment of the bay’s MPA 7 years earlier.
Haines states that the project helped create or expand 18 no-fishing zones between 2019 and 2023 along the 310 miles of coastline, with special “highly protected” areas being added to the existing MPAs. This lead to a tripling of the total protected seascapes in Turkish territorial waters by 2020.
MORE INSPIRING MARINE CONSERVATION: Another Trawling Ban, Another Big Recovery for Sea Life
Next, the project recruited and trained locals to act as “marine rangers” after Turkish coast guard staff told the project team that between refugees, illegal immigration, smuggling, and human trafficking, there were no resources leftover to scare off illegal fishermen. These local marine rangers, however, knew very well where the illegal fishermen operated, and worked—sometimes at great personal peril—to drive them off in collaboration with local law enforcement. Illegal fishing fell 80% in the years that followed.
The shark and the seal
It was only a few years later that fishermen began to report increased catches, something that has been proven time and time again to occur in the fishable waters around MPAs.
Increased catches coincided with the return of sandbar sharks, and the Turkish coast is in fact the only part of the Mediterranean that acts as a home to sharks year-round. Also returning is the Endangered Mediterranean monk seal—over 30 so far call the area home.
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“Tourism has grown. The nUmber of boats visiting these areas has increased. There is still fishing pressure in many places, yet monk seal numbers have continued to rise. That tells us something important about what protection can achieve,” said Kızılkaya.
Still, Kızılkaya stressed that seals move. Sharks migrate. Species that reproduce in a protected area spill over into the wider environment and faced renewed threats. Attempting to address this, the Gökova Bay to Cape Gelidonya Project is now focused on establishing and protecting ecological corridors that link crucial habitat along this 310-mile coastline.
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Compared to 2012, the feeling is entirely different—and not just in the Med.
“There are now amazing projects all over the Mediterranean and all over the world. 15 years ago, it felt like everyone was working in isolation. Today there is a real community. People share ideas, learn from each other and support each other. We’ve seen fish populations return, we’ve seen communities benefit and we’ve seen species come back. That gives me hope.”
It’s not just conservationists either. Earlier this year, GNN interviewed a Turkish bird enthusiast who worked to stabilize the population of bald ibis that migrates to eastern Anatolia. He told of a generation growing up for the first time with enough wealth to care about the wild lands around them. Who could afford binoculars and telescopic camera lenses, and who were interested in safeguarding their country’s natural wonders.
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Town’s Beloved Santa Claus Delivers a Very Special Present to Someone in Need–His Donated Kidney
A man who dresses up every year as Santa Claus to spread Christmas cheer has just delivered a very special present.
Though central Virginia is far too hot for Santa’s reindeer to flyover, the gift couldn’t wait until December.
Dave Bell is well known as the town’s go-to Santa Claus, and has done so for years, lighting up children’s faces with smiles in Powhatan. Bell recently donated a kidney to an anonymous recipient, and wore the Santa hat on the hospital bed during recovery at Henrico Doctor’s Hospital.
“I have two of these things, and I only need one,” Bell said. “There’s somebody who has none and they need one.”
Though demonstrating his commitment to the Santa spirit and the spirit of Christmas besides, Bell now has a lot of work to do to get back into Santa-shape in time for the holidays; he had to shed 40 pounds to be eligible to donate.
“Stories like Dave’s make organ donation feel real and personal,” Dr. Amanda Bailey, transplant surgeon at the Virginia Transplant Center at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital, told WTVR.
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“They show that donation is possible and that one person can make an enormous difference in someone else’s life.”
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Over 100 Refill Stations for Home/Laundry Cleaners to Open Across Singapore at 30% Discount
A company which learned that Singapore’s recycling rates have “plateaued” around 11% is deploying over 100 refill machines for cleaning products around the city.
Reducing the cost of packaging has allowed the household product manufacturer Lam Soon to offer their Bio-Home line of goods at a 30% discount if filled up at the vending machine-style refill stations.
According to Lam Soon, in a report on the stations published in the Mothership, the national recycling rate in the city-state has plateaued at about 11% of waste—far from the government’s goal of 70% by 2030.
“Upstream” solutions—this is, changes in the supply chain before things become waste—are needed to cross the plateau, and Lam Soon, which manufacturers a variety of biodegradable home products including laundry detergent, dishwasher liquid, and floor cleaner, felt stocking the refill stations rather than store shelves would allow them to eliminate the opportunity for bottles to even become waste in the first place.
Because there’s no bottle or packaging, prices can be cut, while consumers can use their own, larger containers, over and over again. Indeed prices start at about SGD$4.80 per liter.
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To execute, Lam Soon invested $1 million into the hardware and tech startup Ecoworks, which designed the refill stations and is now working to install them across the city at over 100 locations. Already they can be found at 2 university campuses and a community center.
“Ecoworks has identified what is required for reuse to scale—convenient, standardized infrastructure in every neighborhood,” the company said.
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“Life is about choices. The message? We are what we chose to be.” – Graham Brown
Quote of the Day: “Life is about choices. The message? We are what we chose to be.” – Graham Brown
Photo by: Elmer Cañas
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Good News in History, August 6
100 years ago today, American Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim across the English Channel. Called “The Queen of the Waves,” she was an Olympic gold medalist, and former world record-holder in 5 events for which she received a ticker-tape parade on her return from the games in Paris in 1924. In 1925, the Women’s Swimming Association sponsored Helen Wainwright and Ederle in an attempt at swimming across the English Channel. Helen Wainwright cancelled due to an injury, but Ederle decided to try the crossing on her own. READ how it happened… (1926)
Used for Centuries as Poison, Larkspur, Wolfsbane May Become Medicine After Lab Breakthrough
Two famously toxic plants—known also to treat pain, malaria, cancer, and pests—may have had those medicinal properties synthesized in a lab for the first time.
The researchers behind the discovery believe “plants are the best chemists”—and their breakthrough demonstrates that next-generation drugs don’t need to come from chemists’ inventions.
Centered on the plants wolfsbane and larkspur, the discovery comes about through a collaboration between scientists at Michigan State University and the Czech Academy of Sciences, and is published in the journal Molecular Plant.
“These plants have been used in different forms of medicine throughout the world for thousands of years,” said MSU alum Garret Miller, co-first author of the paper and now an assistant professor of biotechnology at University of Michigan-Flint.
“We know they interreact with our bodies in so many ways, and understanding how to create them can help provide totally new routes of testing.”
“Plants are the best chemists around, upgrading their arsenal of natural compounds over millions of years to help them survive,” said Björn Hamberger, study author an Endowed Professor in MSU’s Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
At MSU, the Hamberger Lab explores these diverse compounds, better known as specialized metabolites, and how they can be leveraged for the greater good. History has shown they’re more than capable of the opposite, with wolfsbane possibly at the seen of multiple historic assassinations, including Socrates, Alexander of Macedon, and Cleopatra’s sister.
In more recent years his team had set their sights on larkspur—also called delphinium for its dolphin-shaped flowers—wanting to know exactly how the plant produced a mix of toxic-yet-promising chemicals known as diterpenoid alkaloids.
Diterpenoid alkaloids are the intersection of the two oldest and largest classes of plant chemicals on the planet, and researchers have faced an uphill battle to determine their mind-bendingly complex structures.
Despite being isolated nearly 200 years ago, one of the best-known compounds, aconitine, still hasn’t been successfully synthesized in a lab. The genesis of that discovery began serendipitously.
While attending a research conference in Barcelona, Hamberger crossed paths with scientists from the lab of Tomáš Pluskal at the Czech Academy of Sciences.
The Pluskal Group, including Lana Mutabdžija, a graduate student at the Czech Academy of Sciences and co-first author of the latest paper, were pursuing the same tricky diterpenoid alkaloids in a notoriously poisonous larkspur relative, wolfsbane, otherwise known as monkshood.
The two labs decided to join forces, before beginning the task of identifying the exact chemical pathway the two plants took to produce their diterpenoid alkaloids.
Because plants naturally produce specialized metabolites slowly and in tiny amounts, discovering these pathways is a vital step toward engineering plant chemistries that can tackle real-world, large-scale challenges.
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After solving a pathway, the unique genetic blueprints for a compound can be inserted into a specially engineered host organism, such as yeast. Through this bit of biohacking, the organism will begin producing the compound on its own in larger quantities, paving the way for expanded testing and development.
“In an ideal scenario, this could eventually help create new drugs inspired by these natural products,” said Mutabdžija.
Once the team narrowed down a promising set of genes in wolfsbane and larkspur, those genetic codes were inserted into tobacco plants, which acted as ready-made biofactories.
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When these tobacco plants were analyzed for the chemicals they’d been producing after being given new genes, the team found 6 unique enzymes that successfully created a diterpenoid alkaloid called atisinium.
These enzymes helped the compound fold into its complex final shape, and they facilitated the addition of a crucial and unexpected nitrogen source.
Knowing the initial biochemical steps needed to produce atisinium gives researchers a new foothold on the path to unlocking the potent, medicinal qualities found across the larger diterpenoid alkaloid family.
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