Quote of the Day: “In the Spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours.” – Mark Twain
Photo by: Diana Light for Unsplash+
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
85 years ago today, baseball’s Joe DiMaggio began his historic 56-game hitting streak—getting at least one hit in the next 56 consecutive games—a Major League record that still stands today and has been described as unbreakable. During the streak, which ended on July 17, ‘Joltin’ Joe’ hit .408 with 15 home runs and 55 runs batted in—and struck out only five times. The closest anyone has come to equaling the 27-year-old’s feat is Pete Rose in 1978, with hits in 44 straight games. Experts consider DiMaggio’s streak to be uniquely outstanding and a statistical near-impossibility. WATCH an awesome video tribute… (1941)
A new 3-day hiking trail is breathing life (and money) back into a historic valley in the Welsh countryside.
Famous for its valleys and its countryside, Wales is no stranger to hiking routes; the region has a robust rambling community and an existing famous trail that traces the Welsh coastline.
Now, meandering along the Teifi River, The Teifi Valley Trail allows hikers to experience 850 years of history, from the days of monastic hermitages to the industrial mill towns of the 19th century.
The following is taken from the itinerary on the trail’s website.
Originating in the Cambrian Mountains, the Teifi River drops quickly down to the 12th Century monastic ruins of Strata Florida. The trail then passes through farmland, a nature reserve and communities of varying sizes to reach the university town of Lampeter.
The middle stretch of the Teifi Valley introduces a mature meandering river, prone to flooding prompting diversions away from the river. The trail then passes through market and mill towns of old, harking back to the industrial heritage of the Valley.
The final stage of the trail offers waterfalls and wells, castles and ruined abbeys as well as fabulous riverside walking along the Teifi Gorge. Continue to the river estuary at Poppit Sands for the full trail experience.
“One of the main reasons for the trail is to get people with backpacks and boots down here to spend money,” trail organizer James Williams told the Guardian, whose correspondent walked the trail recently. “We’ve seen the economic effect the coastal paths have; we thought we could have a bit of that as well.”
The Teifi River used to be a substantial economic artery through the Welsh nation. It was critical for materials transportation and a robust fishing industry while the surrounding countryside was the heart of Welsh wool production.
According to the Guardian, virtually all those days are gone. What has been left instead is relatively quiet and unused beauty and heritage that is now getting the respect it deserves.
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One example is the Strata Florida Abbey, at one time the second-largest on the island of Great Britain, and known as the “Welsh Westminster.”
On day 3, along the final section, there are two antique stone bridges, and two castles. Inside one of these can be found another true charm of the route—local fables and myth. A local noblewoman known as Nest apparently bore King Henry I a son before being married off to a Norman lord.
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Nest’s cousin Owyn would eventually lay siege to the castle and attempt to kidnap Nest after falling madly in love with her.
All this and more—meandering creeks, rich birdlife, and ancient woodland—await the intrepid hiker.
SHARE This Great Reason To Skip London For Wales…
Litter across America has declined 34% since 2020, according to a new report from the Charity Keep America Beautiful.
The report reckons that every American’s share of litter along roadways and waterways has fallen over that time from 152 pieces to 96.
Decades ago, GNN founder Geri Weis-Corbley organized a local spring cleanup along her neighborhood’s country roads every year when she was raising kids.
“I can tell, looking at the roads now, that littering is way down because I live in the same neighborhood and there aren’t any organized cleanups anymore.”
The study, which updates the groundbreaking Keep America Beautiful (KAB) 2020 National Litter Study, is the most extensive research conducted in US history to estimate the scope, scale, causes and impacts of litter. KAB states that it provides both a progress report and a roadmap for where urgent action on litter is still needed as the country approaches its 250th Birthday.
By the numbers, roadway litter declined 22% (from 23.7 billion to 18.4 billion pieces), while waterway litter fell 45% (from 25.9 billion to 14.2 billion pieces).
The declines are being driven by a combination of factors: education that shapes behavior, strong local programs and enforcement, better infrastructure and access to waste systems and increased public engagement from businesses, organizations, governments and individuals.
“This study proves what we’ve always believed: litter is solvable when people, systems and partners work together,” said Jennifer Lawson, President and CEO of Keep America Beautiful.
“The declines show us what’s possible when communities act with urgency and commitment. But our work is far from done. With 35 billion pieces of litter still out there and new types emerging, we must scale what’s working, close the remaining gaps in infrastructure and access and continue building on this momentum.”
Nearly 90% of Americans feel personal responsibility to reduce litter, and 93% agree it’s a shared community responsibility among those polled for the study.
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The study reveals how litter reflects the changing rhythms of American life. Cardboard litter is up 50% as online shopping reshapes consumer habits. PPE litter—masks and gloves that surged during the pandemic—is down 76%, while e-cigarette litter has spiked along vaping trends. Overall plastic litter is declining.
“Litter tells the story of how we live,” said David Scott, PhD, SVP of Data and Research at Keep America Beautiful. “Right now, it’s telling a story of progress, but it’s also showing us exactly where we need to focus next.
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“Without sustained effort and smarter strategies, these gains could be reversed. We must continue to act with urgency, double down on what’s working and tackle the challenges that remain.”
The newest insight from the study is the density of litter along America’s coastal areas. Coastal litter, estimated nationally for the first time, is dramatically higher compared to roadway and waterway litter. Coastal zones contain 8-13 times more litter per mile than inland environments, highlighting the need for a tailored strategy to address this problem.
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Iraq has undertaken substantial preservation work on the ancient Ziggurat of Ur to protect it from the elements of a changing climate.
One of the most recognizable examples of Sumerian architecture, it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site that stands at extreme risk of erosion and damage.
Ur is one of the oldest urban settlements known, with the earliest Sumerian period of habitation dating back to 3,800 BCE. Its earliest street plan stretched about 18 hectares, but would grow 9-times that size under its most powerful dynasty.
The ziggurat was constructed in the 21st century BCE, when it measured 210 feet in length, 148 feet in width, and perhaps could have stood 98 feet tall, though scientists don’t know for certain. It was built of air-dried mudbrick and bitumen and functioned as a temple to the patron deity of Ur, the moon god Namma.
Seen in the video below, and in the photo above, the monumental facade and staircases date back to a preservation that was undertaken by the deposed and deceased Saddam Hussein, but which don’t cover all of the original brick layers.
It actually was restored one before Hussein—in the 6th century BCE by the Neo-Babylonian King Nabonidus.
The Iraqi government has budgeted around $382,000 for new conservation work to protect the exposed upper sections of the original ziggurat.
MONUMENTAL PRESERVATION:
Across the world, low and middle income countries are restoring and preserving their heritage sites and ancient monuments, often with gaudy elements of mass-produced modernity. In comparison, the preservationists at Ur are making every effort to ensure the work is does as authentically as possible.
“For the paving bricks, a sample was taken from the ziggurat and a replica of the original was made containing the same chemical materials and physical properties,” said archaeologist Khadim Hassoun Honaein, a senior member of the conservation team.
“Regarding the mud, it was handmade on site in Ur and the clay was taken from an environment similar to that of the Ur ancient city.”
The northern side of the ziggurat has proven exceptionally vulnerable in recent decades to wind and sand erosion, and will feature as a principle target in the preservation work.
WATCH the story below…
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When Mr. Carl Craft nearly died from a brain hemorrhage, he and his wife Dawn reviewed their bucket list. Carl wanted to travel, Dawn said she wanted to go to medical school.
“He thought I was crazy,” she said.
Now though, Dawn Zuidgeest-Craft proudly carries a doctorate in medicine after finishing as the school’s oldest-ever graduate at 72 years old.
The doctoral dream took root from the earliest periods of Zuidgeest-Craft’s life, and would blossom into a career as a nurse practitioner and pediatric educator. It was a career she enjoyed even while marrying and giving birth to two children.
For the sake of them, Zuidgeest-Craft put her medical school ambition on hold—at least until her 40s, she thought. Then she got divorced and remarried before she and her new husband—Carl—decided to start their own family. Zuidgeest-Craft spent the decade raising two more children.
The dream of medical school gradually faded until Carl suffered his brain hemorrhage, at which point Dawn realized it had to happen now, or, as the phrase goes, never.
Digging into her retirement savings, Zuidgeest-Craft paid the tuition for St. James School of Medicine in Anguilla, the Caribbean, where the institution waives the requirement for a Medical College Admission Test.
It wasn’t a straightforward process, and the senior scholar wouldn’t have hoped or imagined failing the biochemistry exam during year 1, but with the support of her husband Carl and the classmates who all remember her fondly from their dorm living, movie nights, and yoga sessions on the beach, Zuidgeest-Craft kept going.
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It took clinical rotations in Chicago and West Virginia, and a stint in South Texas where a medical professional encouraged her—based on aptitude—to seek out a residency program, for Zuidgeest-Craft to graduate with her doctorate this month, not long in advance of her 73rd Birthday.
“When you have to do it for work… you feel like, ‘I got to do this so that I can pay my rent,’” Zuidgeest-Craft, who has three grandchildren, told the Washington Post. “I want to do this because I really enjoy this.”
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“I feel alive when I work in the medical field.”
She will begin her residency at Trinity Health Medical Center in Muskegon, Michigan this year.
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Quote of the Day: “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth.” – Muhammad Ali
Photo by: Jacki Drexler
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
Happy Birthday to director-screenwriter George Lucas who turns 81. Receiving 5 Oscar nominations (including Best Picture) for his 1973 debut film American Graffiti proved that he could write and direct, and producing the groundbreaking science fiction franchise Star Wars proved he could create a cultural phenomenon worth billions of dollars. He also dreamed up Indiana Jones, played by Harrison Ford in the blockbuster 1980’s trilogy that opened with Raiders of the Lost Ark. READ about his surprising background… (1944)
The European Parliament has agreed on the bloc’s first set of rules governing animal welfare that will cut out harmful breeding and ownership practices.
The vote came in with 558 in favor, 35 against, and with 52 abstentions. It has already been green lit by the European Council, and will enter into effect for breeders and organizations that sell or adopt animals after the next 4 years.
The law will ban all breeding practices that result in physical deformation for aesthetic appeal, including for “exaggerated traits.” As for which breeds that might involve, the law did not make any stipulations.
It states that “breeding strategies motivated by marketing objectives can result in certain types of dogs and cats developing ‘excessive conformational traits.'”
“Since such excessive conformational traits can lead to significant health problems for the dogs and cats concerned, breeders should exclude them from breeding programs.”
Whether that means the pug or the bulldog, or frankly most domesticated purebred cat breeds for that matter, are now illegal to breed, may very well be something for the courts to determine over the next decade.
Additionally as regards breeding, any inbreeding practice either of first order relatives or those once removed, as well as hybridization with non-domestic animals, will be prohibited.
Beyond breeding, substantial text was given in the law to laying out all the documented situations through which cats and dogs enter the European Union market through channels where animal welfare is not the priority, and where future exchanges will be regulated through welfare requirements.
This includes coming from ex-Union countries that have no established animal welfare rules, from unscrupulous breeders posing as private owners simply putting their animals out for adoption, or very scrupulous breeders who take in animals from breeders, shelters, or persons, where animal welfare standards were not observed.
Regarding animal welfare and exactly what that term means, the Union adopted the “five domains” concept of nutrition, physical environment, health, behavioral interactions, and mental state when determining welfare conditions. The objective is not only the elimination of detrimental conditions, but the guarantee of enriching conditions.
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The law also prohibits tethering a dog or a cat to an object, except when necessary for medical treatment, and the use of prong and choke collars without built-in safety mechanisms.
It also includes common-sense provisions, such releasing citizens from responsibility for dogs and cats that live “symbiotically” on farms or in other rural areas and which generate value through pest control or other means but which do not live domestically, as well as in cases of scientific research for the purposes of testing veterinary medicine.
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US law regarding these practices vary wildly, but will generally conform or at least acknowledge the USDA Animal Welfare Act which includes requirements for licensing based on the number of breeding females or for selling dogs “sight unseen.”
22 states actually have laws on the books to prevent legislation being created that target individual dog breeds for any purpose, though this is generally advocated by those seeking to protect breeds considered “dangerous” from legal discrimination, and who may dispute the nature of any dog as dangerous when it enjoys a proper upbringing and domestic life.
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In 2019, the Chinese megalopolis of Shanghai began a full-steam-ahead approach to reducing solid waste generation in the city.
In that year, some 26,000 metric tons of waste was produced every day, but after 6 years of intensive investment, messaging, and habit-forming, the household recycling rate is up 10%, with 35 to 45% of all waste now finding its way to the proper collection facilities.
45% may not seem like much compared to some European successes—like that of Romania—but Shanghai is home to 25 million people, big enough to accommodate the Romanian capital of Bucharest 11 times over.
Other successes in this effort to reduce waste are more noteworthy, for example solid industrial waste has been reduced 98% in a triumph of efficiency.
Leading the way are firms like CSMET, a new materials enterprise in the city’s Jinshan district where the firm combines extra aluminum cuttings churned out by the manufacturing sector with household aluminum waste to create new aluminum products.
“We practice the concept of ‘solid waste in, resources out,’ turning waste aluminum into new resources,” said Chen Nan, vice-president of the company, who estimated that 36 million tons of CO2 and its equivalents have been prevented by the company, which use 130,000 tons of aluminum scraps and recycled items every year.
CSMET is outside the city center where much of the fabrication and manufacturing occurs, so collection is simple. Shanghai’s authorities have relied on sometimes small, “in-the-area operations” to reduce the logistical strain of moving waste around the city that’s more than thrice the area of Houston Texas.
In the district of Hongkou, a pilot composting operation is turning 220 pounds of organic household waste per day into fertilizer using microbial digestion. Lei Guoxing, a local community leader, spoke with China Daily on how it’s performing.
“Now, with kitchen waste being transformed into fertilizer for plants at their doorsteps, residents can directly experience how waste is turned into treasure… reinforcing their habit of waste sorting,” Lei said.
When the changes were being rolled out in 2019, fines for improperly sorted waste increased 10-fold for businesses, while residents could find their trash still sitting on the roadside if the collection workers determined it wasn’t sorted.
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Four simple categories of recyclables, hazardous waste, organic waste, and residual waste were established and new bins and vehicles were commissioned to help differentiate these.
Various restrictions on single-use, nonrecyclable objects like disposable slippers in hotels and disposable tea cups in offices came into place. This resulted in a boom for companies specializing in manufacturing eco-friendly disposable products.
One, Bluepha, utilizes used kitchen oil or “gutter oil,” a disgusting and rather unique source of urban pollution from street food vendors, as a source of carbon for the production of polyhydroxyalkanoates, or PHAs, which can then be used to make disposable tableware like take-away containers and flatware. The oils in this case are replacing petroleum products.
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Each metric ton of kitchen waste oil can produce 0.67 to 0.8 tons of PHA, generating about $4,360 in value, or 4-times as much as if the oil went to make biodiesel. China Daily reported that the company claims replacing 1 ton of traditional plastic with 1 ton of PHA can reduce 1.54 tons in pollutant emissions, and their products are catching on worldwide, including in McDonald’s global packaging supplier TMS.
It’s not surprising then that out of a national waste management score of 100, Shanghai scored 86.9—the highest for a city of its size in the country.
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With the flourish of a pen, the President of Greece recently signed into law a new marine protected area at the national level around Gyaros, an uninhabited island in the Cyclades that hosts the world’s largest colony of Mediterranean monk seals.
These seals are among the most endangered marine mammals in the world, and despite Gyaros being used as a naval targeting range by the post-independence Greek navy, they continue to breed and thrive on the island.
Until now, protections thereupon have been provincial in scope, with limited enforcement power. Under the new marine protection law, authority over Gyaros will come under the cooperation of the coast guard and the Ministry for Environment and Climate Change.
Beyond monk seals, Gyaros is recognized as a biodiversity hotspot in the Aegean, with threatened shearwaters and ample pelagic life.
Gyaros was used as a place of exile since Roman times, and in the Satires, the Roman poet Juvenal references it in a piece dedicated to Alexander of Macedon.
One globe was not enough for the youth from Pella,
He seethed within the narrow confines of the world,
as if he were hemmed in by the cliffs of Gyara…
This reputation for inhospitable confines proceeded up until the 20th century when a detention center was built to house political prisoners. Gyaros’ fortunes changed when starting in 2013, the Greek City Times wrote, the World Wildlife Fund Greece began extensive ecological work the protect endemic species and restore habitat.
GREEK BITES:
WWF Greece applauded the decision to create the marine protected area, calling it a “decisive milestone.”
“This ensures the long-term preservation of the island’s natural wealth, while also supporting local communities in the Northern Cyclades,” the organization said.
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As GNN has reported before, Britain loves her butterflies, and this black-veined beauty is getting special attention as it prepares to re-establish itself across the island.
Extinct in the UK since the early 20th century due to land-use changes, habitat loss, and harsher weather due to climate change, the black-veined white butterfly seems set for a return thanks to a reintroduction project.
The work has been organized by the Knepp Wildland Foundation, the nonprofit arm of Britain’s most famous rewilding project on Knepp Estate in West Sussex, where a struggling landowner turned his family’s failing ancestral farm into one of the most biodiverse places in England.
The mosaic of newly-naturalized wooded grasslands teems with animals, including large concentrations of endangered birds like nightingales, and insect species like the purple emperor butterfly.
The black-veined white butterfly is still widespread across continental Europe, and for the reintroduction program larvae were flown from France in special containers. They overwintered in flight cages in Devon where they’ve been monitored by Knepp’s partner Ambios Ltd.
The work is an ongoing collaboration between Ambios, Butterfly Conservation, The Zoological Society of London, and Natural England.
Early signs suggest the insects are doing well, growing as would be expected on hawthorn and blackthorn shrubs that make up their diet and habitat.
This is especially encouraging since, according to Bird Guides UK, several attempts to reintroduce this butterfly have failed.
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Prior to the importation, Knepp Wildland Foundation carried out extensive climate and environment studies to ascertain whether conditions across Southern England, and Britain more broadly, would be appropriate for these Lepidopterans after such a long absence.
If all goes the plan, future operations will try to connect the population to ancestral hotspots like Devon and the south coast, where Knepp is already hard at work restoring the butterfly’s homeland.
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Quote of the Day: “Let the hurt soften you instead of hardening you.” – Bryant McGill
Photo by: Jacki Drexler
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
Happy 70th Birthday to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the spiritual leader and founder of the Art of Living Foundation. Born in India, he traveled with his teacher Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, giving talks on Vedic science, and setting up Transcendental Meditation and Ayurveda centers. Emphasizing that joy is only available in the present moment, he tries to create a world free of stress and violence. In 1992, he started a practical prison program to rehabilitate inmates and help them reintegrate into society. He has worked for peace in more than six countries, including the Kashmir-India region. LEARN more and WATCH his video: ‘Don’t analyze yourself too much’… (1956)
In South Africa, a coordinated series of projects has removed dangerous infestations of invasive species from 13,000 acres of important native habitat.
Between 2017 and 2025, groups working under the banner of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) embarked on a series of efforts targeting invasive alien species through a combination of habitat restoration, biological control, invasive-species management, and community-based conservation methods.
Invasive and alien species of plants and animals cost the African continent’s crop, fisheries, livestock, and eco-tourism industries some $65 billion annually. Summarized in a report on the 3-pronged assault on invasive trees and non-native fish, the IUCN found that the broader the approach, the better the results.
In the Western Cape region, the removal of invasive maritime pine trees through controlled burning and manual clearing on the Klein Swartberg Mountain restored over 8,500 acres of habitat for the Critically-Endangered rough moss frog (Arthroleptella rugosa). The thirsty pines’ ability to soak up water was rapidly depleting wetlands these frogs depended on.
The dense stands of pines also greatly increased the risk of catastrophic wildfires, which would ultimately prove to be their undoing, as conservationists from the IUCN-affiliated Endangered Wildlife Trust utilized a controlled burn that eliminated the pines. Post-burn field surveys uncovered 6 previously-unknown subpopulation strongholds for this frog.
In a similar story, manual clearing of invasive Eucalyptus and Acacia trees in Cape Town’s Tokai Park helped re-establish native fynbos vegetation needed for another amphibian, the western leopard toad, while providing hands-on ecological restoration training for young conservationists.
Just as the pines on Klein Swartberg disrupted the soil hydrology, these trees disrupted the soil microenvironment that the native trees had evolved to flourish in. The Tokai situation was critical because the loss of native vegetation threatened the Cape Flats Sand Fynbos ecosystem, a unique and highly biodiverse vegetation type found only in the Cape Floral Region.
Undertaken by Friends of Tokai Park, 12 acres were manually cleared of Eucalyptus and Acacia by a team of professionals and interns who then planted 4,500 native seedlings. The operation was a success, with invasive vegetation decreasing 22% and native vegetation recovering 28%.
The third story of triumph against invaders also came from the Western Cape. The Clanwilliam sandfish (Labeo seeberi) project applied a “rescue–rear–release” method combined with alien-fish removal to create predator-free freshwater sanctuaries, resulting in a doubling of spawning populations in the Biedouw River.
The Clanwilliam sandfish is South Africa’s most-endangered migratory freshwater fish, and predation by invasive species like bass and bluegill has severely diminished the survival rate of the juvenile sandfish.
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Because the animal lives its whole life on the move, it’s impossible to conserve it in-situ, as even beyond the reach of bass and bluegill, land-use changes, agricultural runoff, dams, and other hazards would simply put the sandfish at risk again further along its range.
Instead, animals were rescued from highest-risk wild areas and raised in controlled, predator-free environments managed by the Freshwater Research Center, where they could mature to a size that made them too big for the invasives to eat.
Later monitoring of spawning migrations in the Biedouw River recorded a substantial increase from 78 migrating individuals in 2020 to 180 in 2021, indicating a strong positive response to the approach that included eliminating bluegill and bass with nets whenever possible.
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Global conservation dollars towards combatting native species are often spent on islands, which are by nature contained systems that can easily be controlled. Continent-scale landscapes are at far greater threats from invasive species which can spread in all directions and beyond capable jurisdictions.
The report published by the IUCN was an attempt to show that combatting invasive and alien species is possible provided the effort involve as many stakeholders as possible, and employ the most comprehensive strategy of elimination, restoration, and control as can be afforded and implemented.
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After a major drop in violent crime, Jamaicans should be set to earn something of a “peace dividend” said the island’s Minister of National Security and Peace, Dr. Horace Chang.
The drop was much of the island’s own making, as it was characterized by record numbers of police tips, many of which were submitted without request for posted rewards.
Tips increased by 94% last year while homicides fell 40%. Jamaica is famously violent, and 2024 saw over 1,100 murders. The 2025 total of 673 is the first time since 1993 that total annual murders came in at below 700.
Dr. Chang was addressing the 2026 Sectoral Debate in Parliament, and said that the flood of tips shows that islanders are standing up for their communities, leaving the tip reward money on the table for reasons of “patriotism.”
“This shows that it is not about money. It is about patriotism. It is about trust. It is about citizens taking a stand for their communities. This is something we must celebrate,” said Chang, who is also the deputy prime minister.
“This partnership between citizens and law enforcement is one of the strongest signals that Jamaica is not only becoming safer, but that Jamaicans themselves are leading that change.”
The peace dividend he mentioned will be safer streets, better opportunities for children and businesses, and stronger, intact families.
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According to Chang, a major cause for the decline in homicides has been advancements in port and border control, featuring enhanced cargo screening to ferret out illicit firearms and ammunition.
With a homicide rate of 23 per 100,000 residents, Jamaica has majorly improved from its position as one of the most violent countries in the world, and while it still ranks among the more violent nations of the world, it’s now one of the safer countries in the region—Central and South America and the Caribbean—where national murder rates are the highest anywhere on the planet.
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An offshore wind power firm has developed a prototype turbine that hosts a 12-megawatt data center within its ballast tanks.
The demands of AI computing have driven data center developers to seek creative solutions when building these incredibly power-hungry installations.
One is to build them into floating offshore installations where renewable energy can be gathered to power them, and where the cold ocean waters can disperse the heat generated by the data banks.
Wind power company Aikido has developed a novel data bank/wind turbine product that will be deployed in the North Sea as a prototype in 2027. With 100 KWh of computing power, it will test whether or not Aikido’s design can work effectively to disperse heat and resist the famously corrosive marine environment.
“We have this power from the wind. We have free cooling. We think we can be quite cost competitive compared to conventional data-center solutions,” Aikido CEO Sam Kanner told IEEE Spectrum.
“This crunch in the next five years is an opportunity for us to prove this out and supply AI compute where it’s needed.”
If the prototype works, a full-scale device could be deployed by 2028. The design piggybacks off of state-of-the-art, floating, offshore wind turbines. Rather than being drilled into the seabed, the installation will float on the waves supported by a tripod of ballast tanks that extend 60 feet down into the sea.
The bottom two-thirds of the tanks will be filled with freshwater to keep the structure upright, while the top third will be where the data banks are stored. Fresh water is pumped up to a combination safety-cooling chamber that divides the two units, where it will quickly absorb the heat from the devices.
Afterwards the water will be pumped back to the bottom of the ballast tank and disperse the heat into the colder marine environment.
Data centers currently suffer from a “not-in-my-backyard” phenomenon on land. Their incredible rate of energy consumption has been found to drive up local electricity costs, while they also require substantial amounts of land and cooling power. There is noise pollution complaints as well.
As a result of these obstacles, developers are looking more and more at how to build a data center without community input—far offshore is one solution, another one is even crazier: outer space.
Orbital is a space startup looking to transfer humanity’s computing power into Earth’s orbit where the frigid vacuum of space would deal with the cooling issue, and unlimited power from the Sun would generate the electricity.
Orbital’s first satellite is set for a 2027 launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, aiming to validate GPU operations in space and support AI inference workloads with no demand for real estate or grid-level power demand.
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Current data center footprints in just the US consume 75 gigawatt hours of electricity, and this is expected under economic conditions without a recession to grow to 135 gigawatt hours by the end of the decade. Only nuclear power, it’s believed, is dense and modular enough to satisfy these requirements.
In space, the solar constant of 1,361 Watts/m² is uninterrupted by Earth’s reflection, particle scattering, and weather conditions. That power is limitless, predictable, and guaranteed, allowing for precise, deliverable computing without any interruption.
The idea seems to reflect the early stage of the “Dyson sphere” concept put forward in the 1960s by renowned British American physicist Freeman Dyson.
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His idea was that, similarly to how metal smelting marked the end of the Stone Age and the start of the Bronze Age, all advanced civilizations would eventually harness the power of the star at the center of their home star system.
They would likely build a sphere, Dyson wrote, consisting of “a loose collection or swarm of objects traveling on independent orbits around the star.”
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In a small slice of good news from a far corner of Europe, native fish are swimming freely on an important river after conservationists removed a wartime concrete obstruction.
The Pchinja River runs 80 miles through North Macedonia and into Serbia, but more than 40 miles of its path were interrupted by a mound of concrete built to allow battle tanks to cross the river during World War II.
Located in the Northeast corner of the country near its second largest city of Kumanovo, the barrier had slowed the water flow such that stagnation, depletion of oxygen, and buildup of pollutants and garbage had significantly degraded the water quality.
According to local environmental group Eco Awareness, the Kumanovo Municipality finally began work to remove the obstacle last October with the help of the national environmental authorities.
“This is the largest obstacle that has been removed so far in Macedonia, but also in Europe,” says Ana Čolović Lesoska from Eco-awareness.
“The public opinion poll conducted by the Brima agency in October 2025 shows that 91% of the population supports the removal of unnecessary river barriers. This shows a strong awareness of the health of rivers and the need to preserve them.”
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As a result of the removal, 40 miles of the Pchinja River have been released to flow freely once again into the larger river systems downhill before the Pchinja meets the Vardar River in Greece.
Eco Awareness wrote that it had identified some 45 dams and other obstructions on the river that are no longer fit for purpose and should probably be removed. The group added that across Europe, derelict and redundant dams are being removed constantly, with some 525 demolished over the past few decades.
Under the banner of the Open Rivers Program supported by the EU, Eco Awareness aims to receive support in a campaign to remove all of these barriers and return the Pchinja River to a free-flowing and wild state.
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475 years ago today, the National University of San Marcos was founded in Lima, Peru. It is considered the most prestigious center of learning in the country, and is the oldest continually operating university in the Americas. Hardly existing as a relic, and much like Oxford and Cambridge, this antique institution leads the country’s education sector in scientific papers published, and twenty-one presidents, five candidates for Nobel Prizes of Physics, Literature, and Peace—of the total of six Peruvians nominated between 1901 and 1964, and a Nobel Prize winner—Mario Vargas Llosa, have been graduates and/or professors at San Marcos. READ more about what this special university contains… (1551)
