Quote of the Day: “There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” – Zora Neale Hurston
Photo by: Austin Human
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?
A new study evaluated a low-cost yet effective way to combat bacterial resistance using curcumin–the natural yellow plant compound in turmeric.
In 2017, a tragic death in a Nevada hospital was linked to a new strain of bacteria that had developed a resistance to 26 different antibiotics. Called ‘superbugs’, such antibiotic-resistant bacteria (including MRSA) remains a pressing public health threat.
Now researchers at Texas A&M University have shown that curcumin, the compound that gives turmeric its characteristic bright yellow color, can be used to reduce this antibiotic resistance.
They showed that when curcumin is intentionally given to bacteria as food, and then activated by light, it can trigger deleterious reactions within these microbes, eventually killing them. They demonstrated that this process reduces the number of antibiotic-resistant strains and renders conventional antibiotics effective again.
The results of the study were published this week in the journal Scientific Reports.
“We need alternative ways to either kill the superbugs or find a novel way to modify natural processes within the bacteria so that antibiotics start to act again,” said Dr. Vanderlei Bagnato, professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and senior author on the study.
Photodynamic inactivation, a technique that has shown promise in combating bacterial resistance, uses light and light-sensitive molecules, called photosensitizers, to produce reactive oxygen species that can kill microorganisms by disrupting their metabolic processes.
In the new experiments, the team used curcumin, which is also a natural food for bacteria. They tested this technique on strains of Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) that are resistant to amoxicillin, erythromycin, and gentamicin.
The researchers exposed the bacteria to many cycles of light exposure and then compared the minimum concentration of antibiotics needed to kill the bacteria after light exposure versus those that did not get light exposure.
“When we have a mixed population of bacteria where some are resistant, we can use photodynamic inactivation to narrow the bacterial distribution, leaving behind strains that are more or less similar in their response to antibiotics,” Bagnato told Texas A&M News.
“It’s much easier now to predict the precise antibiotic dose needed to remove the infection.”
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The team noted that photodynamic inactivation using curcumin has tremendous potential as an adjuvant or additional therapy with antibiotics for diseases, like pneumonia, caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
“Photodynamic inactivation offers a cost-effective treatment option, which is crucial for reducing medical expenses not only in developing countries but also in the United States,” said Dr. Vladislav Yakovlev, professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and author on the study. “It also has potential applications in military medicine, where this technology could be used to treat battlefield wounds and prevent the development and spread of antimicrobial resistance, a significant concern in combat situations.”
DON’T RESIST: Share The Alternative Medicine News On Social Media…
A father in Fort Worth, Texas, was left in tears after a stranger paid for his family’s breakfast and wrote a heartfelt message on the receipt.
The 41-year-old was enjoying a morning out for breakfast with his wife and three children at Mimi’s Cafe when he earned the shout-out from a secret admirer.
As they were getting ready to pay, the waitress unexpectedly told Dr. J. Mack Slaughter that their $85 bill had already been settled.
She handed him the receipt and he was stunned to find a handwritten note on the bill which said ‘Thank you for being a great dad’.
When he flipped the receipt over, J. Mack found another message from the stranger, rich with compliments:
“From a dad to dad.
“Thank you for being the dad they need you to be regardless of who’s watching.
“We need more men like you. Thank you for letting us all see your love for them all.”
It was signed, ‘from, a retired Army Medic’.
The Emergency Room physician told news agency SWNS.com, “I immediately welled up.”
“I couldn’t control my tears.
“There was nobody watching for my reaction—(as) the person was already gone. It was just pure kindness.”
The dad, who was wearing his hospital scrubs, had been playing a simple dot game with his kids at the café and had no idea someone was observing him.
After regularly witnessing tragic events at work, he said the act restored his faith in humanity.
“I see some of the most terrible things in the world but this reminded me that complete strangers can do miraculous, beautiful things when you least expect it.
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“It was just $85 to them, but to me it was so much more.
“These random acts of kindness are so powerful; they remind us that despite all the bad in the world, there’s so much good, too.
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“It just restores your faith in people,” he concluded.
INSPIRE MORE FAITH By Sharing the Heartwarming Story On Social Media…
Scientists have found evidence that classical music can calm the heart rate of unborn babies, potentially providing developmental benefits.
The American Institute of Physics published research from a multi-disciplinary team in Mexico studying the effect of classical music on a fetal heartbeat. They used mathematical analysis tools to identify patterns in heart rate variability.
Typical measures of heart rate are an average of several beats across multiple seconds, whereas ‘heart rate variability’ measures the time between the beats.
The research team explained that the measure can provide insight into the maturation of the fetal autonomic nervous system, with greater variability often indicating healthier development.
To test the effects music can have on fetal heart rate, the team recruited 36 pregnant women in Mexico and played a pair of classical pieces for their unborn babies — The Swan by French composer Camille Saint-Saëns and Arpa de Oro by Mexican composer Abundio Martínez.
By attaching external heart rate monitors, the research team could measure the fetal heart rate response to both songs. And, by employing nonlinear recurrence quantification analysis, they could identify changes in heart rate variability during and after the music was played.
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“Overall, we discovered that exposure to music resulted in more stable and predictable fetal heart rate patterns,” said Dr. Claudia Lerma, of the National Institute of Cardiology in Mexico, who co-authored the published study.
“This momentary effect could stimulate the development of the fetal autonomic nervous system.”
For expectant parents at home, the researchers suggest that classical music could help promote fetal development.
“Our results suggest that these changes in fetal heart rate dynamics occur instantly in short-term fluctuations, so parents might want to consider exposing their fetuses to quiet music,” explained study author Professor Eric Abarca-Castro.
“Parents who play soothing music may stimulate and benefit the fetal autonomic system.”
The authors plan to continue to explore this effect, looking at different genres and types of music to further their understanding.
“To ascertain whether rhythmic or cultural variations elicit distinct fetal cardiac responses, we intend to increase the size of our sample and expand our investigation to include a variety of musical styles beyond classical pieces,” says co-author Dr. José Reyes-Lagos.
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INSPIRE PREGNANT FRIENDS By Sharing On Social Media…
Our partner Rob Brezsny, who has a new book out, 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 February 8, 2025
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Born under the sign of Aquarius, Clyde Tombaugh discovered the heavenly body known as Pluto in 1930. This was years before he earned advanced degrees in astronomy. His early education was primarily self-directed. The telescopes he used to learn the sky were built from tractor parts and old car components from his father’s farm. During the coming months, I surmise there will be elements of your life resembling Tombaugh’s story. Your intuition and instincts will bring you insights that may seem unearned or premature. (They’re not!) You will garner breakthroughs that seem to be arriving from the future.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
One of the world’s deepest caves is Veryovkina in the nation of Georgia. At its lowest, it’s 7,257 feet down. There are creatures living there that are found nowhere else on earth. I propose we make it your symbolic power spot for now. In my astrological opinion, you will be wise to dive further into the unknown depths than you have in quite some time. Fascinating mysteries and useful secrets await you. Your motto: “Go deeper and deeper and deeper.”
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
The world’s largest mirror isn’t an actual mirror. It’s Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni salt flat, a vast area that’s almost perfectly flat. After a rain, a thin layer of calm water transforms the surface into a perfect reflector that can be used to calibrate observation satellites. In these conditions, it may be almost impossible to tell where the earth begins and the sky ends. I foresee metaphorically similar developments for you during the coming weeks. Boundaries between different aspects of your world—professional and personal, spiritual and practical—might blur in interesting ways. A temporary dissolution of the usual limits may offer you surprising insights and unexpected opportunities for realignment. Be alert for helpful clues about how to adjust the way you see things.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
From day to day, glaciers appear static. But they are actually slow-moving rivers of ice that have tremendous creative power. They can make or reshape valleys, moving tons of dirt and rock. They pulverize, grind, and topple trees, hills, and even mountains. New lakes may emerge in the course of their activity. I invite you to imagine yourself as a glacier in the coming months, Taurus. Exult in your steady transformative power. Notice and keep track of your slow but sure progress. Trust that your persistence will ultimately accomplish wonders and marvels.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
In recent weeks, have you stirred up any dynamic fantasies about exotic sanctuaries or faraway places or mercurial wild cards? Have you delivered enticing messages to inspiring beauties or brave freedom-fighters or vibrant networkers? Have you been monitoring the activities of long-shots or future helpers or unification adepts who might be useful to you sooner than you imagine? Finally, Gemini, have you noticed I’m suggesting that everything important will arise in threes—except when they come in twos, in which case you should hunt for the missing third? PS: When the wild things call to you, respond promptly.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
Archaeologists found two 43,000-year-old flutes in Germany. Constructed of mammoth ivory and bird bone, they still produce clear notes with perfect pitch. They were located in a cave that contains ancient examples of figurative art. Some genius way back then regarded art and music as a pleasurable pairing! I propose we make these instruments your power symbols for the coming weeks, Cancerian. May they inspire you to resuscitate the value of your past accomplishments. May you call on the help of melodies and memories that still resonate—and that can inspire your future adventures! Your words of power are regeneration, revival, and reanimation.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
It’s your unbirthday season, Leo—the holiday that’s halfway between your last birthday and your next. During this interlude, you could benefit from clarifying what you don’t want, don’t believe, and don’t like. You may generate good fortune for yourself by going on a quest to discover rich potentials and stirring possibilities that are as-yet hidden or unexpressed. I hope you will be bold enough to scan the frontiers for sources of beauty and truth that you have been missing. During your unbirthday season, you will be wise to gather the rest of the information you will need to make a smart gamble or daring change.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Austrian playwright Elfriede Jelinek won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2004, and Romanian-German author Herta Müller earned it in 2009. But garnering the world’s most prestigious award for writers did not provide a big boost to their book sales. In some markets, their famous works are now out of print. In 2025, I hope you Virgos do in your own spheres what they only half-accomplished in theirs. I would love for you to gather more appreciation and attention while simultaneously raising your income. According to my reading of the astrological omens, this is a reasonable expectation.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
By day, Libra-born Forrest Bess (1911–1977) worked as a commercial fisherman in Texas. By night, he created visionary paintings inspired by symbols that appeared to him in states between sleeping and waking. Other influences in his art came from alchemy and the psychological philosophy of Carl Jung. His life was living proof that mystical exploration and mundane work could coexist. I’m hoping he might serve you as an inspirational role model. You are in a phase when you have the power to blend and synergize seemingly opposing aspects of your world. You would be wise to meditate on how to find common ground between practical necessity and spiritual aspiration. Are there ways you can unite the desires of your head and heart? Of your need for safety and your longing for adventure? Of your craving for beauty and your fondness for usefulness?
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
The first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, arranged for himself to be buried after death with an army of 8,000 soldiers made from terracotta, which is a clay ceramic. Joining the gang below the earth’s surface were 770 horses and 130 chariots. For over 2,000 years, this assemblage was lost and forgotten. But in 1974, farmers digging a new well found it accidentally. In this spirit, I am predicting that sometime in the next five months, you will make interesting discoveries while looking for something other than what you find. They won’t be as spectacular as the terracotta army, but I bet they will be fun and life changing.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
Author Zora Neale Hurston said, “There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” I will adjust that counsel for your use, Sagittarius. According to my astrological analysis, the first half of 2025 will ask questions, and the second half will answer them. For best results, I invite you to gather and polish your best questions in the next five months, carefully defining and refining them. When July begins, tell life you are ready to receive replies to your carefully wrought inquiries.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Hemoglobin is an iron-bearing protein that’s crucial to most life. It enables the transportation of oxygen in the blood. But one species, the icefish of the Antarctic seas, lacks hemoglobin. They evolved other ways to obtain and circulate enough oxygen in the frozen depths, including larger hearts and blood vessels. The system they’ve developed works well. So they are examples of how to adjust to an apparent problem in ways that lead to fine evolutionary innovations. I suspect you’re now in the midst of your own personal version of a comparable adaptation. Keep up the good work!
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
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Quote of the Day: “Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.” – George Washington
Photo by: Wesley Tingey 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?
From Canada comes the story of a lonely donkey who fell in love with a yoga ball.
Captivating thousands with his videos of pushing the yoga ball around his paddock, Earl Grey the donkey received donations of dozens of yoga balls after his first one deflated.
Homes for Hooves animal rescue shelter in British Columbia took in a rescue donkey in 2024 that had lived its whole adult life alone, which for a herd animal can be extremely detrimental.
“His original name was Eeyore,” Michelle Singleton, owner of Homes for Hooves, told CTV News. “Which kind of tells you he was a sad, lonely donkey.”
Scheduling play dates with other animals didn’t go well, but what turned things around was a chance encounter with a yoga ball. After that, Eeyore and the ball became inseparable—and he became so happy, he needed a name change.
“The excitement was just pure joy for him,” Michelle said. “He just had the time of his life, he had so much fun.”
Day after day he would exhaust himself pushing, biting, and kicking the yoga ball across his enclosure, until one day the inevitable happened: a hole, a rush of air, and stillness.
Singleton put out a call to action, hoping that because many people opt to make donations to her shelter in cash, perhaps others were storing unwanted yoga balls in their closets and would gladly donate them.
Donated balls arrived from across the province until Earl Grey was left like a kid in a candy store; with more balls than he knew what to do with.
The donations which totaled more than 40 yoga balls were followed by the arrival of three rescue donkeys, the chance at regaining a herd which Singleton always hoped would come for the once depressed animal.
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Having been separated from his kind for his whole adult life, he didn’t know how to behave or what was acceptable, and it took 6 months for him to get the hang of, well, ‘donkeying.’
The CTV News report concludes with Earl finally being accepted into the herd. Singleton has been left with only one concern—can the new donkeys keep up with Earl’s ball skills, and will they form a ball team?
SHARE This Cute Donkey And His Beloved Yoga Balls On Social Media…
A tiger and a boar were recently rescued from the depths of a well in rural India.
Located near the Pench National Park and Tiger Reserve, authorities said the pair fell in during the former’s hunting of the latter.
Rescuing an animal from the hazards of human civilization is hardly newsworthy, but remarkable video footage of the animals in the well leads one to consider that maybe a truce was struck between them.
Thrashing around in the water, separate footage shows the tiger pawing at the boar, but not striking.
Located in a village in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, the young tigress was hunting the boar when the two fell down the well. The villagers called park wildlife authorities and watched as the two animals hopelessly treaded water down below.
Arriving on the scene, rescuers lowered a cot to form a makeshift platform the animals could climb onto. Using a crane they also lowered a steel cage, as bringing the tigress up unrestrained was simply too dangerous.
At first, the animals are wary of the platform, but gradually the tigress climbs on, while the boar, virtually using her back as an assist, mounts the cot and sits fur-to-fur with its would-be predator.
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The tigress slowly enters the cage, and the door slides down trapping her inside to the celebrations of the crowd of onlookers above.
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Both animals (and their tails) were released separately back into the forest, after, if GNN were forced to hazard a guess, the tigress offered the boar a 3-day headstart.
WATCH the video below…
A tiger and a boar ccidentally fell into a well in Pipariya village near the reaserve. Thanks to the swift action of the Pench Tiger Reserve rescue team, big cat and boar were safely rescued! With expert coordination & care, both animals were pulled out unharmed and released back pic.twitter.com/s8lRZH8mN5
— Pench Tiger Reserve (@PenchMP) February 4, 2025
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A family of shepherds is turning their land on Flinders Island over to the Australian government for a total rewilding project that will see it become an “ark” for endangered marsupials.
The aptly named Woolford family has been pasturing sheep for the wool market since 1979 on Flinders, Australia’s 4th largest territorial island. Shifting prices during the early 2000s eventually made pasturing on the island too expensive, and the operations ceased very quickly, leaving behind a century of destructive changes.
Mr. Jonas Woolford’s vision is now to restore the island’s natural ecosystem, for which the state and federal governments have put together an AUD$4.8 million rewilding project that will look to eradicate the introduced rats, cats, and mice.
First charted in 1802 by explorer Matthew Flinders, the roughly 8,800-acre island was abundant in marsupials, which Flinders described as “miniature kangaroos.” The tammar wallaby and southern brown bandicoot lived on the island, but they all died out as wave after wave of human visitors saturated the island with invasive species.
“There’s black rats which came off of the Kapara shipwreck in 1942 when it ran aground,” Mr. Woolford told ABC News Australia. “Even from 1826, when the sealer Bill Bryant was out there … we know that he was hunting the wallabies along with the seal skins.”
Woolford added that mice came later, and sheep farmers who worked on the island before the Woolfords probably brought the cats to hunt the rodents, which ended up hunting the bandicoots and lizards as well. Camera traps have put the number of feral cats at around 180 – 210 on the island.
The multi-million rewilding project is slated to begin in May—outside normal seabird nesting season. Helicopters will drop poisoned rodent chow while drones will sweep the island with thermal vision seeking the cats. Experts from New Zealand and Tasmania are coming in to help on the project.
The island will have to be confirmed free of invasive species for a year before endangered wallabies and bandicoots will be returned, where they can breed unmolested by the mainland’s invasive species.
Unlike other infested islands, 75% of Flinders is still covered by native vegetation, and the project members are excited to see what will happen when these are allowed to recolonize in peace.
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“We should actually see a real rebound in native species such as invertebrates and insects, reptile species, and the shorebirds,” said Woolford. “Hopefully, it might be like it was back in February 1802 when Matthew Flinders and his crew first landed on Flinders Island.”
Already a National Marine Park, Flinders is seen as a major ecotourism opportunity along South Australia state’s coastline.
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“The Flinders Island Safe Haven project is vital because there are few places in Australia which provide such a unique opportunity for us to protect our important native wildlife as we strive for zero extinctions,” Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek told ABC.
GNN has reported extensively on the successes across the world in island rewilding. Conservationists have more than a decade of documented success stories eradicating invasive animals like rats and mice, and hundreds of species across dozens of islands around the world are benefiting from this trend.
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You may have seen headlines this week about an asteroid with a slight chance to strike Earth in 2032, but don’t worry! Humanity has a secret weapon.
As GNN reported three years ago, a vital space test was conducted by NASA called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) which proved that as long as we have advanced notice, we can send out a simple satellite to redirect any potentially hostile asteroids.
On January 29th, NASA concluded its analysis of the orbit of the object ‘2024 YR4’ and found it has a more than 1% chance of impacting Earth. Measuring between 130 and 300 feet in length, an asteroid of this size would impact with a force of between 10 and 20 megatons, or around the same force as the Castle Bravo thermonuclear warhead, the largest weapons test ever conducted by the US during the Cold War.
It was detected by the NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) station in Chile, which has found potentially destructive asteroids in our neighborhood before, but what typically happens is that as more data is collected, the risk of impact is perceived at first as higher, before eventually sinking back toward 0%.
Even if 2024 YR4 should remain hovering around 1%, should humanity choose to, we have already proven we can nudge asteroids out of their collision course with Earth.
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The Double-Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, was sent far into the solar system to strike an asteroid called Dimorphos which orbited a larger rock called Didymos, neither of which will ever pose a threat to Earth, but were the perfect testing candidates.
The researchers expected the impact to shorten Dimorphos’ orbit around Didymos by about 1%, or roughly 10 minutes, which if applied to an asteroid with the potential to strike Earth, would be many times more of a correction than would ultimately be necessary considering the size and distances of outer space.
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DART was the first mission of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, a division that exclusively works to defend Earth from objects that could send us the way of the dinosaurs.
“Planetary Defense is a globally unifying effort that affects everyone living on Earth,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington at the time of the impact.
“Now we know we can aim a spacecraft with the precision needed to impact even a small body in space. Just a small change in its speed is all we need to make a significant difference in the path an asteroid travels.”
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Quote of the Day: “Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Photo by: Getty Images via 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?
Though it was unfertilized and therefore never destined to become an animal, the discovery of a night parrot egg in Western Australia has jolted the nation’s indigenous conservation community into excitement and action.
Discovered last September in a vast and remote area called the Kimberly in Western Australia state, it’s hoped the egg can reveal some information about the bird’s breeding habits—of which virtually nothing is known.
The night parrot is one of the great natural enigmas left in the world: a parrot that flies but lives in burrows; that’s nocturnal, and virtually unobserved by modern science.
Indigenous communities like the Kiwirrkurra and Ngururrpa, on whose lands night parrots have been confirmed to survive, have a sight-unseen relationship with the night parrot, identifying it by its calls across the deserts and drylands of Western Australia and Queensland.
In 2013 a wildlife photographer captured video footage of a live bird in Queensland, confirming its existence for the first time in almost a century. Since then, they’ve been identified by their calls in two Indigenous Protected Areas (IPA) managed by the two communities mentioned above.
The Ngururrpa Rangers which manage the land on which the egg was found set up monitoring cameras in the burrows to see if it were part of an active nest. One thing that is known about these parrots is a young female’s first egg clutch is often infertile, as is common among many birds.
After ascertaining that no parents were returning to incubate the egg, the rangers used a “candle” test to see if it were fertilized or not.
“You can hold it up to the light and look through it, and if it’s fertile there’s a little baby bird growing on the inside. You can see dark shapes,” said Ngururrpa IPA coordinator Christy Davies, who confirmed to ABC it was infertile.
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The Ngururrpa IPA is home to the largest-known population of night parrots—about 50 it’s estimated, and it’s where one can find Nick Leseberg, one of the nation’s only night parrot experts.
“You’ve really got to understand their breeding biology, like what triggers breeding? When does it happen? What are they vulnerable to?” Leseberg told ABC News Australia.
It’s hoped the egg will be able to help Leseberg and others answer some of these questions.
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In December 2023, GNN reported that, for only the fifth time, a night parrot’s call had been recorded—this time by a Kiwirrkurra ranger team in the Gibson Desert of Western Australia.
The calls are extremely valuable conservation data points, as they help define the bird’s current habitat areas. Once enough of these recordings have been taken, scientists studying the night parrot will be able to recommend specific spaces for conservation measures.
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The British equivalent of the Audubon Society has just announced that what was already England’s largest bird reserve will be increased by 33% after a recent land purchase.
Described as a place that “swarms” with life, the Geltsdale Reserve in the North Pennines range of Cumbria, northern England, will now cover 13,590 acres of moorland, meadows, blanket bog, and woodland.
Owned and operated by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Geltsdale is one of the last places in Britain where one can see the hen harrier in its natural habitat. Birds of every description and conservation status inhabit the reserve, and it’s also a UNESCO Geopark for its unique geological formations.
“This is going to be a reserve on a different scale from many of our other sites in England,” said Beccy Speight, the RSPB’s chief executive.
“We are going to achieve an abundance of species and a size that will be unmatched for bird reserves elsewhere. It is going to demonstrate what is possible when it comes to rewilding and protecting birds.”
For birdwatchers reading, Geltsdale abounds in black grouse, redshank, nightjar, snipe, whinchat, curlews, ospreys, short-eared owls, and lapwings, dispersed across a vertical rise of 650 meters from an achingly green valley bottom up stately moorland and pasture at an elevation similar to the lower-peaks of the Appalachian range.
“Geltsdale is now the biggest in England,” said Speight. “And that size makes such a difference. When you walk through the reserve during breeding season, it is incredible. The place just swarms with birdlife.”
While Geltsdale is by appearance a slice of old-fashioned and natural England, the RSPB says it has some hi-tech solutions in mind for tackling conservation challenges like vagrant livestock grazing.
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Speaking with the Guardian, Dave Morris, the RSPB’s area operations manager for Cumbria and Northeast England, said that the society will work with local ranchers whose properties overlap with the reserve to implement a GPS-monitored ‘invisible’ fencing system.
Because traditional wooden fencing is actually a hazard for low-flying birds like black grouse, cattle and calves will be fitted with collars that emit a high-pitched tone if the animal comes too near a boundary line.
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The closer the animal comes, the louder the tone will grow until eventually, the cattle will receive a low-level electric shock.
Additionally, a lot of age-old practices such as heather burning and moorland draining have been halted to ensure the area can get back to its absolute natural best.
WATCH a mini-doc about RSPB’s work in Geltsdale…
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A famous jump-roper recently saved a young man from drowning after falling through the ice on a frozen lake by using his jump ropes like safety lines.
During the 80s, 90s, and 00s, David Fisher became so famous for jumping rope that he authored a pair of children’s superhero books in which he’s portrayed as “The Rope Warrior” who battles aliens by jumping rope so fast he creates a force field around himself.
Used to performing for groups at schools and sporting events, Fisher never imagined getting the chance to be a real hero of any kind, but when The Rope Warrior was needed, he answered the call as all good heroes do.
The story begins in mid-December near Fisher’s home in Westfield, Indiana. His son Felix was getting ready to drive to university, when he heard what sounded like two people intensely arguing about what to do in the face of an urgent situation, per the Washington Post.
A woman and her teenage son seemed to be debating what to do to recover their dog who had run out onto the ice of a frozen lake. Felix went inside to tell his father about it, when suddenly the sound turned from argument into shrieks of alarm. The woman was running to the house asking for help: her son had fallen in trying to retrieve their dog.
Felix called 911, while the 61-year-old Fisher instinctively grabbed two long cloth ropes he uses for Double Dutch jumping and ran out to the lake, leaving one on the shore for Felix to use, and taking another with him out onto the ice.
His cast fell short but the teen had strength yet to swim a few feet and grab the end of the jump rope. Hauling him up onto the ice, he collapsed through again after trying to stand up too quickly. A second attempt, when he remained on his belly until he was well clear of the breach, saw him make it back to the shore.
MORE FROZEN LAKE RESCUES: Firefighters Crawl Across Frozen Lake and Save Stranded Deer Using a Curling Technique–WATCH
“It’s kind of like Indiana Jones and the whip,” Fisher told the Post. “And so in my head, there have always been different scenarios where a rope could be used to defend or save someone, you know?”
“You couldn’t ask for a better tool to get somebody out of an ice pond,” he added.
SPORTSMEN TURING SAVIORS: Olympic Kite Surfer Saves Drowning Woman in Dramatic Video – WATCH
Typically, that tool is being wheeled around his body at high speeds during a career in performance jump-roping that has seen him perform for millions of school children, on over 100 national television broadcasts, and before the eyes of two US presidents, plus Boris Yeltsin. He holds a large number of world records for jump-roping, including the most “rump jumps” performed consecutively.
While The Rope Warrior who battles aliens may be a fiction, the real Rope Warrior was recognized for his rescue by the Westfield mayor, who presented Fisher and Felix with the Lifesaving Citizen Award.
WATCH one of David’s performances below…
Gnawing through tree trunks and bureaucratic red tape alike, a colony of Czech beavers recently built a dam exactly where local administrators needed it.
Conservationists often talk about species or landscapes performing “ecosystem services” that benefit human civilization. These beavers in the Brdy Protected Landscape demonstrated this phenomenon to a stunning degree, saving the local government 30 million Czech crowns—around $1.2 million.
Management staff in Brdy were looking for planning permission for a dam and reservoir project from the Vltava River Basin authorities, but the process was lagging. That’s when local beavers built their dam in the proposed location virtually overnight. When the staff woke up, their problems were seemingly solved.
“They could not have chosen their location better,” according to Daniela Lazarová at Radio Prague International, “erecting the dams on a bypass gully that was built by soldiers in the former military base years ago, so as to drain the area.”
Beavers are said to be second only to humans in their ability to transform the ecosystems in which they live, and the colony is believed to consist of just 8 animals. Despite their numbers, they are remarkable engineers.
“The Military Forest Management and the Vltava River Basin were negotiating with each other to set up the project and address issues regarding ownership of land,” Bohumil Fišer, head of the Brdy Protected Landscape Area Administration, told Radio Prague.
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“The beavers beat them to it, saving us CZK 30 million. They built the dams without any project documentation and for free.”
Ecologists inspecting the dams said they will last a long time and do the job of draining the area well, while offering good conditions for the rare stone crayfish, frogs, and other species that thrive on wetlands.
OTHER BEAVER WONDERS: Beavers Saved From Euthanasia Transform and Replenish Rivers in the Utah Desert
“Beavers always know best. The places where they build dams are always chosen just right—better than when we design it on paper,” said Jaroslav Obermajer, head of the Central Bohemian office of the Czech Nature and Landscape Protection Agency (AOPK).
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The most durable plastic polymers used in society are never recycled, but a new discovery from Cornell University may be about to change that.
Known as crosslinked thermosets, or thermosets for short, these plastics can be found in bowling balls, replacement hip joints, and car tires, and are either incinerated or thrown in landfills.
Their crosslinked polymer structure ensures remarkable strength and durability that is simply too difficult to unlink and recycle.
At Cornell University, an institution of learning that’s typically in the news for its research into birds, chemists have identified a way to polymerize one of the simplest enol esters in nature, called 2.3 dihydrofuran (DHF), into crosslinked structures that compete with petroleum-based thermosets for durability.
However, these DHF thermosets can be unlinked, broken down into monomers, and recycled.
“We’ve spent 100 years trying to make polymers that last forever, and we’ve realized that’s not actually a good thing,” said Brett Fors, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Cornell. “Now we’re making polymers that don’t last forever, that can environmentally degrade.”
ADVANCEMENTS IN RECYCLING:
The DHF thermosets had similar properties to automotive weather stripping, running shoe soles, and garden hoses, products typically made from high-density polyurethane, and ethylene propylene—in other worse, crosslinked thermosets.
As well as being recyclable, the products will break down in the natural environment—not quickly—but eventually.
The Fors lab is currently expanding its research into developing a DHF thermoset material for use in 3D printing, and they’ve published their discovery in the journal Nature.
SHARE This Great Invention Sorely Needed On Social Media…
A heart pump no bigger than a fountain pen has just been approved by the FDA for use in children, having already saved adult lives in a revolutionary way.
Cardiologists don’t even need to open a chest cavity to install the Impella 5.5, the world’s smallest heart pump that can keep a heart going during critical moments of heart failure or cardiogenic shock.
21-year-old Katrina Penney was born with congenital heart defects, but the transplant she received also failed when she was 19. For 5 weeks, the Impella kept the failed heart pumping while a second heart transplant was secured.
“It does all the work for your heart,” Katrina Penney told CBS Philadelphia “It did save my life, 100%. I named my Impella ‘Ella.'”
“It’s very useful in the sense that actually it can be implantable without opening the chest,” Dr. Katsuhide Maeda with Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where Penney was treated, told CBS. “We are so excited. This is a really like a, you know, game-changer.”
The pump component on the Impella only consists of the very tip of the device—making it the size of a fingertip, something Penney says makes her whole ordeal just seem unbelievable.
WATCH the CBS story below… Or for readers outside the US, watch HERE…
SHARE This Truly Incredible Cardiac Implant With Your Friends…
A Virginia woman was “tickled to death” when she found that a lottery ticket she had slipped into her Bible for safekeeping was a winner.
Jacqueline Mangus bought the ticket on Christmas Eve, but it wasn’t until after the New Year that she saw on the news a ticket from her town of Moneta had won the New Year’s Millionaire Raffle.
She bought her ticket, #081604, at Lake Mart & Deli, located at 4795 Scruggs Road in Moneta, and was one of five $1 million winners.
“I was tickled to death!” she told Virginia Lottery officials.
There’s no word as yet regarding how Mangus plans to enjoy her winnings, either as a lump sum or as an annuity—the two typical methods offered by state lotteries, but one would think there’s a hefty donation in waiting for her local church.
ANOTHER LOTTERY WINNER: A Man from Luck Finally Won the Lottery
The Virginia Lottery helps fund about 10% of all K through 12 education budgets in the state.
The lottery said the next day she went straight back to work as a nurse in Bedford County.
SHARE This Little Trick With Your Friends Who Like To Play The Lottery…
For 13 years, the Brazilian government has offered its incarcerated citizens a simple deal: read a book, serve less time.
This “Remission for Reading” program is now serving as a template to other nations, and prison populations are enjoying similar deals in countries such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
With a recidivism rate of more than 80% and the 15th highest imprisonment rate on the planet, the Brazilian criminal justice system was for decades failing its 1984 mandate which states that prisoners must have access to programs that will help prepare them to reenter society.
Remission for Reading works by offering all Brazilian prisoners regardless of literacy skill or mental faculties access to the prison library, which includes books in Braille and audiobooks for those with poor eyesight.
Once a book is checked out, the inmate has 21 to 30 days depending on the page count to finish it, and then 10 days to complete a written book report to demonstrate their knowledge of the text. Assistance is offered to those who speak different languages or who are intellectually impaired.
For each report, the prisoner’s sentence is commuted by 4 days. An inmate can submit up to 12 reviews per year, which if maxed out equates to 48 days of commuted sentence.
“We hope to create a new perspective on life for them,” Ajda Ultchak, a program teacher, told UNESCO. “This is about acquiring knowledge and culture and being able to join another universe.”
Carambaia is a Brazilian publisher focused on filling out prison libraries. The prisoners are allowed to review books, aiding in Carambaia’s publicity. According to a study conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Public Opinion and Statistics, Brazilian prisoners read nine times more than the national average of five books per year.
“Carambaia is a Brazilian publisher focused on those who are passionate about reading, and we find that no one reads more than the prisoners,” a press statement read. “By giving voice to them and using the texts they produced, we show society that they are thinking, critical beings with their own opinions, which must be respected.”
In 2021, the correctional program “Reading Without Borders” was instituted in prisons in the Karaganda region of Kazakhstan. 40 fiction works of classic Russian and Kazakh literature from the 19th and 20th centuries were selected for the pilot program to great success
MORE PRISON REFORMS: Prisoner in ‘Dirtiest Jail’ Rehabilitates Fellow Inmates with Recycling Program That Unites Prisoners
Its slightly more religious southern neighbor Uzbekistan has also formulated a redemptive reading protocol with works curated by the “Center for Spirituality and Enlightenment,” to ensure the content aligns with objectives for promoting growth in intellectual and moral capacity.
Even Russian State Duma officials are lobbying for redemptive reading in Russian prisons, with a focus on Russian literary classics such as Crime and Punishment or Resurrection by Tolstoy.
Three of these four countries heavily censor the internet, so any concerns that some of these programs may involve indoctrination are probably well-founded: although there’s precious little anyone can do more to further their intellectual and moral capacity than reading Crime and Punishment.
ALSO CHECK OUT: Jobs, Not Jail: A Judge Was Sick of Sending Kids to Prison, So He Found a Better Way
Great works of literature are meta-narratives synthesizing hundreds of similar narratives from the human experience—they offer more insight into our species’ plights and fancies than any government-prepared material a prisoner could hope to acquire.
“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers,” – Charles W. Eliot
WATCH a video from Carambaia about the Brazilian program…
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