All News - Page 132 of 1690 - Good News Network
Home Blog Page 132

People Happy with Their Lives Are Less Likely to Suffer Heart Attack or Stroke

By
Andy Corbley
-
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

The analysis of health records of more than 120,000 adults in the UK with an average age of 57 found that people who are happy with their lives are significantly less likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke.

They were also less likely to develop coronary artery disease, suffer a heart attack, heart failure, or have a stroke than those with lower levels of well-being, according to the study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Researchers suggest a holistic approach to life that includes regular physical activities, social activities and/or stress management techniques, is an effective way to enhance personal well-being.

The study found that, compared to adults with a low sense of well-being, the overall risk of developing cardiovascular disease was 10% to 21%—being lower for people with the highest well-being scores.

Compared to adults with a low sense of well-being, people with the highest well-being scores had a 44% lower risk of coronary artery disease, a 45% lower risk of stroke, a 51% lower risk of heart failure, and a 56% lower risk of heart attack.

“Our findings support a holistic approach to health care, where enhancing a person’s mental and emotional well-being is considered an integral part of preventing heart disease and stroke,” said study senior author Professor Wen Sun, of the University of Science and Technology of China.

“Health care professionals might consider including strategies to improve life satisfaction and happiness as part of routine care, such as recommending regular physical activities, social activities or stress management techniques as effective ways to enhance personal well-being.”

It is well-known that life satisfaction, or well-being, can increase mental health.

But, until now, the influence of well-being on cardiovascular health was less clear.

After reviewing questionnaires from more than 120,000 participants in the UK Biobank database, the Chinese research team assessed well-being as it related to satisfaction with family, friendships, health, finances, and general happiness.

They analyzed the potential connection of well-being with the development of four major cardiovascular diseases: coronary heart disease, heart attack, heart failure, and stroke.

IT’S ALL IN THE MIND: 

The study also examined the impact of well-being on lifestyle factors and inflammatory markers.

“These results underscore the profound impact that emotional and psychological health can have on physical well-being, shedding light on intricate biological mechanisms that were not fully appreciated before,” Professor Sun said.

“They add to the growing body of data that psychological health can impact cardiovascular risk,” said Professor Glenn Levine, of Baylor College of Medicine who was not involved in the study, said of the findings. “Much of the focus on psychological health has understandably been on negative factors such as depression and stress.”

“This study emphasizes the importance of positive psychological health, including the more global factor of a person’s sense of well-being.”

SHARE This Story With The Happier Seniors In Your Life… 

Goat Named Mr. Joshua Runs Last 4k of Local Marathon Winning Medal and Local Adoration

By
Andy Corbley
-
Town of Conception Bay South, retrieved from Facebook
Town of Conception Bay South, retrieved from Facebook

During an annual half-marathon in Newfoundland, a strange individual was seen among the runners during the final few miles.

A goat, seemingly excited by all the motion, was happily trotting along between the sneaker-shod bipedals on the road through Conception Bay South.

The occasion was the annual T’Railroad Trek Half Marathon on Newfoundland’s east coast. Winding through forest trails and town streets, the runners passed a local business called Taylor’s Pumpkin Patch.

Mayor Darrin Bent said one of their employees suddenly joined the race.

“They have a resident goat, Mr. Joshua. And when the runners went past the pumpkin patch, the goat decided, ‘Well, I’m not staying here,'” Bent told CBC News.

The goat covered an amazing 2.4 miles of the course before his owner Mr. Taylor caught up to him and led him the last quarter mile to the finish line. Taylor said he had come abreast of his goat’s newfound passion for endurance running through social media posts of the race while it was going on. There were hundreds of pictures and videos.

Meanwhile, at the finish line, Mayor Bent caught word of Joshua’s participation from other runners and decided after a moment of befuddlement to prepare a medal for him.

GOATS IN THE CITY: Old Irish Goats Return to Hills of Dublin After a Century to Join Firefighting Brigade –And They’re Loving It

“We very quickly put a medal around his neck and he became quite the star. Most people who actually ran the half marathon wanted their picture with Joshua at the finish line,” said Bent.


Mr. Taylor said that Joshua has always liked crowds, and evidently got caught up in the excitement of the runners, many of whom decided to match their pace with the goat, who reportedly slowed down and sped up at different intervals.

MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: Chicago Marathon Runner Rescues Stray Kitten During the Race–Bystander Gives it a Home

The mayor said he hopes the goat will become a mascot for the event, and to that end he has been designated the half marathon GOAT (greatest of all time) and is soon to drop the puck at a local CBS ice hockey game.

SHARE This Unlikely Story About The GOAT Of Endurance Running…

After Building Causes 1,000 Bird Deaths, $1.2M Window Makeover Shows Chicago How to Beak Kind

By
Andy Corbley
-
Chicago skyline behind The Lakeside Center overlooking Lake Michigan – Photo courtesy of the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority
Chicago skyline behind The Lakeside Center overlooking Lake Michigan – Photo courtesy of the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority

A Chicago real estate company has shelled out $1.2 million for a sophisticated suite of decals that will deter birds from crashing into glass windows.

McCormick Place was alerted by local wildlife advocates that the glass facade of its Lakeside Center building had, during a single night in the autumn migration season, fatally attracted 1,000 birds to fly into it.

McCormick Place is the largest convention center in North America, and the total area of the Lakeside Center’s glass exterior—just one of its five buildings—is 2.6 acres.

The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority which runs McCormick Place, got in touch with Feather Friendly Technologies, a Toronto-based firm that manufactures a special adhesive film to coat the outside of a building’s glass facade with white dots—invisible to the human eye—but which can be seen by passing birds.

The dots help the birds’ eyesight distinguish between the solid glass and empty air.

“There was a lot of staff and logistics involved in the installation and several lifts and boom trucks,” says Paul Groleau, vice president of Feather Friendly Technologies.

It took several teams several weeks to apply it to the whole center, whereupon it was pulled down after a few days leaving behind the dots on the glass.

“When we learned of the reported mass collision event last year, we knew that we needed to quickly make additional improvements to protect local and migratory birds as they pass McCormick Place,” Larita Clark, CEO of the authority, told ENR News Record.

Local urban wildlife researchers say that the Lakeside Center has been attracting birds to their deaths for decades, and the window treatment will make a huge difference in the number of migratory birds that pass through Chicago safely.

BIRDS IN THE CITY: Birds Sing Anew After Residents of New Orleans Ninth Ward Restore 40-Acre Wetland to Historic Glory

McCormick Place is also a part of Lights Out Chicago, a metropolitan program between building managers to make the night skies in the city during the autumn migratory period significantly darker by turning off as much exterior lighting as possible.

GNN has reported on these programs in other American cities and the outsized difference they can make in the number of bird-building collisions that occur as birds migrate south for the winter.

MAKING ROOM FOR NATURE: Wind Turbines Are Using Cameras and AI to See Birds –And Shut Down When They Approach

Birds’ eyes are adapted to flying at night, and the reflection of lights off of glass windows can overly confuse them.

SHARE This Story Of Corporate Conscience With Your Friends… 

“Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.” – Khalil Gibran

By
Good News Network
-

Quote of the Day: “Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.” – Khalil Gibran

Photo by: Getty Images 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?

Strange Rock Found on Mars with Zebra Markings Has NASA Scientists ‘Excited’

By
Andy Corbley
-
NASA's Mars Perseverance rover captured this image of a black-and-white striped rock on Sep 13, 2024.
NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover captured this image of a black-and-white striped rock on Sep 13, 2024.

Last month, while trundling across the Martian landscape, the eyes of the Perseverance Mars rover settled on an extraordinary rock.

Featuring black and white striations like Alpine granite, it has NASA scientists excited that the rover is entering an area where new discoveries about the planet can be made.

The Mars Perseverance rover captured this image of a zebra-striped rock on Sep 13, 2024 and named it ‘Freya Castle’ – NASA / SWNS

Sighting it with the Mastcam-Z, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory which controls the rover took a closer look after identifying the rock which looked entirely out of place.

Currently ascending the vast Jezero Crater in which it landed, the rover has recently found a spot of flat ground allowing it to travel more freely. Having already collected samples of ancient river sediments, it’s now climbing to higher elevations in search of ancient rocks.

In June, while traversing Mount Washburn, Perseverance found a sparkly white boulder of feldspar and pyroxene not too dissimilar to this white rock, which measured approximately half the size.

Nicknamed Freya Castle, Perseverance posted up next to it for a spectrographic examination.

“The internet immediately lit up with speculation about what this ‘zebra rock’ might be, and we’ve enjoyed reading your theories!” Athanasios Klidaras, a Ph.D. student at Purdue University working with the Perseverance mission team, told Earth.com.

Recalling Geology 101, we hopefully remember that rock is formed in three ways. Sedimentary rock is formed as layers of soil and organic matter are buried and compacted over millions of years. Igneous rock is formed when magma emerges from the Earth’s crust in the form of lava, which then cools, and solidifies.

It’s sometimes said that metamorphic rock, which forms stones used for building like granite, gneiss, and slate, is “baked.” It’s formed when certain mineral compositions are joined under intense heat and pressures under the Earth.

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took this selfie over a rock on September 10, 2021 Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

MEET THE RED PLANET: NASA Summarizes What New Mars Rover has Found as it Finishes it’s Mission at Just Over 1,000 Days

Freya Castle is believed to be a metamorphic rock, which if true could give more detailed information about Mars’ volcanic past. Jezero Crater is mostly Martian bedrock and sedimentary layers, meaning that Freya Castle tumbled down into the crater from higher up.

OTHER ROVER DISCOVERIES: NASA Stunned by Discovery After Mars Rover Breaks Open a Rock

Klidaras and his colleagues have said they are keeping the rover’s eyes out for a larger deposition of this rock. Such a collection might shed light on whether the stones were uplifted from the crust during the Jezero impact event, or if they were transported to the area from some significant volcanic event millions of years ago.

SHARE This Bit Of Scientific Discovery with Your Friends… 

When Dying Boy’s Life Support Was Turned off He Began Improving–and Went Home with Parents

By
Andy Corbley
-
The child was battle severe brain abnormalities - credit, Getty via Unsplash+
The child was battling severe brain abnormalities – credit, Getty via Unsplash+

A 4-year-old has become the first patient known to British medical history to be taken off life-support and proceeded to recover—so much so that he went home with his parents.

This story revolves around a sensitive topic about terminally ill patients, decisions around the ends of lives, sometimes young ones, and what roles do parents, physicians, or courts play in making those decisions.

The decision to take him off life support was ordered by the UK High Court following a hearing in which the boy’s doctors said the artificial ventilation was not leading to any improvement and that his condition, involving severe brain abnormalities, continued to deteriorate.

Referred to as NR in the case for confidentiality, Justice Poole, the presiding judge, said it was a “delight” to see this “remarkable boy” home with his “devoted parents.”

“I do not wish to minimize the emotional turmoil suffered by Mr. and Mrs. R and the continuing burdens that NR suffers because of his conditions, but it seems to me to be a wonderful surprise that NR has confounded expectations, that he no longer requires continuing invasive interventions and, in particular, that he has been able to return home to the loving care of his devoted parents,” Poole said, according to the BBC.

It’s been several months of home care during which NR has been able to play outside at a park, “feel the wind in his hair and the sun on his face,” aspects which led Poole to reverse the previous ruling which would have given physicians legal protection for withholding certain invasive treatments, as well as CPR—in a word because it would only prolong a largely empty, suffering life.

SIMILAR FAMILY MIRACLES: Kindness of Strangers Buoys a Family Caring for Their Terminally Ill 6-year-old Girl

“A decision to withdraw life-sustaining treatment is not a decision to bring about the death of a patient, but a decision that the continuation of the treatment is not in their best interests,” Judge Poole clarified, who said that at the time of the ruling, the only identifiable pleasure in NR’s life was the consoling touch of his parents.

NR continues to improve. He no longer requires ventilation and recently stopped relying on a urinary catheter.

PARENTS WATCHING THEIR CHILDREN RECOVER: A Mom’s Love Helps Woman Wake From Coma After Five Years

NR will now receive treatment, even in the case of an emergency return of past symptoms, like a normal boy. Past periods on life support will not influence any treatment decisions—which his mother says he “deserves” after fighting back from so long a period on the brink.

The court said the emergence of NR’s recovery will raise challenging questions for future court rulings on the topic.

SHARE This Miraculous Recovery, And A Family Reunited… 

This Hurricane-Proof Florida Development Easily Endured Helene, Ian, and Idalia–Proving Climate Designs Work

By
Andy Corbley
-
Hunter Point – Pearl Homes Developments
Hunter Point – Pearl Homes Developments

First Ian, then Idalia, now Helene—a special housing development in Florida has withstood them all.

Without any doubt, the neighborhood at Hunter Point in Cortez along the Gulf Coast has lived up to its billing of hurricane-proof, as the storm that has ravaged the southeastern United States was endured without issue.

Helene made landfall last Thursday, and Cortez was battered with waist-deep storm surges that turned the roads to rivers. Not only did Hunter Point stay dry, but kept the lights on as well thanks to a bevy of storm-resistant architectural and landscape designs.

“[H]urricanes were our number one priority,” Marshall Gobuty, founder and president of Pearl Homes, the developer that built the community, told Fast Company in the wake of the storm. “How could we build to survive a Cat 5 hurricane?’

Helene didn’t make the 5 grade, but based on how easily Hunter Point survived it, you’d imagine it could handle the worst if it came.

The ground floor garage is solid concrete. On the first floor, two-by-six timber boards are used for the frames rather than two-by-fours, and the walls are filled with hard insulation rather than foam, making it sturdier and more energy efficient. The roof is made of steel, and the three floors are interconnected with steel seams.

Solar panels are installed on the roof in a design that was tested in an enclosed environment to be unmovable—the wind can’t blow underneath and tear it off the roof. The solar panels charge a battery system that can power the home for several days if the grid goes down—which happened in Cortez after Helene hit. The next morning, when the sun came out, the solar panels went back to charging the battery which was still running, and has been proven in tests to be capable of running in a limited mode for another 9 if needs be.

Swales built into the landscape of the Hunter Point development channeled stormwater away from the streets until it filled up a large pond on the property. The garages stayed dry, but even if the rain had been much greater or longer, 16 feet of concrete separate the terrain from the living area.

CLIMATE RESILIENCE IN AMERICA: In Frigid Maine So Many Heat Pumps Were Sold the State Passed its Clean-Energy Target Two Years Early

For sure none of this is cheap. Houses start for a cool $1.25 mil, but apartments with similar building standards are available for $1,700 and $2,000 in nearby Bradenton, Florida. Set within walking distance of entertainment, restaurants, shopping, and event space in the Village of The Arts location.

The price isn’t all bad, the insurance costs are much less, and companies are much happier to insure buildings that include Pearl Homes’ storm-proof features.

NEWS ABOUT HELENE: North Carolina Sports Come Together to Support Victims of ‘Unprecedented’ Hurricane Helene

“I was on the phone with our insurance company this morning, and let them know I’m sending pictures, everything’s great,” Gobuty told Fast Company. “She said, ‘Finally, [some] good news.’ Insurance is a big, big component in the future, because climate change is here. And we have to adapt.”

SHARE This Amazing Place To Live That’s Totally Storm Proof… 

India’s Rhino Stronghold Sees 86% Drop in Poaching and Five-Fold Increase in Rhinos

By
Andy Corbley
-
Greater one horned rhino - CC 4.0. Nejib Ahmed
Greater one-horned rhino – CC 4.0. Nejib Ahmed

Since 2016, poaching of one-horned rhinoceroses in India’s Assam state has fallen 86% after a change in government brought determined action to protect them

By expanding protected areas and bolstering ranger patrols, the steady growth in the number of rhinos, seen since the late 60s, has now accelerated to the point where 3,000 horns grace the Assam savannah.

“Rhinos are synonymous with the identity of Assam. They are our pride and the crown jewel of our biodiversity. Ever since we assumed office, we have taken various initiatives to protect the prized species, expand its habitat and ensure its safety,” Assam state’s Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma wrote on Twitter-X.

In India, the Chief Minister, often abbreviated CM, is the equivalent of an American governor, and the state of Assam which Sarma governs is India’s rhino stronghold, with 88% of all the rhinos in the country located in Kaziranga, Manas, and Orang national parks, and Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary.

The remaining 12% is spread widely across the country. CM Sarma’s tenure which began in 2021 oversaw the addition of nearly 50,000 acres of habitat in Orang National Park, and another 50,000 to two other protected areas.

Last year, GNN reported that for the first time since 1977, zero rhinos were poached in the country.

SIMILAR INDIAN SUCCESS STORIES: Rather Than Taking Jobs in Tech, 2 Young Software Engineers Use Talents to Crush Poaching in India

Sarma ordered the rhinos treated like presidents, with sophisticated police commando teams patrolling the parks with night vision equipment and drones during moonlit nights.

MORE ANTI-POACHING NEWS: Researchers Test Use of Nuclear Technology to Curb Rhino Poaching in South Africa

Since then, the population of Assam’s rhinos has grown by 105 to 3,000; up from a low of 600 during the 1960s. The government released these poaching figures on World Rhino Day (Sept. 22nd) to show that if the will to protect these beasts is there, the most poached megafauna species on Earth can thrive.

SHARE This Inspiring Story Of Anti-Poaching In India…

“Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.” – William Feather

By
Good News Network
-

Quote of the Day: “Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.” – William Feather

Photo by: Nagara Oyodo

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?

Trail Camera Shows ‘Truly Amazing’ Bear – Born with 2-Legs and Walking Tall in West Virginia (WATCH)

By
Andy Corbley
-
credit - Kirk Price, Instagram
credit – Kirk Price, Instagram

A black bear born without front legs has been sighted more or less thriving in the mountains of West Virginia.

Though not unheard of, it’s wild to be able to see the animal’s natural movement, having been transformed, by consequence of his birth, from a quadrupedal animal to a bipedal animal like us.

“The area he’s in has some of the steepest terrain in the Appalachian mountains,” hunter and outdoor writer Kirk Price wrote on Instagram. “He has no problem getting around.”

Price posted a video on his YouTube channel in 2022 explaining he had been aware that the bear was in the area, and had seen still photos of it from as far back as 2018, but the video was him explaining a face-to-face encounter he had with the animal which he described as “just the toughest, baddest son-of-a-gun.”

He also said that there were no signs the “son-of-a-gun” was deadly underfed and that the encounter ended with the bear running up a steep hillside on his two hind legs like it was no bother.

The most recent sightings must make this particular bear, according to Price’s estimation, around 8 years old. Black bear cubs, he said, stay with their moms for 2 years. He hadn’t been with his mother in 2018 in the trail camera photos, but he wasn’t particularly large then, making a 2015/2016 birth year plausible.

Speaking with USA Today, Price said he had been asked if traps could have been the cause of the bear’s disability, and added that the “clean nubs” where his forearms should be are not at all the result one would see if the bear had fallen prey to such a device.

Also, the bear has never been seen with one arm, which would then suggest that if it were a trap that disfigured him, he would have had to have lost both arms to traps either simultaneously, or one after the other over a very short time span, while also surviving the subsequent injury and infection.

OTHER WILD ODDITIES: Rare ‘Doomsday’ Fish Surfaces in California–Just the 20th Discovered in the State Since 1901

Bear traps are not used by hunters today, and are not only illegal, but the kind of thing most hunters would abhor.

“I firmly believe he was born that way and has overcome all odds. That’s what the focus should be on. This bear is truly amazing,” Price told the news outlet.

BEARS ON CAMERA: Hilarious Video Shows Bear Attempting to Get into a Hammock in Colorado

The Instagram comments were filled equally with people suggesting such an animal led to the myth of Bigfoot, and jokes that the Democrats had taken away his Second Amendment Rights…

WATCH the trail cam footage below…

SHARE This Incredible Animal Living Large In West Virginia… 

North Carolina Sports Come Together to Support Victims of ‘Unprecedented’ Hurricane Helene

By
Andy Corbley
-
North Carolina Division of Aviation - NC DoT
North Carolina Division of Aviation – NC DoT

Companies and organizations are descending on affected communities in North Carolina with donations and volunteers as they begin to dig themselves out of a 100-year storm.

Hurricane Helene “wiped out whole communities” according to Governor Roy Cooper, leaving over 200,000 people without power and causing exceptional destruction even far inland from the Atlantic.

The response, particularly from the North Carolina sporting world has been inspiring and robust.

David Tepper, the owner of the Carolina Panthers and the Charlotte FC soccer team, has made a $3 million donation in concert with his wife through their charitable foundation to Helene relief efforts.

The David and Nicole Tepper Foundation’s contribution will focus on providing food and other essentials through community food banks and service agencies in the Carolinas.

“The David & Nicole Tepper Foundation, Carolina Panthers, and Charlotte FC stand alongside all those who have been affected by Hurricane Helene and the devastation it has wrought across the southeast, and particularly in our backyard throughout the Carolinas,” said David and Nicole Tepper said in a release.

“This is our home and we are committed to supporting relief efforts throughout the region by providing critical resources and aiding the efforts of our heroic first responders,” the Teppers said. “The impact on our community has been severe, but Carolinians are resilient and courageous, and together, we will rebuild and recover.”

The NFL at large followed the Tepper foundation’s lead, with clubs and ownership groups from the Atlanta Falcons, Houston Texans, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the NFL Foundation itself, together donating another $5 million.

“Our hearts go out to all of those impacted by Hurricane Helene, and the NFL is committed to doing our part to help the affected communities recover,” said NFL Vice President of Philanthropy and Executive Director of the NFL Foundation Alexia Gallagher.

Three NASCAR entities, including Driver Greg Biffle, Joe Gibbs Racing team, and Hendrick Motorsports have all been using privately owned helicopters to carry supplies out to some of the most rural communities affected by the storm.

Biffle has been delivering pallets of donated Starlink hubs in his helicopter, as telecommunications are down across large parts of the state

The rural town of Banner Elk personally thanked Joe Gibbs Racing for using a helicopter to transport donated supplies there, as one of the main roads to the town passed over a bridge that was blown away by the flooding.

GET SOME OF THESE DOWN TO ASHVILLE: Rubble from Bombed Ukrainian Buildings Is Being Turned into LEGO-like Blocks to Make New Homes (WATCH)

Meanwhile, a contributing editor for Road & Track posted an image of helicopter flight paths on X. The copters belonged to the three entities mentioned above going back and forth to western North Carolina where damage has been particularly bad.

Support has been shown from beyond the sporting world as well, with Lowes and Home Depot contributing $2 million each through a variety of support operations.

PEOPLE COMING TOGETHER: Drive-Thru Food Pantry Serves Thousands in a California Food Desert with Nutritious Groceries

This week, Lowe’s stores will host relief events to distribute cleanup supplies in more than 25 communities across the affected regions. The company is also working closely with first responders to distribute relief supplies and donate much-needed products, like water, chainsaws, and generators, a statement said.

Home Depot’s donations will go to the American Red Cross, World Central Kitchen, Convoy of Hope, Team Rubicon, and Operation Blessing—all organizations currently on the ground assisting affected communities.

OTHER RECENT DISASTER NEWS: Joy Returning to Maui: Walmart and Salvation Army Bring Holiday Cheer, Surprising Thousands of Kids with Toys

Team Depot, the volunteer force of the home improvement brand, is also working to help clean up in local communities in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and Georgia, including The Home Depot’s hometown of Atlanta. Money will also go to furnishing “tool banks” with the equipment needed to support cleanup and rebuilding efforts.

There are dozens of ways to help those affected with donations.

SHARE The Collective Private Sector Response To This Unprecedented Storm…

Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story mistakenly referred to the David and Nicole Tepper Foundation as simply ‘The Tepper Foundation’. 

Photographer Discovers Ancient Pendant Thousands of Years Old on a Cornwall Beach

By
Andy Corbley
-
Ancient pendant found by Nikki Banfield on a beach at the Isles of Scilly, England – SWNS
Ancient pendant found by Nikki Banfield on a beach at the Isles of Scilly, England – SWNS

43-year-old Nikki Banfield says it’s always when she’s not looking for treasures on the beach that she finds treasures on the beach.

Recently, she came upon a glass ‘cameo’ about the size of a penny with the depiction of a woman’s face, an object that may be 200 years old, but could also be 2,000 years old.

SWNS – via Nikki Banfield

Cameos, Banfield explains to the English media service SWNS, are known as ‘glyptics.’ These little ornaments are associated with ancient Greece and Rome and have been around for thousands of years.

However, she adds that cameos became popular jewelry pieces throughout the Victorian period, leading to the confusion over its origin.

Banfield adopted the handle The BareFoot Photographer due to venturing without shoes whilst capturing images from her local environment on the Isles of Scilly, a small archipelago off the tip of Cornwall, England, where she found the curio.

“I always find when I’m on the beach and am not looking for things that that is when I find things,” said Banfield. “I spotted what I thought was a button at first glance. But upon scooping it up, and holding it up to the light, I realized it was something very different.”

“We think this is a miniature glass cameo, rather than an intaglio—as the miniature head in the piece is raised, whereas in an intaglio, the design would be imprinted,” she added.

Banfield is meeting with a curator in the local Scilly museum to see if they can confirm the mystery around the object which is about the size of a thumbtack.

ALSO CHECK OUT: Postcard Finally Arrives in Swansea 121 Years After it Was First Sent–Quest to Find Descendants Begins

“It is about the right size to have been used in a small piece of jewelry, either a ring or a necklace. Collectively known as glyptics, and most strongly associated with ancient Greece and Rome, cameo and intaglio have been around for thousands of years.”

STUMBLING UPON HISTORY: Family Unearths Treasure of 1,500 Medieval Coins During Excavation for a New Swimming Pool

“Often used as talismans and for protection, they were carved with images of deities, mythological figures, animals, loved ones and narrative scenes,” she concluded, saying that the optimist and romantic in her would love to think it was something ancient, with a wonderful story.

“But whatever it turns out to be it’ll still be a hugely special find, as it’s beautiful and has captured the imaginations of so many.”

SHARE This Fascinating And Random Find On A Random Beach… 

Old Incubators Help Save Orphaned Kangaroos by Imitating Their Mother’s Pouch

By
Andy Corbley
-
Provided by Mandy Watson
Provided by Mandy Watson

When an Australian nurse working at a hospital with outdated incubators happened upon a kangaroo rescue center, she realized she could help save lives.

Once used to help save premature human babies, the incubators are now mimicking the conditions of a mother kangaroo’s pouch, where her joey will live for the first 8 months of its life.

Dozens of orphaned joeys and pinkies, or marsupial pups who haven’t opened their eyes yet, are brought into Kununurra Kangaroo Rescue Haven in East Kimberly, Australia, every year.

Because they are the largest terrestrial animal in Australia, an adult kangaroo rarely has to worry about predators and their populations can balloon quite dramatically. This, unfortunately, renders them much like whitetail deer in the US—at extreme risk of becoming roadkill.

Mandy Watson, director of the Kununurra Haven, has saved hundreds of orphaned joeys from their moms who have been hunted or struck by vehicles. Young, pinky joeys can struggle to survive without the warmth and humidity of their mother’s pouch.

She has seen hundreds of orphans return to the wild, but thousands not make it to adulthood.

YOU’LL BE SURE TO LIKE: College Project Sparks Student to Start Orphanages for Homeless Kids in Philippines: ‘Why haven’t I started this?’

“In 20 years, we’ve released 823 back into the wild. It’s really hard, especially in the dry season, for us to keep up that constant temperature,” Watson told ABC News Down Under. “The humidicrib (incubator) is going to be a constant temperature that’s going to dramatically help [to] save a few more lives.”

Mandy Watson (left) and a volunteer play with some joeys next to their truck-mounted incubator. Provided by Jane Darlington

The humidicribs were donated by nurse Jane Darlington, a clinical pediatric nurse at the Kununurra District Hospital. The hospital needed to get rid of them as the rapid march of medical technology had seen them become obsolete.

Darlington got the idea while shopping in town. She saw a volunteer from the rescue center helping to raise awareness of their work by walking around in a wallaby costume, holding one of their orphaned joeys.

MORE AUSTRALIAN WILD NEWS: When Prosthetic Makers Said it Couldn’t Be Done, Dentist Gives Orphaned Koala a New Foot

“It was very cute and caught my attention,” Darlington remembered. “I’m very pleased we’ve been able to give [the incubator] to somebody [who will] use it.”

SHARE These Women And Their Saintly Rescue Operation With Your Friends…

“Happy is the man whom the Muses love: sweet speech flows from his mouth.” – Hesiod

By
Good News Network
-

Quote of the Day: “Happy is the man whom the Muses love: sweet speech flows from his mouth.” – Hesiod

Photo: 1690 Painting by Johann Michael Rottmayr ‘Venus and Cupid’ – Art Institute of Chicago

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?

Frozen in Time: 32,000-Year-old Woolly Rhino Found with Skin, Fur, and Organs Intact

By
Andy Corbley
-
Artist Benjamin Langlois's impression of a woolly rhino. CC 4.0. BY SA, Benjamin Langlois, Wikimedia
Artist Benjamin Langlois’s impression of a woolly rhino. CC 4.0. BY SA, Benjamin Langlois, Wikimedia

Four years ago, someone came across an extraordinary find—a juvenile rhino from the Pleistocene ‘mummified’ in the Siberian permafrost.

Alerting the relevant authorities, the discovery turned out to be a 4-year-old woolly rhino (Coelodonta antiquitatis) with its fur, skin, and organs intact, offering paleontologists a rare glimpse into the biology of this Ice Age behemoth.

The specimen was found in August 2020 on the banks of the Tirekhtyakh River in Russia’s Sakha Republic. Researchers from institutes in Yakutsk and Moscow just released a paper on their investigations into the animal.

None of them were able to speak with Western news outlets, but the general consensus from scientists in the field not involved with the research is that the most notable discovery is the presence of a fatty hump around the shoulders very similar to the one seen in modern camels.

“We knew from skeletons and cave art that woolly rhinos had large shoulder humps,” Adrian Lister, a paleobiologist at the Natural History Museum in London told Ars Technica, adding that “maybe this is the first time fat has actually been discovered there, which for sure is a great discovery if so.”

credit – the Russian Academy of Sciences, released.

Indeed it has been hypothesized that perhaps these woolly rhinos had reservoirs of calories stored in a camel-like hump for long, bleak winters. Other species of Ice Age mammals had this same trick, but other researchers assumed it was part of the animal’s display equipment.

While the authors of the examination didn’t explain how it was found, leading to the suspicion it was unearthed by mammoth ivory hunters, the animal’s left half was so badly damaged they could only conclude it was eaten by predators, perhaps suggesting it was found after defrosting naturally from the permafrost.

The specimen bore a light brown coat of fur, suggesting that rhinos were born with something like a blonde coloration that gradually darkened as hairs in preparation for adulthood.

OTHER ANCIENT BEASTS: Paleontologists Hunted for This Giant Bird Skull for Over a Century–Finally, a Complete ‘Thunderbird’

Another feature of its fur were the preserved remnants of small parasites—water fleas—which no longer exist in the region today, indicating how much the environment, even so far north, has changed. Future examinations, perhaps on its intact stomach, might reveal details about its diet.

It was the second-largest animal in its ecosystem behind the woolly mammoth, and despite the smilarities, they inhabited different enviornments. Additionally, the mammoth made the leap across the Bearing Land Bridge, while the rhino didn’t. Paleoecologists don’t know why, and it remains one of the bigger questions in Siberan history.

MORE ICE AGE MUMMIES: First Ever Perfectly-Preserved Extinct Ice Age Cave Bear Discovered by Reindeer Herders in the Russian Arctic

While impressive, this isn’t the most complete rhino ever found subjected to cryomummification. A specimen from 1929 discovered in Poland that was missing only fur and horn, and a plaster cast made for the Natural History Museum in London seems like the animal died last week.

SHARE The Story Of This Ice Age Rhino Mummy With Your Friends… 

Trending Moms are Leaving Gift Cards in Store Diaper Aisles–For Postpartum Peer Relief

By
Andy Corbley
-
Video screenshots from ‘She Deserved The Purse Challenge’ – TikTok @thekatiebeach
Video screenshots from ‘She Deserved The Purse Challenge’ – TikTok @thekatiebeach

A rather unique story is sweeping American social media—moms leaving presents for other moms inside baby products.

The story began when Nashville mom Denaesha Gonzalez went to Target and saw a strange yet translatable sight—a silver clutch purse placed on the shelf with the baby supplies.

A mother, Gonzalez reasoned, had picked out the clutch which retailed for $20, but gave up her own desires in order to provide for her baby. Gonzalez posted a video of it on her TikTok account which later went viral.

In it, a long inhale and exhale is followed with the caption: “She Deserved The Purse…To the Mother who chose themselves last, you deserve the world tonight and always.”

The video went mega-viral, being viewed by tens of millions of people, and it launched a spontaneous nationwide campaign to hide gift cards or cash inside boxes of diapers and other projects that was propelled all the further after Gonzalez’s video was seen by Cecily Bauchmann, a “mom influencer.”

She went into a Target and recorded a video of herself buying a $100 gift card, writing a note, and walking through the store to stash it for a lucky, hardworking mom to find.

“Hey! You deserve that special ‘you’ thing. You are amazing!” the note, which she put in between a bag of Huggies.

Bauchmann called it the #shedeservedthepurse challenge, and the Washington Post reports there are now over 150 videos on TikTok under this hashtag—all featuring either women leaving gifts for their postpartum peers, or finding the gifts and—usually—recording a tear-soaked thank you video about it.

PAY IT FORWARD CAMPAIGNS: A New Drinking Game Is Sweeping Britain: Sending Pints to Strangers Across the Nation

Katie Beach, a stay-at-home mother of a 2-year-old boy and 2-month-old girl, told The Post that the videos affected her deeply.

She replicated Bauchmann’s stunt, doubled then quartered the cash, and left the presents all over the baby aisle.

GREAT WAYS TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA: He Shares the Happiest Moments in People’s Lives While Traveling Through Every Country

“Social media was always an aspirational place where people weren’t really showing the truth,” Beach said. “I think recently, as we all start to show more of the truth, it makes motherhood feel so much less alone.”

WATCH one of the videos below… 

@thekatiebeach This is the cutest!! Got the idea from @Kayzie Weedman & @Cecily Bauchmann . Tag me if you do it too! Thank you for starting this @Denaesha Gonzalez #momsoftiktok #momlife #momtok #shedeservedthepurse #toddlermom #stayathomemom ♬ original sound - Katie Beach | mom & lifestyle

SHARE This Amazing, Loving Use Of Social Media With Your Friends… 

Previously Unknown Mozart Song Discovered in German Library After 200 Years

By
Andy Corbley
-
Deutsch Otto Erich
Deutsch Otto Erich

Imagine if you were flipping through records at a store and discovered an unreleased single from Jimi Hendrix or Freddie Mercury.

That’s what archivists must have felt when they held up 200-year-old sheet music for a composition about 12 minutes long.

They realized that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was about to drop a new track, more than 200 years after his death.

Researchers at Leipzig Municipal Library were revising the Köchel catalogue, a physical, chronology of his compositions when they pulled out one from the 1760s—when the child prodigy was a pre-teen.

Entitled Serenate ex C. and given the shorthand name “Ganz kleine Nachtmusik,” the piece was composed for a string trio and contains 7 separate movements. The name on the music sheets is Wolfgang Mozart. He didn’t start including his middle name until he was 19.

“We are convinced that we can now present a completely unknown, charming piece by the young Mozart,” Ulrich Leisinger, head of research at the Mozarteum Foundation, told the German Press Agency in advance of the opening night.

ALSO CHECK OUT: Lost Rembrandt Found Tucked Away Inside an Attic in Maine Sells for $1.4 Million in Bidding War

The first modern performance of it took place last week at the composer’s birthplace in Salzburg, Austria, and was carried out by students from the Johann Sebastian Bach School of Music. A line stretched half a kilometer across the Augustusplatz of people waiting to for something that any one of them would surely have admitted they never thought could happen—hearing a new Mozart piece.

Classical FM wrote that certain aspects of the piece seem to suggest it was written to be performed outdoors, as several sharp, staccato intros were probably there to grab the attention of promenading well-to-doers.

MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: Original US Constitution Found in a Cabinet While Family Was Moving After 7 Generations–Now at Auction

In attempting to communicate the style of Mozart to modern readers, several news outlets described his compositions as beloved for their simplicity, symmetry, and balance. He wrote over 600 in his lifetime before dying young.

WATCH the performance below… 

SHARE This Once-In-A-Lifetime Discovery With Your Friends Who Listen To Classical Radio…

Gene Therapy at Duke Improves NC Dad’s Failing Vision Just in Time for His Baby’s Birth

By
Andy Corbley
-
Duke University Hospital - credit, Duke.edu released
Duke University Hospital – credit, Duke.edu released

A touching story comes now from North Carolina of a man who saw a reversal in his progressive blindness just in time to see the face of his newborn son.

The new father was born with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and knew even from a young age that it would mean a total loss of vision.

Tyler Wilfong never had near-sight, and by 23 he had his driver’s license revoked for the loss of peripheral vision. Gradually he had to rely more and more on help from others to get around.

“It was inevitable, but I kept my faith in God and I just had a feeling that one day something would change,” he recalled to CBS 17. “And you know, 30-some years later, here comes this opportunity.”

Many different faulty gene copies can lead to RP, and after applying for candidacy in a medical trial at Duke University, he found that the gene therapy being tested was for the ones at fault for his vision loss.

“There’s a gene that is important for the retina to work properly, and a mutation in that gene renders it not functional, and so what we try to do is to bring a healthy copy of that gene into the eye through an injection,” said Dr. Oleg Alexeev, Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at Duke University Eye Center.

That injection contains a disarmed virus that is instead a carrier of those healthy gene copies. Engineered to infiltrate the retina, the virus deposits the gene copy and then dies.

In the spring, Wilfong received this functional copy in one eye, and within hours realized he could see the hand in front of his face—something which he had never been able to do before.

EYESIGHT RESTORED: 

The defective gene copy that Wilfong was born with is responsible for merely 1% of the 100,000 Americans who suffer from RP, and Dr. Alexeev says his colleagues across the country really have their work cut out for them to expand on this gene therapy treatment.

But for Wilfong, seeing his hand was just the start—beholding his baby boy was the real reward for his faith—in the divine, and perhaps also in modern medicine.

“It’s been a blessing,” he told CBS 17’s Maggie Newland. “It’s made of a world of difference. Just simple tasks that you don’t even think of, like changing his clothes.”

WATCH the story below from CBS 17…

SHARE This Tear-Jerker With Your Friends On Social Media… 

“The principles of true art is not to portray, but to evoke.” – Jerzy Kosinski

By
Good News Network
-

Quote of the Day: “The principles of true art is not to portray, but to evoke.” – Jerzy Kosinski

Photo: 1883 painting by Walter Langley – Birmingham Museums Trust

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?

55-Year-old Janitor Cleans Up on America’s Got Talent Winning $1M for Heart-Wrenching ‘Don’t Stop Believing’

By
Andy Corbley
-
Janitor Richard Goodall singing at his school -Instagram
Janitor Richard Goodall singing at his school –Instagram

Richard Goodall, a 55-year-old school janitor, became the winner of America’s Got Talent season 19 in a true underdog story that culminated with him claiming a $1 million prize.

He beat out a drone light show, and a dog act to win the finale with a belting rendition of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin.'”

He made it to the final with performances of other famous falsetto tracks like “Eye of the Tiger,” and Journey’s “Faithfully.”

But it wasn’t all neon lights and red carpets for Goodall, who had an audition tape turned down by NBC’s The Voice on his way to AGT. Perhaps frustrated by the rejection, Goodall took the opportunity of a 5th-grade graduation ceremony to sing “Don’t Stop Believin'” when the occasion typically calls for a patriotic song by Lee Greenwood instead.

TikTok was sent into a frenzy over “Indiana’s singing janitor,” who was encouraged by commenter after commenter to audition for AGT as well.

Throughout the season, Goodall repeatedly won the audience’s vote, beating out a Zimbabwean comedian, a death-defying Tanzanian acrobat troupe, and others to claim Heidi Klum’s Golden Buzzer and help win host/judge Howie Mandell a wager he had made from day one that the singing janitor would go all the way.

“You are such an amazing man. You are so humble, you’re so kind. You are also a little bit quiet, but not when you are behind the microphone!” Klum told Goodall during the final round. “Then you are a big rockstar! … I want you to win this so bad, Richard.”

OTHER HUMBLE TALENTS: Carpet Cleaner With Autism Has Learned 40 Languages – Watch His Talent in Action

OTHER INSPIRING TALENTS: Ingenious Dancers Stun Judges to Make Finals of America’s Got Talent – WATCH

When he eventually did, Goodall ran it back alongside Journey founder Neal Schon, who had been following his progress, and the rest of the band for a stellar performance.

His employer of West Vigo Middle School did its part to drum up support among the community for Goodall, and since the $1 million is paid as an annuity over decades, he’ll be showing up on Monday to sweep and mop the floors as he’s been doing for years “at least for a while…”

WATCH the finale-winning performance below…

SHARE This Unbelievable Rags To Riches Story With Your Friends’ Who’ve Stopped Believin’… 

1...131132133...1,690Page 132 of 1,690
© Copyright 1997–2025 GNN, LLC