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This Isn’t Pasta–It’s Star-Shaped Sand Found in Japan With A Huge Secret Hidden Inside

By
Andy Corbley
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credit - Mouser Williams CC 2.0., Flickr
credit – Mouser Williams CC 2.0., Flickr

GNN is not beyond taking a moment to admire the majesty of nature, regardless of form, or in this case, size.

If you went to one of the beaches of the Ryukyu Islands of Japan—take Okinawa for example, and picked up a grain of sand and held it under a magnifying glass, you might notice something amazing—it would have a star shape.

Japan has one of the world’s highest concentrations of star sand beaches on Earth. Sand is made up of ground stone and coral that’s been reduced to grains over many years, but star sand was once actually a living organism.

“Star sand is an empty shell of unicellular microorganisms called Foraminifera,” ‪Kazuhiko Fujita, a professor at the University of the Ryukyus, told National Geographic. “It looks like a star in a cartoon… It has a rounded body with five or more spines like a sea star.”

The beaches on islands like Taketomi, Hatoma, and Iriomote are made up of the skeletons of these microorganisms.

They live under the sea on the crests of reefs, or on the flat sandy plains on the side of the reef that’s sheltered from the current and waves.

While seemingly straightforward, these little star sand Foraminifera have a companion microorganism that shares the interior of their stary exterior—a diatom.

ALSO CHECK OUT: Rare ‘Doomsday’ Fish Surfaces in California–Just the 20th Discovered in the State Since 1901

Diatoms are one of the ocean’s hidden workhorses. They are microscopic algal cells that convert light into carbohydrates and oxygen—i.e. photosynthesis.

Star sand on Hatoma beach – credit, Alain Couette, CC 2.0.

The presence of the diatom inside the star sand accounts for why the skeleton of the Foraminifera forms a star shape. The star points, which are not symmetrical or uniform, allow light to penetrate the exoskeleton and reach the diatoms which in turn convert it to energy to feed both it and the star sand.

As they pass away, the skeletons are washed up on beaches.

MORE ASTONISHING SEA LIFE: White Tufted Sea Creatures Among the Winners in This Underwater Photography Contest

“As their population grows, the number of those skeletons grows, so the sand itself grows,” Mark Wilson, an invertebrate paleontologist at the College of Wooster in Ohio, tells Nat Geo. This could mean “they may play some role in protecting these little islands, essentially adding material to the shores of the island.”

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Door Guardian Sculpture Discovered at Angkor Archaeological Park

By
Andy Corbley
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Credit - APSARA National Authority (ANA), handout
Credit – APSARA National Authority (ANA), handout

Even in the world’s most excavated ancient sites like the Pyramids and Angkor Wat, discoveries are made all the time.

Take this story from Cambodia for example, where at the Angkor Archaeological Park, a nearly complete Dvarapala sculpture, or “door guard” in South Asian mythology, was found buried under the Banteay Prei temple.

Carved of sandstone, the statue had been apparently dislodged because of damage to the upper structure of the gate it was guarding. It was found buried two-and-a-half feet below the ground.

Banteay Prei is a rarely visited temple located near another small temple called Prasat Prei in the northwest corner of the Angkor site. A Buddhist temple, (Angkor was a Buddhist kingdom though also contained many Hinduism elements) Banteay Prei was built by King Jayavarman VII in the late 12th or early 13th century.

“The statue remains in relatively good condition. However, it was found head down facing west, with the body broken into six pieces, including damage to the neck, forearm, left side, waist, and below the knees of both legs,” Chea Sarith, an archaeologist from Cambodia’s Department of Conservation of Monuments and Preventive Archaeology, said in a statement. “A part of its stick is also missing.”

The Dvarapala is a ubiquitous element in Asian ornamental sculpture and architecture. A Sanskrit word meaning door guard, it can be found all across the Buddhist world, including in Japan, Indonesia, and Korea, while also being a constant presence in Hindu and Jain architecture as well.

A dvarapala at Banteay Kdei, Angkor, Cambodia. credit – Diego Delso, CC 3.0.

They can be enormous, monstrous, snake-like, sprite-like, divine, or bedecked with jewels, but the ones at Angkor were carved into lean, modest figures with downward-pointing clubs.

There’s a real element of China’s Terracotta Army about the newly-discovered door guard.

KEEP READING ASIAN HISTORY: 4,000-Year-Old Pyramid Rises From the Soil of Kazakhstan–First of its Kind Ever Found on the Eurasian Steppes

Angkor Archaeological Park is 401 square kilometers, which for a cultural heritage site is nearly unique in the world in terms of size. Many of the kingdom’s most famous temples are concentrated, but there are other temples and structures all over the area that receive almost no visitors.

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“You’re wishin’ too much, baby. You gotta stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone oughtta be.” – Elizabeth Gilbert

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “You’re wishin’ too much, baby. You gotta stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone oughtta be.” – Elizabeth Gilbert

Photo by: Hasan Almasi

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?

Rubble from Bombed Ukrainian Buildings Is Being Turned into LEGO-like Blocks to Make New Homes (WATCH)

By
Andy Corbley
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Credit: Crisis Construction
Credit: Crisis Construction

An Australian startup has created the world’s first mobile brick factory that pulverizes rubble from ruined buildings and presses them into LEGO-like bricks.

Idealized as the ultimate in long-term housing solutions for disaster areas, locals who need shelter can place the rubble from their ruined homes inside the machine and within a few days will have thousands of bricks with which to build sturdy homes.

If one thinks about it, ‘rubble’ is a word that has many meanings. In all its depth, rubble implies the presence of clay-based brick, cement or concrete, shattered glass, perhaps metal rebar or drywall. But most critically, rubble generally entails a harrowing, traumatic experience in a human heart.

It was this tragic aspect that led Manfred Him and Blake Stacey to design a machine that would help locals turn their shattered lives into new hope—recycling disaster into relief.

While today’s disasters are a fleeting feature in the 24-hour news cycle, Mobile Crisis Construction (MCC) has utilized the continual coverage of the war in Ukraine to gather enough funding to get their project well and truly on the road.

“In a few weeks after the war started, some pictures came to be seen, and I saw this old lady sitting in front of her completely destroyed house and it just cut deep to my heart,” said Hin, in a video produced by MCC. “And in my heart I said, ‘I can help this woman.’”

The MCC brick factory ticks many boxes. It’s mounted inside a shipping container for quick and easy transport around the world. Rubble is mixed with cement, which when clay-like soil is added, cures the bricks without the need of a high-temperature kiln. For this reason, it also doesn’t need significant power to work and can be run on a generator in areas where the grid is down.

Mobile brick-making machine inside storage container – Crisis Construction

Each mobile factory requires 120,000 Australian dollars to be shipped to Ukraine, arriving ready to be fully operational with minimal local input and minimal local expertise to operate. The bricks are produced in a LEGO-like, interlocking fashion that doesn’t require mortar—and in areas where it’s available, rebar can be inserted into holes running through the center of the bricks to reinforce them.

HURRICANE-PROOF SHELTER: Dominica Financed 2,000 Hurricane-Proof Homes for Locals by Offering Citizenship to Foreigners Who Invest

MCC has plans to establish the initial rebuilding efforts in a relatively safe area near Kyiv, and expand operations into other areas as needed, dependent on funding.

The first project, a collaboration with a local foundation, will rebuild several townhouses. “It’s very simple construction, all in a row,” Nic Matich, one of the co-founders of MCC, told Fast Company. “It’s sort of a test case.”

With unlimited cement, clay, and rubble, a single machine can make up to 8,000 bricks per day and MCC estimates it can produce enough blocks to construct 10 small homes every three days, or one schoolhouse.

MORE PORTABLE DISASTER RELIEF: Revolutionary Portable Airdrop Hospital Unveiled in India Quickly Deploys to Treat 200 People During Disasters

Stacey explains that he has spent his whole career around bricks. “If you’re a doctor you do your thing, but for me I make bricks, so I do my thing. You could say it’s a labor of love,” he said with tears in his eyes.

WATCH the video below…

SHARE This Genius Machinery And The Noble Mission For Which It Was Developed…

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

By
Andy Corbley
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Credit: State Office for Monument Preservation in Stuttgart
Credit: State Office for Monument Preservation in Stuttgart

The kids of one German household would have been bouncing with excitement as excavations for their new below-ground pool were going on. But imagine their surprise when men from the local council arrived to explain they had found buried treasure instead.

Described by Live Science as “the biggest treasure since 1949 in the region of Freiburg,” the State Office for Monument Preservation in Stuttgart was alerted by a man digging a trench for the pool’s piping after he noticed “small metal plates.”

Claus Völker was working on the pool in Glottertal, a small municipality in the area around Freiburg that was once the center of one of Germany’s biggest silver industries.

After he and his wife began finding more and more of the small “plates” Völker halted his digging and contacted the local council, which sent three certified metal detectives to search the trench where they found 1,000 silver coins dating to the 14th century.

Despite a local deluge turning the excavation area into a muddy soup for days, the detectives returned and were rewarded with another 600 coins.

“You could have bought about 150 sheep with the coins,” said participating archaeologist Andreas Haasis-Berner.

Some of the 1,500 silver coins discovered in the Black Forest region of Germany. (Image credit Courtesy of the State Office for Monument Preservation in the Stuttgart Regional Council)

“These are mainly coins from the mints of Breisach, Zofingen, and Freiburg, which were minted in the period around 1320 [CE],” Haasis-Berner said in a translated statement. “In addition, there are a few coins from Basel, St. Gallen, Zurich, Laufenburg, and Colmar.”

HOARDS OF HISTORY: 

The evaluation of this coin hoard will hopefully better inform the history and development of minting in Breisgau—an area once a part of Freiburg, and which was controlled by the houses of Zähringen and Urach.

These dynasties from the Middle Ages controlled Glotteral when the minting activity in this area of the Black Forest was booming. In the 1940s, a hoard of 5,000 silver coins was found in Breisgau, but despite Glotteral being known as a medieval mining Mecca, until now, no coins had been found here.

SHARE This Buried Treasure With Your Friends On Social Media… 

US National Parks Are Receiving Record-High Gift of $100 Million to Protect and Restore Fragile Ecosystems

By
Andy Corbley
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A reef in Biscayne Bay National Park - credit National Park Service
A reef in Biscayne Bay National Park – credit National Park Service

The official non-profit organization representing America’s National Parks has received notice that it is set to receive the largest philanthropic gift of its history.

$100 million has been set aside for the National Parks Foundation (NPF) from the Lilly Endowment for the purpose of protecting the most fragile ecosystems our parks contain.

Some national parks like Glacier or Canyonlands are enshrined to protect whole tracts of pristine landscape, while others are established to protect very small tracts of very vulnerable ecosystems, like Biscayne Bay and Channel Islands.

To that purpose, Lilly Endowment Inc. has made it known that the $100 million is for the purpose of protecting ecosystems at immediate risk of degradation.

AP reported that the money will be used to address the needs in sites beyond the 63 national parks, said Will Shafroth, president and CEO of the NPF, of which over 400 are managed by the National Park Service.

Restoring coral reefs in Biscayne Bay National Park and other reef-bearing parks, restoring wild trout species in western parks, and protecting the most delicate ecosystems have all been among the NPF’s recent work, and Shafroth expects the first round of grants stemming from the Lilly gift to be within these areas.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: National Park Bounces Back From California’s Biggest Single Fire: ‘There’s still beauty’

Over much of the 21st century, a backlog of deferred maintenance in the national parks grew until it amounted to around $7 billion in needed work. The Great American Outdoors Act, passed by the 116th Congress and signed into law by President Trump, attempted to address this by permanently reauthorizing the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a mechanism that diverts 50% of all the money made from sales of energy (coal, oil, natural gas) on federally-owned land to conservation grants.

It was estimated by Congress that this would generate $9.5 billion for the national parks over five years. However, a recent re-examination of the maintenance needs by the NPS places the needed funding at around $24 billion.

In light of this, the NPF has launched a fund drive looking for private donors to make up part of the difference. Lilly is the first to have contributed.

MORE NATIONAL PARKS NEWS: Some of the Best National Parks Where You Can Avoid the Summer Crowds

Philanthropic gifts like the one from Lilly are crucial as they allow the NPS to act immediately to address time-sensitive and critical projects while they, like all the other federal agencies, jockey over budget negotiations and allocation, the NPF said.

“For over 50 years, private philanthropy has played a vital role in bridging the gap between park needs and available funding. This grant will allow us to supercharge our efforts to ensure our national parks are for everyone, for generations to come,” President Shafroth said in a statement. 

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Florida Man Deploys ‘Subliminal’ Advertising to Incite Happiness Through Viral Sign-Hanging Campaign

By
Andy Corbley
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credit - the Happiness Experiment, retrieved from Facebook
credit – the Happiness Experiment, retrieved from Facebook

“That’s 602,” says Gary King, climbing down from a ladder propped up against a telephone poll, a red and white sign reading “HAPPINESS” newly affixed to its side.

“All I’m doing is subliminal experiments using one word, one word. This word has been around forever but where do you see it? You don’t.”

King has been hanging metal Happiness signs all over St. Petersburg, Florida, since 2019. It’s all part of The Happiness Experiment, a sociology project to subtly influence the population of his hometown through subliminal advertisement.

Profiled in Fox News 13’s “Extraordinary Ordinaries” segment with Walter Allen, King says six proven sociological effects go into his work, the most powerful of which is what advertising companies have done for a century. By putting their logos everywhere, their products remain at the front of your mind.

But what if instead of selling soft drinks or fast food, the goal of that advertisement was to put a smile on your face? That’s King’s mission.

But as joyful as Gary King may seem driving around his home in his F150 wearing his official Happiness Experiment t-shirt and ballcap, the crucible of this happy work was the darkest depths of despair.

In 2012, his son Brian took his own life, leading King into a spiral of unhappiness that almost resulted in him doing the same. The Happiness Experiment’s first test subject was none other than King himself.

LIFT YOURSELF UP TO THE CLOUDS:

Today, King revels in messages received from Floridians who see the signs all over Florida and are affected by them.

“I first saw the happiness experiment TB signs on the day of my miscarriage last year. The signs reminded me that it was all going to be okay, and that I could find happiness during and after this,” read a letter he received.

In another letter, a woman bearing the burden of severe bipolar disorder almost ended her life—from the edge of the very same bridge King’s son Brian used to end his. But on her way there she saw one of the Happiness signs and turned around with fresh perspective.

Perhaps that’s why King said the greatest gift he ever received was his suffering.

WATCH King on Extraordinary Ordinaries with Walter Allen…

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“I think and think for months and years. 99 times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I’m right.” – Albert Einstein

By
Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I’m right.” – Albert Einstein

Photo by: Dollar Gill

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?

5,000 Are Now Sleeping with Roof Over Their Head Thanks to Oregon Task Force Slashing Homelessness

By
Andy Corbley
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Credit: Multnomah County Oregon
Credit: Multnomah County Oregon

Nearly 5,500 Oregonians have been moved out of homelessness and into housing thanks to persistence from a recently-appointed task force.

This amounts to a 28% increase from the previous year, and the number of housing placements is the most seen in a fiscal year since the task force’s inception.

Located in Multnomah County, one of two counties into which the metropolis of Portland extends, the Joint Office of Homeless Services, set up in 2016, has been hard at work in the city and the surrounding counties addressing what is the largest homeless epidemics in the country.

In a recently compiled dashboard, the Joint Office revealed its gradually growing successes in tackling the problem, which in addition to the figures reported above, included a 35%, amounting to nearly 7,700 people, in the number of residents that “entered shelter” this year over last year.

“These outcomes show what we all know to be true: When we work together, we can create some positive results. These outcomes would not be possible without the providers and front-line staff who have worked tirelessly every day, with deep commitment, to make this progress possible,” said Dan Field, director of the Joint Office of Homeless Services.

Funded by Portlanders in 2020, the Supportive Housing Services Measure which runs a variety of services aimed at helping people experiencing homelessness, allowed for 2,600 additional people to be rehoused—greatly aiding the Joint Office’s efforts.

In adjacent Clackamas County, the rate of homelessness fell by 65% from 2019 to 2023, with 429 people and 223 homeless households being placed in permanent supportive housing, exceeding the stated goal for the period by 20, GNN reported.

Utilizing money from the Supportive Housing Services Measure, Clackamas was able to prevent 1,369 people, and 591 households from being evicted.

NEIGHBORS HELPING NEIGHBORS: Beautiful Homeless Shelters Get Radical Redesign to Impact Residents

“We work hard to reduce and prevent homelessness early on before it even happens, with rental assistance, and we make sure that we have the resources and the assets up and running to give people housing when they need it,” Ben West, Clackamas County commissioner, told KATU News.

COMBATTING HOMELESSNESS: Texas Tiny Home Community Thrives With 2,000 Neighbors: Easing Homelessness in Austin

“Our work this year would not have been possible without us leaning into partnership, both building new connections and strengthening old ones. None of us can do it alone,” said Field. “These outcomes show that we are on an upward trajectory. We are leaving the past in the past, taking the lessons with us into the future, and pushing forward together.”

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Passionate Mushroom Researcher Spends Decade Unravelling Mystery of 200-year-old Museum Specimen

By
Andy Corbley
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Scientist Tom May has been recognized internationally for his work with fungi - released to the media.
Scientist Tom May has been recognized internationally for his work with fungi – released to the media.

A passionate expert on fungi has spent a decade trying to discover the identity behind a preserved and mislabeled specimen in an Australian collection—all for the sake of science.

Despite being one of the 5 kingdoms of life—alongside animals, plants, and two kinds of microorganisms—mycology, or the study of fungi, is not only a niche field, but a shrinking one.

At the National Herbarium in Melbourne, Australia works Tom May, the institution’s principal research scientist in mycology.

He’s a man for his place and time, to quote The Big Lebowski, and has worked for decades studying and identifying various fungi—and none presented a greater challenge than a small sample of wood and fungus contained within a handmade blue envelope dating back over a century.

It was donated to the Herbarium by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Victoria, and inside Dr. May found some small shriveled mushroom samples bearing only an untraceable name.

Dr. May opened that blue packet a decade ago, and unraveling the mystery of the sample therein required a masterclass in scientific sleuthing that took him all over Europe.

For all the time spent sifting through what were probably inventory records, May’s closest encounter while trying to identify the mysterious old sample was a book by a German researcher published in Latin back in 1805.

The little blue packet and tiny specimen that piqued Dr. May’s interest – released to the media.

A team of German scientists wrote the Conspectus fungorum in Lusatiae superioris, in which they documented 1,000 samples of mushrooms and molds found near the border between Germany and Poland. The blue packet contained the name Tremella saligna, and Dr. May believed it was one of around 300,000 specimens obtained by the then-Government Botanist of Victoria in 1883.

Finding out more was “sort of like putting bits together of a jigsaw”, May told ABC News Down Under.

Why it’s important

Today, searching for species by taxonomy is an invaluable resource for scientists studying life on Earth. Regardless of the scientist’s spoken language, they can communicate with each other, read inventories and papers, and conduct research, all in Latin—as taxonomy uses Latin exclusively.

Plants, birds, and especially fungi, often take on numerous colloquial names by local cultures, causing confusion as groups of people in the same country—even using the same language—will give different nicknames to the same species.

A page from the book published more than 200 years ago. Dr. May’s sample appears as number 7 – released to the media.

Even though it bore a Latin name, it was no straightforward thing for scientists so long ago to alert all of Europe that, for example, they had found a small tree-growing mushroom in Germany and officially named it.

MIND-BLOWING MUSHROOM DISCOVERIES: 

For that reason, May had to travel to the USA and Germany to confer with scientists about whether the specimen held in the Herbarium was the same as in the book. In Germany however, he found a handwritten list created by one of the book’s authors: Johannes Baptista von Albertini.

“We were thrilled to see that the handwritten names in Albertini’s list and on the specimens exactly matched,” Dr. May said.

Sure enough, the species had been catalogued even before Albertini’s 1805 publication as Propolis farinosa. ABC News described it as being like a phone book with the same person listed at two different addresses and numbers. Whoever logged it in the National Herbarium back in 1883 had taken the name from Albertini’s publication, one which mycology more broadly, had left behind.

The species has now been described, genetically mapped, and unified internationally as P. farinosa. Dr. May has also been recognized internationally, and inducted as a Fellow into the International Mycological Association for his outstanding contributions to mycology.

There are 150,000 species of described fungi, but there may be as many as 3.5 million out there yet to be discovered. Fungi—which contain both the lifeforms that produce mushrooms and molds—are thought to represent a pharmacological gold mine. Having already provided a little something called “penicillin” to medical science, fungi show strong natural anticancer effects—and mycologists like Dr. May say it is a key area to search for new medicines.

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People Seen as Wise Share These Characteristics – All Over the World

By
Andy Corbley
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A modern statue of Socrates, Greece. credit - lentina_x, CC 2.0.
A modern statue of Socrates, Greece. credit – lentina_x, CC 2.0.

Across different cultures and countries, people perceive the wisest members of society to be logical and reflective as well as able to consider other people’s feelings and perceptions.

This was found in a new study that examined people’s conceptions of wisdom as a characteristic in 16 radically different world cultures, from Japan and Slovakia to Ecuador and Morocco.

Wisdom: a hallowed human trait that transcends intelligence, knowledge, and age. Wisdom received is identified as much by the feeling it imparts as by any metric of truth or actionability it contains.

Hoping to produce a concrete, phenomenological blueprint of wise conduct and character in humans, a group of researchers from the Univ. of Waterloo, Canada, looked at perceptions of wisdom across 12 countries and five continents.

The results offer a template for the characteristics a person may have to develop in order for their peers to consider them wise. Those with such an aim should read the study, published in Nature Communications, carefully.

Researchers examined the underlying principles guiding who we perceive as wise in political leadership, science, and daily life. Across different cultures, participants’ judgments converged on two dimensions: reflective orientation and socio-emotional awareness. Reflective orientation includes characteristics such as thinking logically, emotion control, and application of knowledge. Socio-emotional awareness includes characteristics like care for other’s feelings and attention to social context.

“To our surprise, the two dimensions emerged across all cultural regions we studied, and both were associated with explicit attribution of wisdom,” said Dr. Maksim Rudnev, a postdoctoral research associate in psychology at Waterloo and lead author.

The study posits a universal way that people around the world might choose to judge, support, and trust leaders, educators, and others in positions of influence.

“While both dimensions of wisdom work together, people associate wisdom more with the reflective orientation. If someone is viewed as not able to reflect and think logically, then perceptions of them as socio-emotionally competent and moral won’t compensate,” said Dr. Igor Grossmann, the senior corresponding author and the director of the Wisdom and Culture Lab at Waterloo.

The collaboration among 26 research institutions was coordinated by the Geography of Philosophy consortium and included researchers from North and South Americas (Canada, U.S., Ecuador, and Peru), Asia (China, India, Japan, and South Korea), Africa (Morocco and South Africa), and Europe (Slovakia).

SOCIAL SCIENCES TODAY:  Humble Leaders Inspire Greater Cooperation Among Teachers – and Workers of All Kinds

The study involved 2,707 participants from 16 socio-economically and culturally diverse groups. They were prompted to compare 10 individuals, including scientists, politicians, and teachers, in the context of making a difficult choice in a real-life scenario without a clear right or wrong answer.

The participants were then asked to rate the degree of wisdom of these individuals and themselves. The data was analyzed to identify underlying dimensions governing perceptions of wisdom among individuals and between groups.

MORE WISDOM LIKE THIS: Retirees Share Top 40 Pearls of Wisdom With Our Younger Generations

“Interestingly, our participants considered themselves inferior to most exemplars of wisdom in regard to reflective orientation but were less self-conscious when it comes to socio-emotional characteristics,” Rudnev said.

“Understanding perceptions of wisdom around the world has implications for leadership, education, and cross-cultural communication. It is the first step in understanding universal principles in how others perceive wisdom people in different contexts.”

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Chef Returns to Kitchen Thanks to Floating Seat Invented After a Motorcycle Injury Made Him Immobile (WATCH)

By
Andy Corbley
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Chef Peter Lammer schwebt – Standing Ovation GmbH
Chef Peter Lammer – Standing Ovation GmbH

An Austrian chef who lost almost all control of his legs is back on the line again thanks to a brilliant invention from a friend.

A C-shaped metal hook suspended on a set of rails from the ceiling allows Chef Lammer to literally float through the kitchen, while setting his hands free to chop, dice, quarter, and fillet.

10 years ago, Peter Lammer from Salzburg suffered a serious motorcycle injury that left him without the use of his legs. Even with course after course of physical therapy, he is considered 80% disabled.

Besides unimaginable pain and mental strain, his financial future was hopeless and massively threatened from one day to the next. The love for his family as well as the passion for his job lit a fire of inspiration in the heart of Lammer’s friend, 52-year-old Bernhard Tichy.

Tichy ran a nearby zip line adventure course, and had an understanding of hanging movement. Together, they developed Standing Ovation, a one-of-a-kind device that allows disabled users to sit comfortably on a bicycle seat at the point of a large hook. The hook is attached by carabiners to a railing on the ceiling that allows the user to slide up and down the workplace.

AFTER THE INJURY: Paralyzed Man Sets Off to Cycle Entire Length of Britain on a Motorized Bike Controlled by His Chin

The user’s torso weight is transferred to Standing Ovation via the device and thus the hands remain free for work. Likewise, when lifting loads, any additional weight is taken over by a spring system in the device and there is no additional strain on the legs.

MORE GREAT ACCOMODATIVE INVENTIONS: Italian-Made Exoskeleton Gets Disabled Users Walking and Standing

With Standing Ovation, Lammer can pull a pot off the stove, and with a small flick of his leg, go gliding down the kitchen line to the prep station.

“All the experts said that I would never be able to do a standing job again,” Lammer told Reuters from the kitchen of his Salzburg restaurant Johanneskeller.

WATCH Lammer do his thing below from ABS-CBN News… 

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“If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act.” – Howard Zinn

By
Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act.” – Howard Zinn

Photo by: Florian Cordillot

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?

‘Everything Went Right’ Says Dad Who Lost His Wedding Ring on the Highway While Delivering Newborn in Backseat

By
Andy Corbley
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Danya and Rebecca Mahota with their daughters - Danya Mahota, released.
Danya and Rebecca Mahota with their daughters – Danya Mahota, released.

“Everything could have gone wrong, and everything went right,” were the concluding thoughts of Danya Mahota, new father for the second time.

It all started when his wife Rebecca, at 40 weeks pregnant, felt the contractions coming on fast and hard.

En route from their home in Brewster to the hospital in Plymouth, a 56-minute drive in the summertime traffic near Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Rebecca’s water broke.

As the saying goes, the second one comes quicker, and few could match the speed of little Summer, whose head was already out after the very next contraction. As that was happening, Mr. Mahota was pulling over on the side of the highway to help.

Summer was born there on the highway, and the Mahotas promptly sped off to the hospital with their newborn wrapped in a blanket.

Mahota was speaking with ABC affiliate WCVB in the aftermath of one of the most dramatic days of his life, and explained that at the hospital where Summer was pronounced healthy and complication-free, he noticed his wedding band had slipped off.

CHECK OUT THIS: Mom and Daughter Reunite With Nurse Who Saved Their Lives 30 Years Ago–Now as Co-Workers

Days later, he returned to the highway to search for the personal treasure.

“Just as we were about to leave, I looked down, and by the grace of God, I found it right between my toes. I was scraping some grass away, and I just couldn’t believe it,” he told WCVB. “Everything could have gone wrong, and everything went right.”

MORE FEEL GOOD MOMENTS: Woman Gives Birth in Lobby of Welsh Cinema and the Daughter Now Has Free Movies for Life

The story made it to GMA, where the parents of two daughters shared some insight from their harrowing highway experience.

“We would just like to remind all expecting parents that the hospital guidelines of when to go to the hospital are not always concrete, and in fact, it might be sooner, so follow your instincts and get down there if you can tell things are happening!” they wrote via email.

WATCH The story below from GMA…

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Seven ‘Spectacular’ Silver Bracelets from the Viking Age Unearthed by a Danish Student

By
Andy Corbley
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Poul Madsen Moesgaard Museum
Poul Madsen Moesgaard Museum

A 22-year-old Danish student has become the latest metal detective to dig up treasure buried by Vikings.

In the area around the Danish city of Aarhus, Gustav Bruunsgaard was out with his metal detector when it started beeping. The lad was already in an area where finds from the Viking Age have been uncovered, and one must have imagined he was excited.

He had every reason to be. He found a silver bracelet or arm ring, and returning later in the week, discovered another 6, which together weighed a little more than a pound of silver.

He reported his findings to the Moesgaard Museum in Højbjerg where the bracelets are currently on display. Experts at the museum reckon the rings date to the early 9th century, which, considering that Vikings were excellent storytellers, solidly would have represented the “good ole’ days” for them.

Generally considered to have been started in earnest after a famous raid on an English monetary in 793 CE, raiding Norsemen terrorized the coasts of Ireland, Scotland, England, France, Belgium, the Baltic nations, and some of the earliest Russian principalities along the Volga River.

In most of the early 9th century, this seaborne threat was too new, and local authorities too weak and decentralized to mount any meaningful defense against these invaders.

Poul Madsen Moesgaard Museum

“The Elsted farm treasure is a fantastically interesting find from the Viking Age, which connects Aarhus with Russia and Ukraine in the east and the British Isles in the west,” Kasper H. Andersen, a historian at the museum, said in the statement.

One of the coiled rings is of a type that originally came from Russia or Ukraine, which has since been imitated in the Nordic countries. The three band-shaped, stamped rings are of a southern Scandinavian type, which inspired bangles in Ireland, where they became very common. The three smooth bangles are rare, but are known from Scandinavia and England.

“In this way, the find emphasizes how Aarhus was a central hub in the Viking world, which went all the way from the North Atlantic to Asia.”

All that raiding and trading generated enormous profit, and silver was the Viking Age’s measure of value, the museum statement explains.

NEWS FROM THE VIKING AGE: Thousand-Year-Old Viking Hall Fit for the Gods Unearthed By Archaeologists in Denmark

The seven bangles have a total weight of more than half a kilo. Bangles like these were adapted to a common weight system, so you could easily see the value of the individual rings. It served as a means of payment and transaction, as well as demonstrating the financial capacity of the owner.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: 1,000-Year-Old Viking Coins Found by Young Girl With Metal Detector in a Cornfield

It’s believed the buried bracelets represent a hoard of hacksilver, which behind silver coins minted in Constantinople, Europe, and the Arab world, served as a common medium of exchange. Rings like the ones Bruunsgaard found were used as reference weights so that pieces of looted silver could be “hacked” apart into the correct size for trading practices.

The objects thusly hacked tended to be jewelry, raw ingots, or pieces of religious paraphernalia.

GNN reported recently on a discovery about the necessary sophistication of Viking economics and jurisprudence.

SHARE This Fantastic Find With Your Friends Who Love Vikings… 

Shells to Sweaters: Sustainable ‘Sea Wool’ Earns Millions for Taiwan Business Spinning Oyster Shells into Yarn

By
Andy Corbley
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Credit - Clint Patterson, unsplash CC 0.0.
Credit – Clint Patterson, unsplash CC 0.0.

A man in Taiwan is helping reduce fashion waste by creating a sustainable alternative to artificial textiles from an already existing waste stream.

He’s using oyster shells—which when ground up and processed can produce a flexible yarn similar to sheep’s wool that’s been appropriately dubbed “sea wool.”

According to the Taiwanese Department of Agriculture, 160,000 metric tons of mollusk shells are discarded annually from restaurant and fishing businesses.

This isn’t necessarily a waste material, as many fisheries have a policy to dump discarded shells onto oyster reefs. The shells are made of 95% calcium carbonate which is the perfect ingredient to repair and grow living oyster reefs as it greatly increases the number of surfaces the oyster larvae can glom onto.

Eddie Wang grew up in western Taiwan, where oysters and other shellfish have long been a profitable and delicious local industry. The South China Morning Post reports that Wang first got the idea to turn the shells into a thread from lower-income locals who use(d) crushed oysters to insulate their homes.

It was a great idea as it turns out, and materials scientists were keen to work with Wang to develop the industry and make it competitive with existing garment production.

TAIWAN NEWS: Abandoned Airport Turned into Sensory Experience Park Providing Green Refuge in Crowded Taiwan City

Today, Wang’s factory manufactures 900 tons of sea wool thread every year, and earns $6 million gross.

The top relevant results for a search on Google of “Sea Wool Clothes,” turns up the large men’s wear outlet Huckberry, whose line of gorgeous sea wool sweaters are priced very competitively with real wool sweaters of similar weave and texture.

MORE ALTERNATIVE TEXTILES: MIT Scientists Develop the Perfect Breathable Earth-Friendly Fabric Using The Same Material as Single-Use Bags

Being that oysters are calcium carbonate, a product used in many different industries, powdered oyster shells could be used to replace limestone quarrying, the major source of calcium carbonate, and a large source of emissions and pollution.

WATCH the story below from SCMP… 

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6-Year-old Boy Found in the Forest After 150 Searched for Five Days

By
Andy Corbley
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Vietnamese state media
Vietnamese state media

Relief flooded Vietnamese social media and news waves when reports that a young boy lost for 5 days in the tropical rainforest had finally been found.

A search party of police, volunteers, and soldiers reached 150 in number as they combed the mountains in the northwest Yen Bai Province.

The five year old Dang Tien Lam was playing in a creek with his siblings when after wandering up a hill, he probably became disoriented and searched down the wrong slope for his playmates.

It can take as little as a few hundred yards in tropical jungle to lose all track of where you’re going, and this small miststep was the first chapter in a 5-day ordeal that ended when the boy was found under a cassava bush by a farmer.

His clothes were completely soiled, and he was too weak to stand.

“I’m so tired, I can’t stand up, please carry me up,” Lam said, according to 52-year-old farmer Ly Van Nang. “[The child told me] that when he got lost, he could not find his way home, and the more he walked, the more he could not find a way out.”

Local news said the boy survived by eating leaves, wild fruits, and drinking streamwater.

MIRACULOUS RESCUES: Woman Lost 8 Days in the Australian Bush Survives to See Her 4 Children Again ‘It is miraculous’

The police, commenting on the story, offered “congratulations” on his eventual safe return, and said it was a “miracle” that he had survived and been found. Vietnam is a heavily forested country, and Yen Bai a heavily forested province.

The story is reminiscent of the children lost in Colombia’s rainforests last year.

MORE VIETNAMESE NEWS: ‘Mother Theresa of Vietnam’ Overcame Decades of Homelessness to Help Hundreds of Orphans

The four children were passengers on a plane that went down and killed all three adults on board.

The children, aged 13, 9, and 4, along with a 12-month-old baby, sheltered and found food to eat using indigenous knowledge remembered from their upbringing.

SHARE This Harrowing Oreal And Safe Return With Your Friends… 

“Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth.” – Benjamin Disraeli

By
Good News Network
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By Dekler Ph

Quote of the Day: “Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth.” – Benjamin Disraeli

Photo by: Dekler Ph

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?

By Dekler Ph

Astronaut’s Jaw-dropping Photos of Powerful Aurora was Also Captured by Airplane Pilot From Another Angle

By
Good News Network
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Aurora and Moon over Earth – Photo by NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick / SWNS

Two weeks ago, NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) alerted the media of a huge geomagnetic solar storm that had begun on August 11.

Within hours, a stunning aurora was created that was captured by two photographers—a pilot in a passenger plane, and an astronaut orbiting from above.

The series of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that produced a jaw-dropping display for over 48 hours, which might have been seen over North America “as far south as Alabama and Northern California”.

NASA’s Matthew Dominick aboard the International Space Station has garnered thousands of fans online, thanks to his incredible shots of the Moon and Earth from orbit.

In the picture, the Colorado-native captured the vibrant light show with the moon behind the supply craft that was attached to the ISS.

Another snapshot depicts the Soyuz spacecraft set against the bright green aurora background.

Meanwhile, the pilot of a passenger jet had the best seat within our Earth’s atmosphere for the spectacle.

Scott Bateman MBE captured the atmospheric display from the cockpit of an Airbus A350-1000 at 39k feet / SWNS

From the cockpit of an Airbus A350-1000, Scott Bateman captured the atmospheric display while flying a long-haul international route.

He described the stunning scenes as he flew across the world: “It was spectacular! It started as we passed Chicago at 39,000-feet and lasted until the dawn over Ireland, when it turned purple.

Purple Northern Lights over Ireland by Scott Bateman MBE, from the cockpit of an Airbus A350-1000 (via SWNS)

“I have never seen the aurora borealis so vivid with reds and purples.

Red and green Northern Lights by pilot Scott Bateman MBE, from his cockpit at 39k feet / SWNS

His pics were shot on his iPhone 15 with no editing or filters. “We had a front row seat in our Airbus.”

CHECK OUT: NASA Stunned by Discovery After Mars Rover Breaks Open a Rock

A result of disturbances in the magnetosphere caused by the solar flares and winds, auroras display dynamic patterns of brilliant lights that appear as curtains, rays, spirals, or dynamic flickers in the sky.

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Empty Nesters Travel to All 63 US National Parks: ‘Life’s Too Short’ But What is the Perfect Age for Adventures?

By
Good News Network
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Matt and Karen Smith in the Grand Canyon (via SWNS)
Matt and Karen Smith in the Grand Canyon (via SWNS)

It’s American Adventures Month—and in a new survey of 2,000 Americans, over one-third reported that they’ve become more adventurous as they age.

Even though 42 was deemed to be ‘the perfect age to go on an adventure’ (when averaging respondents’ answers), a huge majority still believed that ‘age is just a number’.

In fact, 83% agreed that no matter how old you are, you can always be adventurous–with the majority of baby boomers, Gen X, and millennials going on 4-5 trips per year.

One couple in their 60s has even become the ultimate role model for any adventuring empty-nesters, after having visited all 63 U.S. National Parks.

The Talker Research poll commissioned by Storyteller Overland also compiled some of the best advice for living a more adventurous life as you age (see the tips at the bottom)—but, let’s learn how Matt and Karen Smith pulled off their tour of every National Park within two years.

16 years ago, their youngest son moved out of the house, and the couple—after losing friends and family of a similar age—eventually realized that ‘life is too short’.

“All of a sudden, we realized our mortality,” said Karen. “We realized that we didn’t have to be home all the time and that if we wanted to visit all these national parks now was the time.”

“Matt also has a new corporate job that he wasn’t particularly happy with.”

Matt said they started off by visiting national parks close to their home in Seattle, Washington.

Karen and Matt Smith in Glacier National Park, Montana (via SWNS)

“We did not buy an RV to travel around the country, we either drove from Seattle or flew.”

They both agreed that one of their favorites was Yellowstone—for its “epic views”.

“Yellowstone is incredible. We are seeing bison, which is the emblem of North America and you can look out your car window and see a grisly bear with its cubs, or wolves. It is one of the most unique experiences I have ever had.”

Another favorite for Matt was floating down the Colorado River, through the Grand Canyon.

“It was a once in a lifetime experience, seeing the canyon from the bottom and spending 16 days on the river. It is just you, your team, and your friends. We were at peace with nature.”

NEED TO GET AWAY? 10 Places Perfect for Remote Workers–And Some Will Pay You Thousands to Move There

Previously, Matt and Karen would usually vacation in Europe, but Karen said visiting the national parks has allowed them to fall in love with a different side of America.

“We had almost seen every country in Europe but we never really saw what was in our own back yard. Before we did this, we wouldn’t have been able to name all the national parks—and now we’ve visited them. It is such a life changing experience.”

AMERICANS’ BEST ADVICE FOR LIVING A MORE ADVENTUROUS LIFE

  • “You’re only as young as you feel.”
  • “Try something different. Something you never would have thought you would do.”
  • “Look inside yourself and decide what you would probably not do, unless you give yourself permission, yet something you have dreamed of doing. Then take steps to do it.”
  • “Go for it—and take lots of photos to put on an Echo show on your kitchen counter so you will see them every day and look back for many years to come.”
  • “Be spontaneous, take detours.”
  • “Seek both adrenaline thrills and relaxation.”

GOOD NEWS FOR AIRLINE TRAVELERS: New Rule Requires US Airlines to Give Automatic Refunds for Canceled or Delayed Flights and Late Baggage 

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