The hoodwinker sunfish - credit Seaside Aquarium, retrieved from Facebook
The hoodwinker sunfish – credit Seaside Aquarium, retrieved from Facebook
When a giant ocean oddity washed up on a beach in northern Oregon, residents were flocking to get a closer look at a rarely-seen fish.
Believing it to be the charismatic Mola mola, or ocean sunfish, pictures eventually made their way across the Pacific to the desk of marine biologist Marianne Nyegaard, who recognized that it was, in fact, a different species—one that’s even more mysterious.
Recognized as distinct from M. mola, the hoodwinker sunfish, or Mola tecta, was only identified in 2017. Since then only a few confirmed sightings of the fish have been made, and Nyegaard would know—she’s the one who first described and named it.
According to Britannica, the hoodwinker sunfish can grow up to 7.9 feet long and is smaller than the other members of the sunfish family, which can exceed 10 feet. The fish have distinctive features, including a bullet-like shape, tough skin, and a small mouth with beaklike teeth.
“Originally thought to only occupy the temperate waters of the southern hemisphere, that theory would be challenged as a few have recently washed ashore in California and one as far north as Alaska,” read a statement from the Seaside Aquarium in Oregon.
“This fish, hiding in plain sight, has most likely been seen/washed ashore in the Pacific Northwest before but was mistaken for the more common, Mola mola. Marianne Nyegaard reached out to the Seaside Aquarium to see if they would be willing to take samples for genetics. Staff quickly responded, took more photographs, measurements, and tissue samples.”
The hoodwinker sunfish – credit Seaside Aquarium, retrieved from Facebook
“Through photographs, Marianne confirmed that it was a hoodwinker and that this may be the largest specimen ever sampled. This fish is still on Gearhart Beach and will probably remain for a few more days, maybe weeks as their tough skin makes it hard for scavengers to puncture. It is a remarkable fish and the aquarium encourages people to go see it for themselves,” the aquarium concluded.
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Quote of the Day: “Never deprive someone of hope; it might be all they have.” – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
Photo by: Ian Britton
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?
Przewalski's Horse at the Highlands Wildlife Park - CC 3.0. Floato
Przewalski’s Horse at the Highlands Wildlife Park – CC 3.0. Floato
In an inspiring return 200 years in the making, the last truly wild horse species has been reintroduced onto the open steppes of Kazakhstan.
The Guardian reports that four mares from a breeding program in Berlin and a stallion and two other mares from Prague, were flown to the Central Asian country to mark the second successful reintroduction of Przewalski’s horse to the lands that above all others are associated with this beloved animal.
At an unspecified place on the Eurasian Steppe around 6,000 years ago, of which Kazakhstan is a major component, human beings domesticated the horse. It changed history forever, for no people more so than the ancient residents of Kazakhstan and related topographies.
From that first day until now, all related species interbred themselves more or less out of existence with the exception of Przewalski’s horse, which is why its return is so exciting for the zoo teams in Berlin and Prague involved in the reintroduction.
“For me, the goal of a modern zoo is not just about protecting and breeding endangered species, it is about returning them to the wild where they belong,” said Filip Mašek, Prague Zoo’s spokesperson, while the Zoo’s director, Miroslav Bobak, called the event “the beginning of a whole new chapter in the story of the last wild horse on the planet”.
The Steppe in Western Kazakhstan – credit Carole a CC 3.0. BY-SA
In 2011, Prague Zoo was also involved in a reintroduction of Przewalski’s horses to Mongolia which continued for 8 years until the population stabilized. There are now 1,500 such horses in the country.
The Kazakhstan reintroduction comes on the back of several environmental success stories driven by a passionate environmental movement in the country. This has included the reintroduction of Bukhara deer around the shores of Lake Balkhash, and the continued legislative and conservation efforts to restore the majestic saiga antelope, which have resulted in a growth of the population to 1.9 million.
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Medieval game collection – Credit: University of Tübingen / Victor Brigola
Medieval game collection – Credit: University of Tübingen / Victor Brigola
If a history professor or museum is at their very best when they help people deeply connect with the ghosts of the past, then these 1,000-year-old game pieces found in a German castle are the perfect tool for the job.
Consisting of four, flower-shaped gaming pieces, a six-sided die, and a knight chess piece—all carved of antler, the find is a treasure trove of information on pastimes in the Middle Ages.
Exquisitely preserved, the knight piece, undoubtedly the most striking discovery, carries a well-worn sheen on its upper half from fingers picking it up thousands of times to place it along its L-shaped path.
The flower-shaped piece has residues of red paint, suggesting that one side would have played red and the other, presumably, another color.
The pieces were found under a wall segment in the neglected Stahleck Castle in southern Germany’s Baden-Württemberg state, and date to the 11th century.
Experts from the University of Tübingen, the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Baden-Württemberg (LAD), and the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) collaborated on the excavation.
“In the Middle Ages, chess was one of the seven skills that a good knight should master. It is therefore not surprising that known finds mostly come from castles,” explained Dr. Jonathan Scheschkewitz (LAD).
Arriving during the early Middle Ages in Europe from what was probably Persia, chess became ubiquitous across the continent, and it’s believed the rules haven’t changed much, if at all, since.
“The discovery of an entire games collection from the 11th/12th century came as a complete surprise to us, and the horse-shaped knight piece is a real highlight,” said Dr. Lukas Werther (DAI).
A Middle Ages exhibition based on the conclusion of the Stahlek excavations and others is set to be held at the Pfullingen Schloss (castle) from June 15th to August 30th, where visitors can see and learn about the game pieces and gaming habits in the Middle Ages.
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In a study as amazing as it is probably unsurprising, a team of biologists and researchers using machine learning tools discovered that elephants call each other by names.
For an animal that is known to perform deeply social acts like grieving, raising children collectively, and communicating across miles of countryside using complex low-frequency vocalizations, the use of names seems to be natural for their societies, but being able to know an elephant’s name in ‘Elephantese’ offers the potential to dramatically reduce human-elephant conflict.
The study was conducted at Colorado State University and was organized around simple observations that the matriarch of an elephant herd the researchers were following in Kenya would use a call that brought all the elephants together around her.
However, sometimes a perfectly similar call would draw only a single elephant out of the group.
To investigate if this had something to do with a naming custom, the scientists from CSU, Save the Elephants, and ElephantVoices used machine learning to analyze and group vocalizations into those they suspected were meant for multiple members of the herd, and those meant for an individual.
When the researchers played recorded calls, CSU press reports, elephants responded affirmatively to calls that were addressed to them by calling back or approaching the speaker. Calls meant for other elephants received less of a reaction.
In animal vocal ethnology, using a name is considered an “arbitrary communication” says study co-author George Wittemyer, a professor at CSU’s Warner College of Natural Resources and chairman of the scientific board of Save the Elephants, which means a sound that represents an idea but doesn’t imitate it.
“If all we could do was make noises that sounded like what we were talking about, it would vastly limit our ability to communicate,” said Wittemyer.
What arbitrary means in this case is that the sound made when a name is called could be absolutely anything—it’s just something to be assigned to a thing or a person, and is believed to indicate thought abstraction, a sign of higher intelligence.
In the evolutionary past of both humans and elephants, complex social frameworks demanded precision communication.
“It’s probably a case where we have similar pressures, largely from complex social interactions,” Wittemyer said. “That’s one of the exciting things about this study, it gives us some insight into possible drivers of why we evolved these abilities.”
Kurt Fristrup, a research scientist in CSU’s Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering, is also excited about the findings because they present the opportunity to understand what kinds of acoustic features are used in elephant communication as “descriptors” of herd members.
“Our finding that elephants are not simply mimicking the sound associated with the individual they are calling was the most intriguing,” Fristrup said. “The capacity to utilize arbitrary sonic labels for other individuals suggests that other kinds of labels or descriptors may exist in elephant calls.”
Lastly, Wittemyer believes that developing a rudimentary address book of all the elephants in a given region would allow for unprecedented opportunities to manage human-elephant conflicts, as the individual animals in the study consistently responded with great acuity to the sounds of their names.
“It’s tough to live with elephants, when you’re trying to share a landscape and they’re eating crops,” Wittemyer said. “I’d like to be able to warn them, ‘Do not come here. You’re going to be killed if you come here.’”
In April, scientists were confident they had a conversation with a humpback whale, suggesting humanity may be on the cusp of entering an age of conversational capacity with animals who share our world.
WATCH a video explainer below…
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The Seva Collective food pantry drive-thru – Credit: CBS Uplift / Simrin Singh via YouTube
The Seva Collective food pantry drive-thru – Credit: CBS Uplift / Simrin Singh via YouTube
In India, those of all faiths occasionally visit the places of worship of the Sikhs to get a delicious taste of ‘Seva,’ the Sikh principle of selfless service when they give out free dinners to anyone who visits.
In California, Sikh organizers are capturing that culture and using it to help residents of Santa Ana—a large food desert where residents struggle to have routine access to nutritious food.
At one of the longest drive-thrus you’ll ever see, volunteers, some with turbans and some without, load up the trunks of cars with 2-weeks worth of produce and groceries—no questions asked.
The organizers, called the Seva Collective, have already handed out 4 million such parcels, but they’re continuing to grow all the time—partnering with farms, businesses, and food banks to distribute as much as possible to those who need it.
“Our goal is to get fresh food, as well as shelf-stable food to every family’s car or cart who comes through the drive,” Bandana Singh, who co-founded Seva Collective alongside Ravin Kohli and Saanand Singh.
“We have cars lined up as early as three or four in the morning—we don’t start the drive till 9:30 a.m. So to us as the volunteer team, it tells us that the need is there and we want to do whatever we can.”
Residents say it’s nutritious, it’s uplifting, it takes away the “dread” and sense of anxiety about having enough real food to feed their families.
But how exactly could anyone live in a ‘food desert’ without Seva’s service?
Food deserts are typified by a wealth of fast-food restaurants and convenience stores that sell ultra-processed foods rich in sugar, salt, and vegetable oils, and a dearth of grocery stores and farmer’s markets.
As a result, Seva puts an emphasis on supplying unprocessed and nutritious food whenever possible—which often means they’re covering fast distances to acquire it.
“When we first started, we were driving to LA downtown food market, we were driving to Central California to pick up citrus—we were kind of all over the place,” said Bandana Singh told CBS News.
Each month, the Seva Collective distributes 60,000 pounds of food to more than 1,200 families and they’re beginning to expand operations to offer books, toys, and clothing as well.
Volunteers come from all backgrounds, but it’s rooted in the teachings of Sikhism: That life is precious, that god has a plan, and that unless you work hard, you won’t come to know what your role in that plan is. Ms. Singh and the squadron of volunteers work hard indeed, and they impart a little bit of this Sikh wisdom into their operations—like on Vaisakhi, the celebration of the formalization of the Sikh religious brotherhood and sisterhood.
WATCH the story below from CBS… For Viewers Outside US, Watch HERE.
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Quote of the Day: “You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.” – Indira Gandhi
Photo by: engin akyurt
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Oleg Kononenko has become the first human to accumulate 1,000 hours of spaceflight over a 16-year career visiting and living aboard the ISS.
The milestone comes on his fifth flight to space and during his third stint as the commander of the ISS. In February he passed the previous record of 878 days, held by fellow Ruscosmos pioneer, Gennady Paldaka.
Arriving aboard the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft last September alongside cosmonaut Nikolai Chub and NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara, he won’t touch down again for another 4 months, at which point he will become one of the most valuable human biology specimens in the world.
Given that both the Artemis Accords and the Chinese/Rest of World alternative—the International Lunar Research Station initiative—aim to send men and women on longer and longer voyages to space, including semi-permanent habitation of the moon and eventually a journey to Mars, astrophysiology needs to understand what long-term exposure to the rigors of outer space will do to the human body.
To that end, Kononenko, who has routinely spent many hundreds of consecutive days, and even years in low-Earth orbit, will be providing data points “days, months and years,” after his return, says Emmanuel Urquieta, the former chief medical officer of the NASA-funded Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH), led by Baylor College of Medicine.
Speaking with Space Flight Now’s Will Robinson-Smith, Urquieta explains that medicine in space is an emerging field and that how the environment of space affects eye health, bone loss, and blood flow, isn’t well known, nor are the effects of prolonged radiation exposure and prolonged space motion sickness.
Expedition 70 NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara, left, Roscosmos cosmonaut and mission commander Oleg Kononenko, and Nikolai Chub, right, at a press conference in advance of their September 2023 mission to the ISS aboard Soyuz 24 – NASA/Bill Ingalls.
“I’m sure that there will be a lot of research coming up in the future when he comes back to Earth and I’m sure that there will be a very long follow-up with him, you know, days, months, and years after, to try really to understand these very unique data points,” Urquieta said.
“When you extrapolate the data that we have from six-month missions to 900 days, there’s still a huge gap of data that we need to fulfill; that we need to get so that we can safely say that, ‘ok, we have enough data that we can confidently say that we’re able to send someone to Mars and make sure that that person is going to come back as healthy as he or she left Earth.’”
Though born in the Soviet Union and is thus Russian today, Kononenko is from Turkmenistan, and is deeply proud and connected to his homeland.
Across his long career, Kononenko has completed over 18 hours of spacewalks, during which he performed experiments, repairs, and fortifications on the exterior of the ISS Zvezda Service Module.
In December of 2015 he completed a rare night-time re-entry, and owing to distinguished collaboration with his colleagues across the Atlantic, he has received both the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal and the NASA Space Flight Medal.
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Passed back in 2021, a law in Washington state that bans single-use polystyrene food and drink containers has come into effect.
Made from tiny hollow beads of different plastics that are extremely friable, polystyrene is arguably the most damaging form of plastic in the environment.
Still permitted to be used in packaging and other applications because of its lightweight, durable, and insulative properties, some estimates suggest polystyrene takes over 1,000 years to completely break down, all the while shedding microplastics into the soil and water.
Recycling polystyrene is possible, but Washington’s Department of Ecology notes that it is expensive to do and that most residential recycling programs don’t accept the foam. Food residue on the material complicates things further, which is one reason why the ban affects takeaway containers, but doesn’t address other uses.
When the foam does end up in recycling facilities it can blow around and contaminate other materials, something that’s also liable to happen in the course of getting it to the facility in the first place.
Violators will be fined but also have access to support and resources that should hopefully help them find ways to replace the foam containers with less harmful ones. This might be replacing foam containers with those of aluminum—which along with being reusable, also insulates food longer.
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3 cousins pose next to the leg bone of the T. rex discovery – by Sam Fisher
3 cousins pose next to the leg bone of the T. rex discovery – by Sam Fisher
What started as a family hike in North Dakota by two young brothers Jessin and Liam Fisher quickly turned into a once-in-a-lifetime discovery that career paleontologists would kill for.
Along with their dad, Sam Fisher, and their cousin Kaiden, they identified the remains of a juvenile T. rex skeleton of about 30% completeness, including almost the entire right leg structure, a few vertebrae, the lower jaw, and the all-important hips and pelvis.
It was back in July of 2022 that the teen trio discovered their Cretaceous counterpart in the Badlands. Dad Fisher actually knew the phone number of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science paleontology curator—Dr. Tyler Lyson, whom he went to high school with.
“I didn’t know it was a T. rex, because all I had were photos, and the knee joint looked like a duckbill,” Dr. Lyson told CNN. “Later, I started looking at the photos a little more closely. And the way in which the bone was breaking up into sheets indicated it might be a meat-eating dinosaur.”
He proposed the idea to some of his paleontology friends, who concurred that it was probably a duckbill, at which point Lyson relegated the idea of a carnivore to “wishful thinking.”
It wasn’t until the following summer that Jessin, Liam, and Kaiden were able to take part in retrieving their discovery from the Earth as permission for excavation had to be obtained from the land managers.
The dinosaur-discovering family returns to the site in July 2023 for the excavation, including (clockwise from upper left) Sam Fisher, Emalynn Fisher, Danielle Fisher, Liam Fisher, Kaiden Madsen and Jessin Fisher. – Courtesy Denver Museum of Nature and Science
It was on the first day of excavations, with the kids front and center, that Lyson and his team found the lower jaw full of teeth—shattering the duckbill hypothesis and sending the whole team onto cloud 9.
“The kids were with us every step of the way, which was great,” Lyson added “We realized it was a T. rex on the first day. We had cameras rolling while it was happening.”
The paleontologists who took part in the excavation believe the ‘Teen Rex’ weighed 3,500 pounds, stood 10 feet tall, and was 25 feet long at the time of its death, according to a Denver Museum Q&A page.
A fully-grown adult T. rex could weigh over 9,000 pounds and stretch over 40 feet from nose to tail.
Rooted T. rex tooth found – Credit: Dr. Tyler R. Lyson
“I’m excited for Museum guests to dig into the ‘Teen Rex Discovery’ experience, which I think will inspire the imagination and wonder, not only in our community, but around the world!” said Dr. Lyson in a statement from the museum announcing a new film and exhibit based around the teens’ discovery.
Captured on film in the new 40-minute documentary T. REX, they will be featured alongside their dino on the museum’s Infinity Theater on June 21. With state-of-the-art CGI and cutting-edge paleontological insights, this giant-screen movie offers an unprecedented journey into the world of T. rex and its fellow Cretaceous carnivores.
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The owner of this pickup has one of his dogs to thank for his life, after a loss of control in the mountains of Oregon saw him turn over into a ravine.
Injured, but alive after his crash on US Forest Service Road 39, one of Brandon Garrett’s four dogs ran to get help.
According to a statement from the Baker County Sheriff’s Office, the dog managed to negotiate 4 miles of wilderness and trails to make its way back to a campsite where some of Garrett’s family had been staying.
He hadn’t returned to camp that night, so they were already worried and on edge, and the appearance of the dog confirmed their fears.
Meanwhile, Garrett was able to crawl approximately one hundred yards from the vehicle, where he spent the night on dry ground. The rest of the party continued to search for him, and family members located his vehicle on the morning of June 3rd, calling emergency services at this time.
Members of the Baker County Search and Rescue Ropes Team set up their rescue equipment and began the difficult task of reaching Garrett. With help from the Forest Services’ chainsaws which cleared their path to him, they loaded and secured him in a rescue basket.
He was connected to a highline rope system and pulled across the ravine, where he was transferred to medical personnel who in turn transported him to the Life Flight helicopter for airlift to a regional hospital. His three other dogs were all unharmed.
With all their experience performing rescues in searches in the mountains, the rescue service members said that without Garrett’s dog, there was a very good chance he would not have been found.
It’s a harrowing reminder that not all heroes wear capes, or clothes at all—some have fur and bark.
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Quote of the Day: “Time and memory are true artists; they remold reality nearer to the heart’s desire.” – John Dewey
Photo by: Sathish J – CC license
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?
Using AI, breast radiologists in Denmark have improved breast cancer screening performance and reduced the rate of false-positive findings.
The discovery comes 16 months after a study from the same hospital found that AI could diagnosis cancer in chest X-rays at least as good as a board-certified radiologist, but noted that many radiology departments are understaffed.
When used to triage likely normal screening results or assist with decision support, AI also can substantially reduce radiologist workload.
“Population-based screening with mammography reduces breast cancer mortality, but it places a substantial workload on radiologists who must read a large number of mammograms, the majority of which don’t warrant a recall of the patient,” said Dr. Andreas Lauritzen researcher at the Gentofte Hospital in Denmark and lead author of the study
“The reading workload is further compounded when screening programs employ double reading to improve cancer detection and decrease false-positive recalls.”
Compared to screening without AI, screening with the AI system detected significantly more breast cancers (0.82% versus 0.70%) and had a lower false-positive rate (1.63% versus 2.39%).
“In the AI-screened group, the recall rate,” referring to the number of times a patient was asked to return for a follow-up examiniation, “decreased by 20.5%, the radiologists’ reading workload was lowered by 33.4%,” Dr. Lauritzen said.
The positive predictive value of AI screening was also greater than that of screening without AI (33.5% versus 22.5%). In the AI group, a higher proportion of invasive cancers detected were 1 centimeter or less in size (44.93% vs. 36.60%).
“All screening performance indicators improved except for the node-negative rate which showed no evidence of change,” Dr. Lauritzen said.
An improvement of 20% was also seen in the accurate diagnoses of breast cancers in a Swedish study done at Lund University, whereby the labor saving capacity of the device was even higher than in Dr. Lauritzen’s study.
An editorial accompaniment was also pushed alongside this study which praised the abilities of the AI to reduce human workload, and suggested that rather than presenting the possibility that AI can do a radiologists job, the evidence suggested that such AI programs should be developed as labor-saving devices.
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A young man in West Virginia made it into the local paper when news came out that he had graduated from high school with a perfect K-12 attendance record.
Wyatt Chesnut graduated from Riverside High School this year with an attendance that read 100% and a GPA that read 4.2—both of which he credits to his parents and their encouragement.
Speaking with WCHS Eyewitness News, Chestnut said that most people don’t believe him, but the school district provided him with a certificate in recognition of his accomplishment which he happily uses to shut down any arguments.
“Anything you do for 18 years in a row—it’s pretty hard to do, but I never missed a day,” Chestnut said.”
“A lot of trips I missed out on and a lot of sick days. I just rested my head on the desk instead of in the bed,” he added, noting that thanks to what he believes to be a strong immune system, there weren’t many.
Along with his academic participation, he maintained a robust interest in after-school sports, collecting medals in wrestling, and competing in soccer, track and field, and basketball.
On summers and weekends, he frequented the wild and wonderful countryside of West Virginia to fish, hunt, and go camping where he built up a collection of mineral samples.
His aim is to study law enforcement and biology in college with the hopes of being a fish and game warden—turning play and passion into a career, but a degree might be the last thing on which any prospective employer makes a hiring decision for Wyatt, as who could look past a perfect attendance record?
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Qing Bao, the female giant panda soon to grace the National Zoo - credit, Smithsonian National Zoo, and Conservation Biology Institute.
Qing Bao, the female giant panda soon to grace the National Zoo – credit, Smithsonian National Zoo, and Conservation Biology Institute.
In an elaborate announcement video, First Lady Jill Biden broke the news that she’s expecting—the return of giant pandas to the National Zoo.
Following a prolonged period of diplomatic tension with China, all but one zoo in the country was panda-less, but after signing a new 10-year lease agreement for the purpose of scientific research, improving relations, and delighting visitors, D.C. is set to have a new pair of pandas by the end of this year.
2-year-old Bao Li is the son of Bao Bao, the female panda born at the zoo in 2013 to parents who left last year after tensions between the US and China reached a fever pitch.
Bao Li will be joined by Qing Bao, a 2-year-old female who is believed to be a possible breeding partner.
Arriving via FedEx’s special ‘Panda Express’ airline which has been transporting pandas across the world for 15 years, Chinese ambassador Xie Feng dubbed the duo “our new envoys of friendship.”
Washingtonians and visitors to our nation’s capital from across the country will have 10 years to see them under an agreement that will see the National Zoo pay a $1 million per annum lease fee—100% of which goes to panda conservation in China.
“We’ll have a few years just to enjoy these two, and then people can start asking about cubs,” National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute director Brandie Smith told Axios.
‘Panda Diplomacy’ by China dates back to late Maoist rule in China, when First Lady Pat Nixon told the country of the arrival of the first giant pandas in an American zoo in 1972 after she and her husband’s historic visit to Beijing.
Far from being just a method of warming relations, China’s cooperation with zoos across the world has yielded some of the most important discoveries in panda biology, that have informed conservation and captivity strategies at home.
Across the nation, land set aside for the purpose of possibly destroying the world is now welcoming infrastructure meant to save it.
Sites managed by the Dept. of Energy’s nuclear weapons division are now playing host to solar farms that should be able to power thousands of homes.
As part of a government program called Cleanup to Clean Energy, the Idaho National Laboratory, though never having hosted nuclear weapons itself, will soon be the site of a 400-megawatt solar farm spread across 2,800 acres.
Though the project timeline hasn’t been released, a lease was negotiated for the INL project with Massachusetts-based solar developer NorthRenew Energy for 300 megawatts of solar power.
Another developer called Spitfire was awarded a lease for 100 megawatts and another 500 of battery storage, according to Elektek.
Other locations including the Hanford site in Washington state, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, the Nevada National Security Site in Nevada, and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, are all considered strong candidates for the program.
“Working closely with community leaders and private sector partners, we’re cleaning up land once used in our nuclear deterrence programs and deploying the clean energy solutions we need to help save the planet and strengthen our energy independence,” said US Energy of Secretary Jennifer Granholm.
None of these sites ever hosted nuclear weapons, but were instead the sites for testing, training, and production of nuclear weapons materials such as plutonium, or of its disposal.
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cat in window in Slovenia - by Jonatan Pie pubdomain
Quote of the Day: “Love unlocks doors and opens windows that weren’t even there before.” – Mignon McLaughlin
Photo by: Jonatan Pie
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A substance naturally occurring in pomegranates can improve memory and the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, a new study concluded.
Forgetfulness, difficulty finding words, and confusion about time and place are some of the most common symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, and researchers at the University of Copenhagen have discovered that an ordinary fruit can help.
Their study on mice with Alzheimer’s shows that urolithin A, which is a naturally occurring substance in pomegranates, can “alleviate memory problems and other consequences of dementia,” said Vilhelm Bohr, Affiliate Professor at the University’s Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine.
This is good news for patients with dementia – a disease that is difficult to treat.
“Even though the study was conducted on mouse models, the prospects are positive. So far, research has shown promising results for the substance.”
Clinical trials on humans are currently being planned.
Substance improves brain function
The researchers previously discovered that a specific molecule, nicotinamide riboside (NAD supplement), plays a key role in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, as it actively helps remove damaged mitochondria from the brain.
“Many patients with neurodegenerative diseases experience mitochondrial dysfunction, also known as mitophagy. This means that the brain has difficulties removing weak mitochondria, which thus accumulate and affect brain function. If you are able to stimulate the mitophagy process, removing weak mitochondria, you will see some very positive results,” explained Bohr, who was also a previous Department Chair at the US National Institute on Aging.
The new study shows that urolithin A removes weak mitochondria from the brain just as effectively as NAD supplements. (Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide is a coenzyme central to metabolism.)
The researchers still don’t know how much urolithin A is needed for humans to improve memory and alleviate symptoms.
“We still cannot say anything conclusive about the dosage, but I imagine that it is more than a pomegranate a day,” said Bohr.
He also hopes the substance can be used for preventive purposes with no significant side effects.
“Several studies so far show that there are no serious side effects of NAD supplementation. Our knowledge of urolithin A is more limited, but clinical trials with urolithin A have been effective in muscular disease.”
The study, Urolithin A improves Alzheimer’s disease cognition and restores mitophagy and lysosomal functions, has been published in Alzheimer’s and Dementia.
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2023 saw a record wave of Americans leaving big cities for smaller ones, a trend that grew out of the pandemic when millions of people began working from home.
At the same time, small cities and rural counties have begun offering incentives to help attract some of these 22 million remote workers in the US. Even in Europe, some beautiful Italian towns began paying people in 2021 to move there if you work remotely.
A unique website called MakeMyMove has compiled a new list of top destinations for those ready to make a move. Offering a mix of affordability, reliable internet, and recreational opportunities, these locations range from ‘Hot Spots’ in urban centers to ‘Hidden Gems’ amid tranquil rural landscapes—and many offer incentives.
For instance, tiny Lincoln County, Kansas (population 2,929) was the first to use remote worker recruitment as a way to grow their community. It’s worked out so well, nearly two dozen other Kansas counties are also actively luring new movers with incentives to kickstart economic growth.
The MakeMyMove website also seeks to match people in high-demand professions—like nurses, police officers, and teachers—with towns looking to plug personnel shortages, and willing to offer bonuses for them to move.
Here is the website’s latest Top 10 list of desirable locations to which remote workers may want to move…
1. Wichita, Kansas (Pop. 397,000)
Wichita, Kansas river view by spacefem, CC license
With a median home price of $275,000, Wichita offers remote workers a vibrant arts scene, world-class museums like the Wichita Art Museum, and concerts at the historic Orpheum Theatre.
Nature enthusiasts will love the zoo and scenic biking / hiking trails along the Arkansas River. Plus, Wichita boasts a thriving startup scene, making it ideal for those who want to connect with like-minded individuals.
There are financial offers available for moving to communities within 2-3 hours of Wichita, but none inside the city. For instance, Tasha Jablonski and her family just moved to Lincoln, two hours north of Wichita, and were delighted when the local High School football team showed up to help with the heavy lifting.
“They literally wouldn’t let me pick up a box,” Tasha said. “The greeting and support we received was nothing short of magical. If you’re looking for small town life, this place is a gold mine.”
Lincoln (pop. 2,900) is offering movers $4,500 in cash, $500 toward high speed internet service, a dozen farm fresh eggs every month for a year and other perks. Movers must live there at least one year, earn at least $50,000 a year, and work remotely.
2. Tulsa, Oklahoma (Pop. 413,000)
JustTulsa.com (CC license)
Also located on the Arkansas River, Tulsa’s cost of living is 23% below the national average, but it’s still the 47th-most-populous city in America.
The community’s Art Deco heritage can be explored at the Philbrook Museum of Art, and the Tulsa Arts District is a vibrant hub for galleries, studios, and performance spaces. Foodies will love the diverse culinary scene, and outdoor enthusiasts can enjoy the scenic trails at Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness or take a day trip to explore the beauty of the Ozarks.
Tulsa is offering $10,000 and other perks to relocate there.
“I always wanted to start my own business, but my idea wasn’t able to come to fruition until I moved to Tulsa,” said Jhonathan Vazquez, an IT analyst. “The resources provided by Tulsa Remote and the local-start up community gave me everything I needed to launch my company. The support systems I have here are so helpful and inclusive.”
3. Columbus, Georgia (Pop. 207,000)
Andrey Nefedov, CC license
With a cost of living 14% below the national average, Columbus is attracting people who want to lower their overhead costs.
Located on the Chattahoochee River across from Alabama, Columbus is the second largest city in Georgia–behind Atlanta which is 100 miles northeast.
From historic neighborhoods to modern developments, Columbus boasts a vibrant downtown with a thriving arts community, and world-class whitewater rafting—it has the longest urban whitewater rafting course in the world.
City leaders are offering $5,000 in cash, plus other perks, to potential movers, who may also like the flourishing tech infrastructure for startups and remote workers.
4. White County, Indiana (Pop. 24,700)
For those craving a rural setting, the Midwestern landscapes of White County, Indiana deliver a quintessential small-town experience—and boasts a cost of living 12% below the national average.
With a median home cost of just $145,500, the charming communities of Monticello, Brookston, and Reynolds offer reliable high-speed fiber internet countywide—and a reward of $7,500 plus other perks for folks who relocate there.
Locals enjoy summer days at the Indiana Beach Boardwalk and Amusement Park on Lake Shafer, or Prophetstown State Park, a nature lover’s paradise. White County’s proximity to major cities like Indianapolis allows for easy access to cultural experiences and professional opportunities.
The incentive wasn’t what convinced Michael Harris to move to White County. “Cathy, the mayor there, helped get my mom’s Medicare benefits and medical care sorted out. She’s been super helpful with a lot of other things, too. It was a great introduction to the community.”
The $7,500 in cash and $3,200 in other amenities from White County Economic Development helped with his move, Harris said, but there were other communities offering more.
“Monticello (pop. 5,500) has everything we wanted: a beautiful location, four actual seasons, quick access to big city culture in Chicago or Indianapolis, nearby medical care, and opportunities to grow my business.”
5. Virginia Beach, Virginia (Pop. 459,000)
Virginia Beach Oceanfront by DanRVA – CC license
In this coastal city known for its stunning Atlantic Ocean beaches, the median home price in Virginia Beach is $400,000.
Offering a vibrant boardwalk and endless opportunities for water recreation, including the annual East Coast Surfing Championships, there are no active relocation offers available right now.
Home to several military bases, history buffs will appreciate the city’s Military Aviation Museum, while foodies will delight in the fresh seafood and diverse cuisine. Plus, Virginia Beach (the 42nd most populous U.S. city) offers convenient access to major metro areas like Norfolk and Richmond for a weekend getaway.
6. Bloomington, Indiana (Pop. 79,000)
A college town where Indiana University enrolls over 45,000 students, Bloomington is brimming with intellectual energy and cultural offerings, with world-class museums like the Eskenazi Museum of Art and a calendar packed with live performances, festivals and lectures.
Nature enthusiasts will find solace in the nearby Hoosier National Forest, which offers hiking and biking trails, and Lake Monroe where water recreation abounds. Bloomington’s central location offers easy access to Indianapolis and other major cities for weekend adventures.
With a median home price of $399,450, remote workers can take advantage of an $8,000 incentive package that offers co-working space, entrepreneurial coaching, and more.
7. Pocahontas County, Iowa (Pop. 7,100)
For remote workers who prefer a quiet pastoral setting and lean Conservative politically, Pocahontas County provides small towns where the median home value is an affordable $220,000, and the cost of living is 28% below the national average.
Weekends can be spent exploring the scenic campgrounds at Brushy Creek State Recreation Area, or kayaking and fishing on the nearby expansive Lake Manawa. City life in Des Moines is just a two-hour drive from the middle of the county. It’s also one of the few places in America where water flows in three different directions, a rare natural sciences feature. The community is offering $2,500 in incentives right now in cash and groceries.
8. Bisbee, Arizona (Pop. 4,900)
Living in Bisbee, 92 miles southeast of Tucson, will cost you 11% less than the national average. Situated amidst the Chiricahua Mountains, Bisbee is another community that made Budget Travel’s list of Coolest Small Towns.
The former mining town is now an artist’s haven filled with quirky shops and galleries highlighting the American Southwest, and the Bisbee Mining & Historical Museum, a Smithsonian Affiliate.
There currently is no relocation offer for Bisbee, but stunning clear night skies for stargazing and a laid-back bohemian vibe may be all you need.
9. Metuchen, New Jersey (Pop. 15,000)
The borough of Metuchen offers a big-city advantage, with its location just outside New York City. It boasts excellent commuter options, allowing remote workers to enjoy the excitement of the city while living in a peaceful and small town environment.
Winner of the 2023 Great American Main Street, the historic downtown area has been revitalized in recent years and is filled with charming shops and restaurants. The local arts council hosts a variety of events throughout the year including concerts and outdoor activities.
The median home price in Metuchen is $629,000, but there are no relocation offers available.
10. Yellow Springs, Ohio (Pop. 3,700)
Named one of America’s Coolest Small Towns by Budget Travel, Yellow Springs is a haven for nature lovers and artists alike.
It hosts a “vibrant art scene” with galleries and shops lining the streets, but is also inside the Glen Helen Nature Preserve so residents are literally surrounded by nature and can hike through lush forests.
Additionally, this close-knit community fosters a strong sense of belonging, appealing to those who work from home and are seeking a warm community atmosphere to avoid feeling isolated. The median home price is $462,000, and the town is part of the Dayton Metro area. (There are no current relocation incentives.)
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