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Coveted Ranch Near San Francisco to Become Sprawling New Nature Preserve with Hiking Trails

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Richmond Ranch hills near San Jose, California – Courtesy Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation : Conservation Fund
Richmond Ranch hills near San Jose, California – Courtesy Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation : Conservation Fund

A national nonprofit has purchased a sprawling 3,654-acre ranch near San Jose, California, with plans to convert it into a new nature preserve with trails for hikers.

As one of the last remaining private ranches along the ecologically sensitive Coyote Ridge, the 6-square-mile swath will protect vital wildlife habitat and serve as a critical link along the iconic Bay Area Ridge Trail.

The Conservation Fund acquired Richmond Ranch to ensure the property will be permanently protected from development.

The 15 square-km ranch has long been a conservation priority, with many nonprofits and government agencies trying to acquire it over the last 20 years.

The Conservation Fund purchased the acreage for $16 million from the China-based company Z&L Properties, which has owned the property since 2016.

Z&L agreed to offer a deep discount from the appraised value of nearly $35 million to aid in the conservation. The Fund structured the purchase with financial support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Wildlife Conservation Network, and will hold the ranch until public park agencies, like the Santa Clara Valley Habitat Agency, can assemble financing and complete planning to take ownership.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Z&L had been snapping up real estate around the Bay Area for years and “its purchase of the ranch for $25 million eight years ago came as a disappointment to South Bay conservationists.” But recently they sought to offload the property.

“We were not expecting it to come back on the market, and we’re very excited the deal came through,” said Eric Ross, Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation senior real estate agent.

“We’re thrilled that The Conservation Fund was able to bring together the partners and financing to finally achieve the goal of protecting Richmond Ranch permanently,” said Dan Medeiros, The Conservation Fund’s conservation project manager.

CHECK OUT: Mexico’s First Cross-County Hiking Trail Will Support Mayan Culture –Cyclists Welcome too

Tule elk on the Richmond Ranch – Courtesy Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation / Conservation Fund

“Protecting it has the potential to change the region’s landscape, connecting fragmented parkland and habitats and delivering so many benefits — to wildlife and nature and to people in surrounding communities.”

The land is home to several endangered and threatened species, including puma, American badger, Tule elk, bobcat, gray fox and coyote.

By linking with a number of state parks and existing protected areas, the property maintains vital habitat connectivity that allows wildlife to move and migrate between the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Diablo Range. It will also link to the proposed Bay Area Ridge Trail, offering a trailhead near San Jose.

NEARBY: Explosion in Spawning Salmon Population in San Jose After 10 Years of Habitat Cleanup

“We all recognize the Coyote Ridge corridor as critical to state-wide wildlife connectivity, and protecting Richmond Ranch represents a major step forward,” said Dan Winterson, who manages the conservation portfolio at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. “And thanks to the great work of The Conservation Fund and generosity of Z&L Properties, we are able to get a tremendous return on investment for everyone who cares about conservation.”

SHARE The Expansive Conservation News With Habitat-Lovers on Social Media…

Ancient Lake Sediment on Mars Builds Excitement for Evidence of Life in the Perseverance Rover Samples

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Mars Perseverance Rover RIMFAX ground penetrating radar measurements of Jezero Crater – NASA / SWNS
Mars Perseverance Rover RIMFAX ground penetrating radar measurements of Jezero Crater – NASA / SWNS

An ancient lake bed found on Mars may hold evidence of life on the planet, a new study has revealed.

The Mars Perseverance rover has confirmed that the Jezero crater at some point was filled with water, leaving lake sediments at its base.

If life ever existed on the planet, then the lake sediments found within this crater could hold traces of this.

The existence of these lake sediments had long been suspected from satellite images, but ground-penetrating radar is the first to confirm it.

“From orbit we can see a bunch of different deposits, but we can’t tell for sure if what we’re seeing is their original state, or if we’re seeing the conclusion of a long geological story,” said Professor David Paige from University of California-Los Angeles.

“To tell how these things formed, we need to see below the surface.”

The Perseverance rover, which is about the size of a car, has been exploring the 30-mile-wide crater since 2021.

In 2022, the rover drove up from the crater floor onto the delta, a vast expanse of 3-billion-year-old sediments that, from orbit, resembles the river deltas on Earth.

As the rover drove onto the delta, its Radar Imager for Mars’ Subsurface Experiment instrument (RIMFAX) fired radar waves downward at 10-centimeter intervals and measured pulses reflected from depths of about 65-feet below the surface (20 meters). With the radar, scientists can see down to the base of the sediments to reveal the top surface of the buried crater floor.

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

Years of research with ground-penetrating radar and testing of RIMFAX on Earth have taught scientists how to read the structure and composition of subsurface layers from their radar reflections. The resulting subsurface image shows rock layers that can be interpreted like a highway road cut.

The radar, published in the journal Science Advances, revealed two distinct periods of sediment deposits sandwiched between two periods of erosion.

The second period of deposition occurred when fluctuations in the lake level allowed the river to deposit a broad delta that once extended far out into the lake, but has now eroded back closer to the river’s mouth.

The radar images showed that the sediments are regular and horizontal—just like sediments deposited in lakes on Earth.

“The changes we see preserved in the rock record are driven by large-scale changes in the Martian environment,” explained Prof. Paige, who is RIMFAX’s deputy principal investigator on the study funded by NASA, the Research Council of Norway, and the University of Oslo.

LOOK: Mars Rover Camera Spots Bizarre Bone-like Structures
ALSO: ‘Unusual’ Circles Spotted on Mars by Reconnaissance Orbiter (LOOK)

“It’s cool that we can see so much evidence of change in such a small geographic area, which allows us extend our findings to the scale of the entire crater.”

Perseverance’s soil and rock samples will be brought back to Earth by a future expedition and studied for evidence of past life.

SHARE The SCIENCE Excitement On Social Media…

Warehouse Worker Quits Job to be $500-a-Night Elvis Tribute Act After Pals Show Video to Talent Agent (WATCH)

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Danny Turney as ‘Danny Graceland’ – via SWNS license
Danny Turney as ‘Danny Graceland’ – via SWNS license

A warehouse worker who entertained friends with his spot-on Elvis impersonations is now earning $500 a night as a tribute act after they sneaked a video of him to a showbiz agent.

Danny Turney worked as a warehouse supervisor for 15 years in Bedfordshire, England, stacking and moving palettes of goods.

During the COVID pandemic, he was singing in his kitchen while making a cup of tea and wife, Laura, discreetly recorded him, uploading it to Facebook.

“I didn’t want it up there on social media, that’s never been my thing,” said the 34-year-old. “But the response was really good, and people were saying I should do a charity show.”

So, at the memorial for his beloved grandmother who passed away from cancer, he put on the sequenced suit and a pal secretly recorded the performance.

It was his grandmother who inspired Danny’s appreciation for Elvis. When he was a young boy, she had a room that was “basically a shrine to Elvis, with gold records and everything”. She’d play Elvis songs while doing her ironing and Danny would practice shaking his leg and holding a mic.

She might be his guardian angel now. After his buddy sent a video of him singing onstage to agents at MK Promotions without him knowing, Danny received seven or eight missed calls from a number he didn’t know, and finally called them back.

Danny Turney / Danny Graceland – SWNS

“They said: ‘I’ve seen your videos and I want to give you some work.’

“I said ‘What videos? I have no idea what you’re talking about.’”

WATCH: He Crowdsurfed in a Wheelchair to the Stage and COLDPLAY Pulled Him Up to Play Harmonica

He realized he could always go back, jump on a forklift again, and work his way back up if needed, so he quit his job and was soon inundated with offers for gigs. It got to the point where he did 18 shows over one weekend, using the stage name ‘Danny Graceland’.

The dad of two recalls, “It was never ever the plan to be a full time Elvis tribute, as I’ve got a wife, two kids, a mortgage,” but now he works across the UK getting paid £400 – £500 per show, and just completed a nine-week stint in Cyprus doing renditions of the King of Rock and Roll’s classic hits. (Watch a video below…)

He said his daughter, who is nine, thinks he’s famous after he appeared on TV—but he still sees himself as just your “average joe”, despite having big plans for the future.

HERO SWIFTIE: Taylor Swift is a Hero to Food Banks Across the U.S. at Each Stop of Her Eras Tour

“I like to think I’m a humble guy, I coach football in my spare time, and I play darts.

Now he’s got a live band and just recorded an Elvis tribute album entitled, If I Can Dream, the title of his favorite Elvis song.

“I just want to take this great opportunity while I can.”

WATCH his fantastic cover of Caught in a Trap…

ARE YOUR FRIENDS CAUGHT IN A TRAP? Inspire Them by Sharing This on Social Media…

IRS Collected Half a Billion Dollars in Back Taxes From Delinquent Millionaires in 2023, Sentencing Some to Prison

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By 金-运
By 金-运

The Internal Revenue Service says it collected $482 million from wealthy tax cheats last year, in a continuing effort to step up their enforcement.

The IRS released their year-end progress report this month, saying they will continue to audit large corporations, high-income individuals, and complex partnerships who are not paying their fair share of U.S. taxes.

The agency says it pursued 1,600 millionaires to recoup the overdue tax payments and will not stop now.

“The IRS continues to increase scrutiny on high-income taxpayers as we work to reverse the historic low audit rates that the wealthiest individuals and organizations faced,” said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel, referring to previous White House administrations.

“We are adding staff and technology to ensure that the taxpayers with the highest income, including partnerships, large corporations and millionaires and billionaires, pay what is legally owed under federal law,” Werfel said.

ON THE OTHER HAND: ‘Please Tax Us’ Say 83 Millionaires Asking for Higher Taxes: ‘Humanity is More Important than Our Money’

Some examples include:

  • In December, a Swiss Bank agreed to pay approximately $122.9 million to the U.S. Treasury for its role in assisting U.S. taxpayer-clients with evading their taxes by opening undeclared accounts to conceal money from the IRS. The bank held 1,637 accounts, with assets of $5.6 billion on behalf of clients who collectively evaded $50.6 million in U.S. taxes.
  • Also In December, an individual was sentenced to 28 months in federal prison and ordered to pay over $470,000 in restitution to the IRS for filing a false tax return while working as a money mule for romance scams. The individual maintained bank accounts to collect proceeds from the schemes and to send the money to himself and others overseas.
  • One individual was sentenced to 57 months in prison for their failure to pay more than $1.35 million of taxes arising from their operation of several restaurants in the Washington, D.C. area. The individual evaded taxes by concealing assets and obscuring the large sums of money they took from the businesses by purchasing property in the name of a nominee entity and causing false entries in the businesses’ books and records to hide personal purchases using business bank accounts.

The Inflation Reduction Act passed in 2022 by the White House and Congress provided the additional money that paid for more IRS agents to do these audits on the wealthiest tax defrauders, and the agency says it is making a difference for law-abiding taxpayers.

HERO BILLIONAIRE: Jeff Bezo’s Ex Wife Donates Billions to Beloved Charities, Continuing Her Giving Spree Since Divorce

“As the initiatives to improve compliance increase, the IRS continues its work to improve customer service and modernize core technology infrastructure.

“We focused on improving our taxpayer service for hard-working taxpayers, offering them more in-person and online resources in 2024.”

BE A SUPPORTER OF FAIRNESS By Sharing the News on Social Media…

“You have the RIGHT to change your mind.” – Oprah Winfrey

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Quote of the Day: “You have the RIGHT to change your mind.” – Oprah Winfrey

Photo by: Tachina Lee

With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?

The Tallest Building in America May Soon Be in… Oklahoma?

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Proposed Bricktown buildings in Oklahoma City – AO / SWNS
Proposed Bricktown buildings in Oklahoma City – AO / SWNS

You may be as surprised as we were to learn the tallest building in America may soon reach for the skies in Oklahoma City, the 20th most populated metropolis in the United States.

Developers submitted plans for the ‘Legends Tower’ for a proposed development project called The Boardwalk at Bricktown.

The building, if approved, would arise in the southern state of Oklahoma and become the sixth tallest building in the world.

Architecture company AO and real estate developer Matteson Capital drew up plans that would make the structure the tallest in America, surpassing the One World Trade Center in New York City, currently 7th highest in the world.

The symbolic height of 1,907-feet-tall honors the year (1907) when Oklahoma was admitted as the 46th state of the United States.

“Oklahoma City is experiencing a significant period of growth and transformation, making it well-positioned to support large-scale projects like the one envisioned for Bricktown,” said Scot Matteson, CEO of Matteson Capital.

Artist rendering of The Boardwalk at Bricktown Legends Tower – AO / SWNS

The development would feature three smaller buildings alongside The Legends Tower that will reach 581 meters and feature a public observatory at the top, along with a restaurant and bar where visitors can enjoy the sweeping views.

LOOK: This Tower Filters 273 Hot Air-Balloons-Worth of Pollution per Day in India City

Spanning approximately 5 million square feet, the project would be mixed-use, including a Hyatt hotel, serviced condominiums, 1,776 residential units ranging from market-rate to affordable, amidst abundant retail and restaurant areas.

“We believe that this development will be an iconic destination for the city, further driving the expansion and diversification of the growing economy, drawing in investment, new businesses, and jobs,” said Matteson. “We hope to see The Boardwalk at Bricktown stand as the pride of Oklahoma City.”

“A catalyst for urban evolution, The Boardwalk embodies the spirited essence of Oklahoma City, honoring its rich past, dynamic present, and promising future,” said AO managing partner Rob Budetti.

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“Crafting a project of this significance is an honor, and the collaborative process with the city, Matteson Capital, Hensel Phelps, and a top-notch team of engineers has been exceptional.”

THE TALLEST BUILDINGS IN THE WORLD:

1) Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Burj Khalifa (2,717 feet)
2) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Merdeka 118 (2,227)
3) Shanghai, China – Shanghai Tower (2,073 feet)
4) Mecca, Saudi Arabia – Abraj Al Bait Clock Tower (1,971 feet)
5) Shenzhen, China – Ping An Finance Center (1,965 feet)
— PROPOSED: Oklahoma City – Legend’s Tower (1,907 feet)
6) Seoul, South Korea – Lotte World Tower (1,819 feet)
7) New York City, USA – One World Trade Center (1,776 feet)

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Matchmaking ‘Magic’ at Philly’s Oldest Bar May Lead You to Find the Love of Your Life–Like Hundreds of Others

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Allison Dolly Kelly & Kevin Kelly – courtesy of McGillin’s Olde Ale House
Allison Dolly Kelly & Kevin Kelly – courtesy of McGillin’s Olde Ale House

There is a bit of mating magic afoot at Philadelphia’s oldest tavern, one of the oldest in the United States.

Hundreds of couples have met and gotten engaged—and even married—at McGillin’s Olde Ale House since it was established in 1860. That’s more than anywhere else in the sprawling Pennsylvania city.

And these aren’t shotgun weddings lasting only a few months. Kay Scorboria decided that instead of becoming a nun she’d marry a sailor she met at McGillin’s. She and Preston had 5 children and 11 grandchildren and were married nearly 60 years.

Chuck and Helen Myers also met at McGillin’s in 1961. They married three years later and he got her a charm bracelet with a McGillin’s charm on it—and she still has it more than 50 years later.

Two brothers got lucky twice—each meeting their wives at the historic bar near Philadelphia City Hall.

The matchmaking magic started 164 years ago when William McGillin opened the tavern and ran it with his wife, Catherine, while raising their 13 children upstairs.

It continued with Mary Ellen and Chris Mullins, the husband and wife team who took over the establishment from her father and now run it with their son Christopher.

Any love potion is likely nourished by the 30 beers on tap here in the sixth largest city in America.

So many lovebirds have started their courtship at McGillin’s that the owners created a “Love Letters” book where couples can tell their stories. The first and second volume filled up quickly—and the third volume is filling up quickly too, according to Irene Levy Baker, author of the award-winning 100 Things To Do In Philadelphia.

Joe Banks and Allie Sedor writing their story in the ‘Love Letters’ book

The book was recently signed by Jen & Steve who got engaged at McGillin’s in December, and by Amanda & Kaitlyn who put a ring on it in front of the tavern’s storybook-perfect Christmas decorations.

Continuing the phenomenon, Allison Doll Kelly met Kevin Kelly on a dating app in 2012 and talked for two weeks before deciding to meet in person. Her parents recommended they meet in-person at McGillin’s, where her parents used to meet on Fridays for after-work drinks. Allison and Kevin had a great first date, and McGillin’s holds such a special place in their hearts that they had their engagement photos taken there.

Hopefully, these young couples will have long happy marriages like Jay and Betty Dutill of Marlton, New Jersey, who were amused when their four children, all young adults, came home raving about a new bar they had “discovered”—McGillin’s. Their children were surprised to hear that their parents met at McGillin’s in 1977.

WOW! She’s Happily Married with 6 Kids–All Because of a Text Sent to the Wrong Number

Another couple who found romantic chemistry there, Vicky & Mike Weinstein, have a watercolor of McGillin’s Olde Ale House hanging above their bed.

In the 1960s, Barry Shanler wrote Peggy’s phone number on a McGillin’s coaster. The couple contacted McGillin’s when they celebrated their 50th anniversary to report that they have two children and three grandchildren. We’re not sure if they still have the coaster.

MAKING LEMONADE FROM LEMONS: 3 Women Found Out the Same Guy Was Cheating on Them. They Dumped Him and Took Epic Road Trip TogetheR–LOOK

If you’re still looking for the love of your life and find yourself in Philly, it might be worth making a trip to 1310 Drury Street and let McGillin’s Olde Ale House fuel your thirst for romance.

SPREAD THE LUCKY LOVE With Your Single Friends on Social Media…

T-cell Fountain of Youth Moves a Step Closer–And it May Work After Just One Treatment

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Pancreatic tissue with CAR T cells – By Amor Vegas lab/Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Pancreatic tissue with CAR T cells – By Amor Vegas lab/Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

The fountain of youth has eluded explorers for ages. It turns out, the magic anti-aging elixir might have been inside us all along.

Corina Amor Vegas and colleagues at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have discovered that T cells can be reprogrammed to fight aging—and they can have “lifelong effects”.

Given the right set of genetic modifications, these white blood cells can attack another group of cells known as senescent cells. These cells are thought to be responsible for many of the diseases we grapple with later in life.

Senescent cells are those that stop replicating. As we age, they build up in our bodies, resulting in harmful inflammation. While several drugs currently exist that can eliminate these cells, many of them must be taken repeatedly over time.

As an alternative, Amor Vegas and colleagues turned to a “living” drug called CAR T cells (chimeric antigen receptor). They discovered CAR T cells could be manipulated to eliminate senescent cells in mice.

The results, published in the journal Nature Aging, showed the treated mice ended up living healthier lives. They had lower body weight, improved metabolism and glucose tolerance, and increased physical activity. All benefits came without any tissue damage or toxicity.

“If we give it to aged mice, they rejuvenate,” said Assistant Professor Amor Vegas. “If we give it to young mice, they age slower. No other therapy right now can do this.”

EXCITING STUDY: Test That Can Spot 18 Early-Stage Cancer Signals Shows 84% Sensitivity in First Human Trial

Perhaps the greatest power of CAR T cells is their longevity. The team found that just one dose at a young age can have lifelong effects. That single treatment can protect against conditions that commonly occur later in life, like obesity and diabetes.

“T cells have the ability to develop memory and persist in your body for really long periods, which is very different from a chemical drug,” explained Amor Vegas. “With CAR T cells, you have the potential of getting this one treatment, and then that’s it. For chronic pathologies, that’s a huge advantage.”

Patients who previously needed treatments multiple times each day could theoretically get an infusion, and be good to go for multiple years.

ANTI-AGING NEWS: 8 Weeks of Lifestyle Changes Reduced Biological Age by 3 Years In Groundbreaking Proof-of-Concept Study

CAR T cells have been used to treat a variety of blood cancers, receiving FDA approval for this purpose in 2017. But Amor Vegas is one of the first scientists to show that CAR T cells’ medical potential goes even further than cancer.

Amor Vegas’ lab is now investigating whether CAR T cells allow mice to live not only healthier but also longer—and if the same thing happens in humans, the elixir may turn out to be the real fountain of youth.

(Source: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)

Your Horoscope for the Week: A ‘Free Will Astrology’ From Rob Brezsny

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Our partner Rob Brezsny, who has a new book out, Astrology Is Real: Revelations from My Life as an Oracle, provides his weekly wisdom to enlighten our thinking and motivate our mood. Rob’s Free Will Astrology, is a syndicated weekly column appearing in over a hundred publications. He is also the author of Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How All of Creation Is Conspiring To Shower You with Blessings. (A free preview of the book is available here.)

Here is your weekly horoscope…

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY – Week of January 27, 2024
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
“All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath,” wrote author F. Scott Fitzgerald. I’d like to expand that metaphor and apply it to you, Aquarius. I propose that your best thinking and decision-making in the coming weeks will be like swimming under water while holding your breath. What I mean is that you’ll get the best results by doing what feels unnatural. You will get yourself in the right mood if you bravely go down below the surface and into the depths and feel your way around.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
In honor of this pivotal time in your life story, I offer four pronouncements. 1. You can now be released from a history that has repeated itself too often. To expedite this happy shift, indulge in a big cry and laugh about how boring that repeated history has become. 2. You can finish paying off your karmic debt to someone you hurt. How? Change yourself to ensure you won’t ever act that way again. 3. You can better forgive those who wounded you if you forgive yourself for being vulnerable to them. 4. Every time you divest yourself of an illusion, you will clearly see how others’ illusions have been affecting you.

ARIES (March 21-April 19):
Aries author Dani Shapiro has published six novels, three bestselling memoirs, and a host of articles in major magazines. She co-founded a writer’s conference, teaches at top universities, and does a regular podcast. We can conclude she is successful. Here’s her secret: She feels that summoning courage is more important than being confident. Taking bold action to accomplish what you want is more crucial than cultivating self-assurance. I propose that in the coming weeks, you apply her principles to your own ambitions.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
Throughout history, there has never been a culture without religious, mythical, and supernatural beliefs. The vast majority of the world’s people have believed in magic and divinity. Does that mean it’s all true and real? Of course not. But nor does it mean that none of it is true and real. Ultra-rationalists who dismiss the spiritual life are possessed by hubris. Everything I’ve said here is prelude to my oracle for you: Some of the events in the next three weeks will be the result of magic and divinity. Your homework is to discern which are and which aren’t.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
Several wise people have assured me that the pursuit of wealth, power, popularity, and happiness isn’t as important as the quest for meaningfulness. If you feel your life story is interesting, rich, and full of purpose, you are successful. This will be a featured theme for you in the coming months, Gemini. If you have ever fantasized about your destiny resembling an ancient myth, a revered fairy tale, a thousand-page novel, or an epic film, you will get your wish.

CANCER (June 21-July 22):
“Life as we live it is unaccompanied by signposts,” wrote author Holly Hickler. I disagree with her assessment, especially in regard to your upcoming future. Although you may not encounter literal markers bearing information to guide you, you will encounter metaphorical signals that are clear and strong. Be alert for them, Cancerian. They might not match your expectations about what signposts should be, though. So expand your concepts of how they might appear.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
I wrote a book called Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings Among its main messages: There’s high value in cultivating an attitude that actively looks for the best in life and regards problems as potential opportunities. When I was working on the book, no one needed to hear this advice more than me! Even now, I still have a long way to go before mastering the outlook I call “crafty optimism.” I am still subject to dark thoughts and worried feelings—even though I know the majority of them are irrational or not based on the truth of what’s happening. In other words, I am earnestly trying to learn the very themes I have been called to teach. What’s the equivalent in your life, Leo? Now is an excellent time to upgrade your skill at expressing abilities and understandings you wish everyone had.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
In 1951, filmmaker Akira Kurosawa made a movie adapted from The Idiot, a novel by his favorite author Fyodor Dostoevsky. Kurosawa was not yet as famous and influential as we would later become. That’s why he agreed to his studio’s demand to cut 99 minutes from his original 265-minute version. But this turned out to be a bad idea. Viewers of the film had a hard time understanding the chopped-up story. Most of the critics’ reviews were negative. I bring this to your attention, Virgo, with two intentions: 1. I encourage you to do minor editing on your labor of love. 2 But don’t agree to anything like the extensive revisions that Kurosawa did.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
I have selected a poem for you to tape on your refrigerator door for the next eight weeks. It’s by 13th-century Zen poet Wu–Men. He wrote: “Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn, / a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter. / If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.” My wish for you, Libra—which is also my prediction for you—is that you will have extra power to empty your mind of unnecessary things. More than ever, you will be acutely content to focus on the few essentials that appeal to your wild heart and tender soul.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Psychologist Carl Jung wrote, “Motherlove is one of the most moving and unforgettable memories of our lives, the mysterious root of all growth and change; the love that means homecoming, shelter, and the long silence from which everything begins and in which everything ends.” To place yourself in rapt alignment with current cosmic rhythms, Scorpio, you will do whatever’s necessary to get a strong dose of the blessing Jung described. If your own mother isn’t available or is insufficient for this profound immersion, find other maternal sources. Borrow a wise woman elder or immerse yourself in Goddess worship. Be intensely intent on basking in a nurturing glow that welcomes you and loves you exactly as you are—and makes you feel deeply at home in the world.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
In a set of famous experiments, physiologist Ivan Pavlov taught dogs to have an automatic response to a particular stimulus. He rang a bell while providing the dogs with food they loved. After a while, the dogs began salivating with hunger simply when they heard the bell, even though no food was offered. Ever since, “Pavlov’s dogs” has been a phrase that refers to the ease with which animals’ instinctual natures can be conditioned. I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if Pavlov had used cats instead of dogs for his research. Would felines have submitted to such scientific shenanigans? I doubt it. These ruminations are my way of urging you to be more like a cat than a dog in the coming weeks. Resist efforts to train you, tame you, or manipulate you into compliance.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Before poet Louise Glück published her first book, Firstborn, it was rejected by 28 publishers. When it finally emerged, she suffered from writer’s block. Her next book didn’t appear until eight years after the first one. Her third book arrived five years later, and her fourth required another five years. Slow going! But here’s the happy ending: By the time she died at age 80, she had published 21 books and won the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature. By my astrological reckoning, you are now at a phase, in your own development, comparable to the time after Glück’s fourth book: well-primed, fully geared up, and ready to make robust progress.

WANT MORE? Listen to Rob’s EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES, 4-5 minute meditations on the current state of your destiny — or subscribe to his unique daily text message service at: RealAstrology.com

(Zodiac images by Numerologysign.com, CC license)

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“Put your heart, mind, and soul into even your smallest acts. This is the secret of success.” – Swami Sivananda

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Quote of the Day: “Put your heart, mind, and soul into even your smallest acts. This is the secret of success.” – Swami Sivananda

Photo by: Lina Trochez

With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?

Solar-Powered Mars Plane Set to Cruise Red Planet Looking for Water

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Andy Corbley
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Mars Aerial and Ground Global Intelligent Explorer (MAGGIE) aircraft flying over Mars – Artist rendering by NASA via SWNS
Mars Aerial and Ground Global Intelligent Explorer (MAGGIE) aircraft flying over Mars – Artist rendering by NASA via SWNS

A bold design for an vertical take-off aeroplane has received advanced grant funding from NASA with the aim of having it ready to fly on Mars in the next 6 years.

MAGGIE (Mars Aerial and Ground Global Intelligent Explorer) is a compact fixed-wing electric aircraft powered by solar energy to fly in the Martian atmosphere—picture the wings of the Wright Flyer but made of solar panels.

The aircraft will have vertical take-off/landing capability and will be able to travel over 100 miles per hour at an altitude of 3,300 feet.

Already funded, MAGGIE is going to benefit immensely from flight data gathered by the little Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, a small helo-drone that was brought to Mars onboard Perseverance, the latest rover NASA landed on the planet.

Ingenuity conducted over 30 flights in Martian airspace, gathering critical data on wind resistance, air speed, and other avionic metrics crucial for building aircraft that will fly on Mars.

The Martian atmosphere is 160x thinner than Earth’s, so MAGGIE has a cruise lift coefficient nearly an order of magnitude higher than conventional subsonic aircraft to overcome the low density.

“The representative mission for MAGGIE presented would… include a study of the origin and timing of the Martian core dynamo from the weak magnetic fields found in the large impact basins, a regional investigation of the source of methane signals detected by the Tunable Laser Spectrometer on the Mars Science Laboratory in Gale crater, and mapping of subsurface water ice at high resolution in the mid-latitudes where it has been observed from orbit,” explained Ge-Cheng Zha of the Florida-based developers Coflow Jet, LLC.

Funded by a NASA grant program called NIAC, or NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts, MAGGIE is in early stages of development but it could revolutionize the ability to explore almost the entirety of the Martian surface.

CURRENT MARTIAN UNDERSTANDING: NASA Summarizes What New Mars Rover has Found as it Finishes it’s Mission at Just Over 1,000 Days

NIAC has funded a variety of daring enterprises, including asteroid mining technologies and fungal house kits for Martian habitation.

“The daring missions NASA undertakes for the benefit of humanity all begin as just an idea, and NIAC is responsible for inspiring many of those ideas,” said NASA Associate Administrator, Jim Free.

OTHER MARS NEWS: Mars Rover Discovers Liquid Salt Water on the Red Planet For the First Time

“The Ingenuity helicopter flying on Mars and instruments on the MarCO deep space CubeSats can trace their lineage back to NIAC, proving there is a path from creative idea to mission success. And, while not all these concepts will fly, NASA and our partners worldwide can learn from fresh approaches and may eventually use technologies advanced by NIAC.”

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Handwriting Strengthens Brain Connections and Boosts Learning More Than Tapping on a Keyboard

By
Andy Corbley
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Photo by lilartsy
Photo by lilartsy

In an ever more digital world, pen and paper are increasingly getting replaced with screens and keyboards in classrooms. Now, a new study has investigated neural networks in the brain during hand and typewriting and showed that connectivity between different brain regions is more elaborate when letters are formed by hand.

This improved brain connectivity, which is crucial to memory building and information encoding, may indicate that writing by hand supports learning.

As digital devices progressively replace pen and paper, taking notes by hand is becoming increasingly uncommon in schools and universities. Using a keyboard is recommended because it’s often faster than writing by hand. However, the latter has been found to improve spelling accuracy and memory recall, if for no other reason than that pen and paper is cut off from the security of autocorrect features.

To find out if the process of forming letters by hand resulted in greater brain connectivity, researchers in Norway investigated the underlying neural networks involved in both modes of writing.

“We show that when writing by hand, brain connectivity patterns are far more elaborate than when typewriting on a keyboard,” said Prof Audrey van der Meer, a brain researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and co-author of the study published in Frontiers in Psychology.

“Such widespread brain connectivity is known to be crucial for memory formation and for encoding new information and, therefore, is beneficial for learning.”

One of the trial participants – credit, Norwegian University of Science and Technology – via SWNS

The researchers collected EEG data from 36 university students who were repeatedly prompted to either write or type a word that appeared on a screen. When writing, they used a digital pen to write in cursive directly on a touchscreen.

When typing they used a single finger to press keys on a keyboard. High-density EEGs, which measure electrical activity in the brain using 256 small sensors sewn in a net and placed over the head, were recorded for five seconds for every prompt.

Connectivity of different brain regions increased when participants wrote by hand, but not when they typed.

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“Our findings suggest that visual and movement information obtained through precisely controlled hand movements when using a pen contribute extensively to the brain’s connectivity patterns that promote learning,” van der Meer said.

Observant readers might have felt a red flag go up at the mention of a digital pen and touchscreen, since the objective was to discover the neural networks underlying pen and paper writing, but the researchers are confident that the actions are the same as far as the brain is concerned.

“We have shown that the differences in brain activity are related to the careful forming of the letters when writing by hand while making more use of the senses,” van der Meer explained. Since it is the movement of the fingers carried out when forming letters that promotes brain connectivity, writing in print is also expected to have the same effect.

On the contrary, the simple movement of hitting a key with the same finger repeatedly is less stimulating for the brain.

MORE DISCOVERIES LIKE THIS: Anxiety Can Be a Habit – Which Means We Can Stop it, If We Know How

“This also explains why children who have learned to write and read on a tablet, can have difficulty differentiating between letters that are mirror images of each other, such as ‘b’ and ‘d’. They literally haven’t felt with their bodies what it feels like to produce those letters,” van der Meer said.

Their findings demonstrate the need to give students the opportunity to use pens, rather than having them type during class, the researchers said. Guidelines to ensure that students receive at least a minimum of handwriting instruction could be an adequate step.

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11-Year-Old Moroccan Boy Hears for the First Time Thanks to Experimental Gene Therapy in Philadelphia

By
Andy Corbley
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11-year-old Aissam, pictured here in the middle - credit, DIVISION OF OTOLARYNGOLOGY, CHOP - released to the press.
11-year-old Aissam, pictured here in the middle – credit, Division of Otolaryngology, CHOP – released to the press.

At the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), an 11-year-old boy from Morocco is hearing the world for the very first time thanks to a revolutionary new genetic therapy that has cured his deafness.

While the gene involved is quite rare, the milestone represents a breakthrough in the treatment of patients around the world with hearing loss caused by dozens of different genetic mutations and marks another innovative move for gene and cell therapy in a new area of medicine.

Born into a poor community in Morocco, Aissam Dam experienced a silent world, having inherited a form of hereditary deafness called otoferlin deafness. The gene otoferlin is found mutated in 200,000 people worldwide, and the mutation destroys a protein in the inner ear’s hair cells necessary to transmit sound to the brain.

The New York Times reports that of the several kinds of hereditary deafness, an otoferlin mutation has been the easiest target since the hairs in the inner ear can live on for decades, while other genetic mutations cause the death of the hairs during infancy or even in the womb.

“Gene therapy for hearing loss is something that we physicians and scientists in the world of hearing loss have been working toward for over 20 years, and it is finally here,” said John A. Germiller PhD, an attending surgeon and Director of Clinical Research in the Division of Otolaryngology at CHOP.

Just because it was something like a low-hanging fruit, reversing or curing otoferlin was no picnic. The inner ear and the cochlea are complex, closed-off environments, and several challenges requiring years of study and testing had to be overcome.

But as for the result, young mister Aissam had some convincing words for The Times.

MEDICAL MIRACLES: After Miracle Baby Wakes From Coma Smiling At His Dad, Thousands Rally to Help Save His Life

“There’s no sound I don’t like,” Aissam said with the help of interpreters. “They’re all good.”

When asked his favorite, he signed back “people.”

The experimental trial took place on October 4, 2023, when Aissam underwent a surgical procedure at CHOP where an endoscope that allows the eardrum to be partially lifted allowed for an investigational medical device to be transiently inserted into the “round window,” a tiny entry point into the cochlea.

A single, small dose of a gene therapy (AK-OTOF), developed by a subsidiary of the pharma giant Eli Lilly called Akouos, and containing copies of the normal OTOF gene, was then delivered directly to the inner ear.

END OF CONGENITAL DEAFNESS: Deaf Children Are First Humans to Have Hearing Pathway Restored in Dramatic Demonstration of New Gene Therapy

Now, almost four months since receiving the investigational gene therapy in one ear, he is literally hearing sound for the first time in his life. He can hear his father’s voice, the sound of a car passing by, and even the scissors clipping his hair. Under healthy conditions, his hearing would be considered mildly impaired.

“As more patients at different ages are treated with this gene therapy, researchers will learn more about the degree to which hearing is improved and whether that level of hearing can be sustained over many years,” Germiller said. “What we have learned from following this patient’s progress will help direct our efforts toward helping as many patients as we can.”

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Dozens of Strange 12-Sided Objects from Roman Times Have Been Found—No One Knows What They’re For

By
Andy Corbley
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The dodecahedron - credit, Norton Disney History and Archaeology Group
The dodecahedron – credit, Norton Disney History and Archaeology Group

Across Europe, but particularly in Britain where residents love a weekend out with a metal detector, dozens of ‘dodecahedrons’ from the Roman Empire have been found, and no one knows what they’re for.

One was found in northern Belgium in February of last year, but another was found just this month in the English town of Norton Disney. There are around 130 examples of this strange item that have been found across the Roman world, and 33 in Britain alone.

Dodeca signifies twelve, so it’s a twelve-sided object—hollow, and with round openings on each pentagonal face. Each point is embellished with a sphere, and the dodecahedrons are typically made of bronze, copper, or a mixture of metals and alloys.

That’s about all science knows for sure, and beyond that, hypotheses that they were ritual devices, weapons, personal ornaments, religious objects, and even a kind of precision tool have all been put forward.

Being that they range in size and weight wildly, the idea of a weapon, such as the ball of a medieval morningstar, seems unlikely. Personal ornamentation also seems beyond the pale, since some are quite heavy, and if strung around the neck would be terribly uncomfortable.

A suggestion that they might have been precision measuring instruments could also be rationally ruled out, a press release from Belgian antiquities authorities stated last year, since how could you measure things accurately with a tool that’s always a different size, and couldn’t be placed fast against something on account of the metal spheres.

OTHER NEWS LIKE THIS: This Lost Roman Era ‘Miracle Plant’ May Have Been Rediscovered

But the find in Belgium was just a mere fragment, and over the weekend in Britain, a volunteer team of metal detectives and hobby archaeologists found an intact dodecahedron, which, according to their analysis, was purposely buried around 1,700 years ago.

They found it in an area of Lincolnshire where Roman artifacts had previously been discovered, and claim it’s as large as a grapefruit.

Richard, Alice, and Lorena from the Norton Disney History and Archaeology Group

“A huge amount of time, energy, and skill was taken to create our dodecahedron, so it was not used for mundane purposes, especially when alternative materials are available that would achieve the same purpose,” write the fine folks at The Norton Disney History and Archaeology Group. “The most likely use we think is for ritual and religious purposes.”

Today, dodecahedrons serve essentially only one common purpose in our society—as dice— for playing Dungeons & Dragons and other tabletop miniature games.

MORE HISTORICAL MYSTERIES: Mythical City of Underground Labyrinths Found Beneath Altar of 15th Century Church in Mexico

Whether the Romans were fond of a bit of D&D is another debate, and while no mention of a dodecahedron has ever been read in extant Roman literature, the pre-Christian Roman religious world was a very superstitious one, and so, for now, a religious or ritual artifact seems most likely.

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“Inspiration arrives as a packet of material to be delivered.” – John Updike

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “Inspiration arrives as a packet of material to be delivered.” – John Updike

Photo by: Jonas Morgner

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A 16th c. Scottish Plaid was Found in a Bog–Now Becomes Oldest Historical Tartan Available to Wear Today

By
Andy Corbley
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James Wylie, Assistant Curator, V&A Dundee Peter MacDonald, Head of Research & Collections, The Scottish Tartans Authority Nick Statt, Sales Director, House of Edgar John McLeish, Chair, The Scottish Tartans Authority Emma Wilkinson, Designer, House of Edgar
The Glen Affric Tartan and the gentlepeople responsible for bringing it back to life. Licensed for use by Spey

A textile manufacturer in Scotland has recreated the oldest-known piece of Scottish tartan ever found, which was buried for centuries.

Discovered approximately forty years ago in a peat bog, the Glen Affric Tartan underwent testing organized by The Scottish Tartans Authority last year to confirm it was the oldest surviving piece of tartan, dating back to between 1500-1600 CE.

Although earlier cloths have been discovered in Scotland, this is the first to show a distinctive tartan pattern with multiple crossing lines of different dyed yarns, which in the United States have come to be known as plaid or flannel.

The House of Edgar, Scotland’s specialist manufacturer and distributor of tartan fabrics and
highlandwear accessories, and home to some of the finest and most respected craftspeople in the industry, worked under the guidance of Peter Macdonald, a tartan historian and Head of Research & Collections at the not-for-profit Scottish Tartans Authority to recreate the Glen Affric tartan for people to wear as it could have been when it was first dyed then woven.

It features the original thread count, as well as the colors that dye analysis of the original tartan had confirmed—this included the use of green, yellow, and red, which would have come from woad or indigo to create the green along with other natural dyes.

Woad was the name of a plant from the cabbage family and mustard genus called Isatis tinctoria, and was cultivated for centuries as a natural blue dye, including in England, but would eventually be replaced by Indigofera tinctoria.

Emma Wilkinson, a designer at House Of Edger, and Peter MacDonald, Head of Research & Collections, The Scottish Tartans Authority, who is modeling the tartan – Licensed for use by Spey.

“I create new tartans every day but this project is truly special—a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to recreate a piece of history,” said Emma Wilkinson, the Designer for House of Edgar who worked on the project.

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“Tartan is such an iconic piece of Scotland’s identity and it has been a true pleasure to see this fabric come back to life to be enjoyed for generations to come.”

The reconstructed tartan is included along with 28 contrastingly new tartans in The House of Edgar’s new collection entitled Seventeen Eighty-Three, the year in which the company first started textile production.

OTHER TARTAN TALES: Send In Your Favorite Tartan For Year-Long Scottish Exhibition Honoring the Iconic Fabric

The new Glen Affric tartan is available for businesses to purchase from The House Of Edgar and the public can request it from any highlandwear supplier, with a percentage of all sales going to The Scottish Tartans Authority to support its work preserving the fabric of the nation.

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Teen Who Was Told He’d Never Walk with Cerebral Palsy Just Took 1st Place in Bodybuilding Competition

By
Andy Corbley
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Instagram - @hunter_moore_123
Instagram – @hunter_moore_123

Hunter Moore is just like any other teen athlete. He loves to play sports, made the varsity team, and doesn’t mind throwing up a few gym selfies on his Instagram.

“It’s all genetics, bro,” he says laughingly while pumping his nearly 20-inch bicep. The genetics, in Moore’s case, is Dystonic Cerebral Palsy from a stroke he suffered as an infant that left him partially paralyzed on his left side.

In this case, the genetics are the obstacle to overcome, not the immutable advantage some athletes enjoy. Yet Moore was born into a military family, and so received an upbringing full of dictates to never give up, to prove them all wrong, and it drove Hunter to spend most of his childhood building a body that was capable of the rigors of athletics.

For 7 years he always made his schools’ soccer teams, and now plays as the long snapper for his junior varsity football team, while regularly posting pretty impressive weightlifting numbers that even a non-paralyzed person could feel safe bragging about.

Even though he can’t use his left arm for isolated lifts, he still tries to incorporate it as often as possible for the sake of symmetry—one of bodybuilding’s most important judging criteria. He’ll lock his left arm around a bar, and pry it away from where it usually sits tucked up into his armpit. Like this, he can do a squat or a deadlift.

By the time he competed last summer in the Professional Natural Bodybuilding Association, he was pressing 120 lbs. with one arm, and deadlifting 405. He took first place in his category in Dallas, Texas, and competed again in November in Las Vegas to win first place in the professional class for Men’s Disabled Standing.

In an interview, Moore described posing on stage as “one of the scariest things that I have ever attempted,” but the whistles and cheers he received were a tangible reward for an amount of hard work that the majority of people, disabled or not, cannot manage.

MORE INSPIRING AND UNLIKELY LIFTERS: 78-Year-old Iron Woman Is Powerlifting Champion Who Does 400 Squats and Holds 19 World Records

“I will define myself and not let cerebral palsy or anyone else define me,” he told Joker Magazine, adding that he plans to go to university to study marine biology and hopes to also pursue motivational speaking.

CELEBRATE This Young Man’s Dedication To Overcoming The Odds… 

A New Drinking Game Is Sweeping Britain: Sending Pints to Strangers Across the Nation

By
Andy Corbley
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Rick Barrett - Unsplash
Rick Barrett – Unsplash

A new drinking game is sweeping the British nation—it involves losing money and no drinking.

If that sounds farfetched, it’s because the game consists of ordering pints and other drinks to people you’ll never meet out of the goodness of your heart—like Italy’s caffe sospesa, but with alcohol and in English.

Called “Wetherspoons: The Game” the activity has attracted international media attention, and the story goes like this. One day, Chris Illman from Portsmouth was out drowning his sorrows after a bad breakup and a cancer diagnosis at the local JD Wetherspoons, the largest UK pub chain which has over 800 locations.

Illman discovered a sort of loophole in the Wetherspoons app where one can select their location manually rather than activating their phone’s automatic location services. This would allow them to enter a table number and order drinks anywhere in the nation. After the discovery, Illman created a closed Facebook group for him and his buddies to buy each other drinks this way.

Then one day, the group became open, and in a few days there were 500,000 members.

The way that the Wetherspoons Game works is that people post a photograph of themselves, their ID card, and their location and table number along with an explanation of why someone should buy them a drink.

A group of dedicated volunteer moderators then check the ID, and approve only the polite and good-natured posts to the wall, where anyone can check the feed and decide to send them a drink.

“Hi, we’re 3 overworked and underpaid ICU nurses playing for the first time after a hard day’s work. Any contributions are extremely welcomed,” wrote a group of friends last night.

“One bottle of fizz on route from a tired 2nd yr student nurse 😜🤣 enjoy xx and thanks for your patience with us students,” a generous commenter replied.

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“We are out tonight to cheer ourselves up after an emotional day, my hamster of 3 years sadly died today and having to bury her in the garden whilst it was snowing was quite the challenge!!! my hands were numb and so was my heart,” wrote a woman from East London, who was sent, among other things, a strawberry daiquiri.

In Italy since the time of the Second World War, under-caffeinated patrons coming into a bar might leave a tip in a jar marked “caffe sospesa” or “suspended coffee.” The tip was to pay forward a coffee for the next person to come into the bar—as if you were buying a coffee for the whole world, the Italians say.

OTHER INTERESTING TRENDS: Everyone in England is Planting Wildflower Meadows After Prince Charles Replants 60 of Them to Honor Queen

However, il caffe sospesa takes place in the bar, and not online. As a result, it can’t go viral—but the Wetherspoons game can, and sometimes recipients are doused in so much booze they end up having to pass the drinks all around the pub just to avoid having to take a taxi home.

“It’s really hard to explain,” Illman told the Wall Street Journal. “People, it turns out, love sitting on their sofas during nights in ordering drinks for people enjoying a night out, he says. Very few of them give to receive.”

SHARE This Awesome English Invention With Your Friends In The Country…

Fascinating Species of 200 Million-Year-old Flying Reptile Discovered in Britain

By
Andy Corbley
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Kuehneosaurus latus (right) and Kuehneosuchus latissimus (left) - two animals found in Britain from the late Triassic. CC 3.0. BY Nobu Tamura
Kuehneosaurus latus (right) and Kuehneosuchus latissimus (left) – two animals found in Britain from the late Triassic. CC 3.0. BY Nobu Tamura

In fantasy fiction, the dragon is one of the most common mythical beasts, but these giant flying lizards defy the reality that flying lizards have actually been found on Earth through many once upon a times—they were just really small.

Case in point, this small fry from 200 million years ago, a Kuehneosaur, a flying reptile that used a membrane of skin that stretched out along a set of fantastically elongated rib bones that allowed them to glide from tree to tree.

The discovery was made by University of Bristol masters student Mike Cawthorne, and the university press reports that he has been researching numerous reptile fossils from limestone quarries which formed Mendip Palaeo-island—the biggest sub-tropical island at a time when Great Britain was an archipelago.

Mendip Palaeo Island would have stretched 18 miles across and was home to many small reptiles that roamed the Triassic-Jurassic boundary eon eating plants and insects.

“All the beasts were small,” said Mike. “I had hoped to find some dinosaur bones, or even their isolated teeth, but in fact I found everything else but dinosaurs.”

The Kuehneosaurus discovered by Cawthorne is actually not a true lizard, and is more closely related to crocodiles, which for those interested in such things means it’s classified as an Archosaur, rather than a Lepidosaur.

MORE REPTILIAN HISTORY: Exquisite New Fossil Shows Scientists How Much More Ferocious Australia’s Crocs Once Were

“It took a lot of work identifying the fossil bones, most of which were separate and not in a skeleton,” explained Professor Mike Benton, from Bristol’s School of Earth Sciences, who was a co-author on Cawthorne’s paper describing the various animals.

Along with the glider, Cawthorne found the teeth of a Trilophosaurus, called Variodens inopinatus, which was a stocky-headed plant-eater that grew as long as a large monitor lizard does today, and an aquatic lizard called Pachystropheus which swam and ate shrimp.

MORE FOSSILS FROM PREHISTORIC BRITAIN: One of the Largest ‘Sea Dragon’ Fossils Ever Found in Britain Unearthed As a Complete Ichthyosaur

“Mike Cawthorne was able to compare the isolated jaws and other bones with more complete specimens from the other sites around Bristol,” said Benton. “He didn’t find any dinosaur bones, but it’s likely that they were there because we have found dinosaur bones in other locations of the same geological age around Bristol.”

Under the cloak of winter temps at between 9° and 3°C, or between 40° and 49°F, with clouds and scattered showers, the residents of Great Britain might find it strange to think that their island was once sitting in a subtropical sea of islets where dozens of lizards climbed trees in steamy forests.

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“People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.” – Rousseau

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.” – Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Photo by: Muhammed Nishal

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