All News - Page 246 of 1721 - Good News Network
Home Blog Page 246

Your Weekly Horoscope From Rob Brezsny: A ‘Free Will Astrology’

By
Good News Network
-

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 November 4, 2023
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Who would have guessed that elephants can play the drums really well? On a trip to Thailand, Scorpio musician Dave Soldier discovered that if given sticks and drums, some elephants kept a steadier beat than humans. A few were so talented that Soldier recorded their rhythms and played them for a music critic who couldn’t tell they were created by animals. In accordance with astrological omens, I propose that you Scorpios seek out comparable amazements. You now have the potential to make unprecedented discoveries.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
Sagittarian novelist Shirley Jackson wrote, “No live organism can continue for long to exist under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids dream.” Since she wrote that, scientists have gathered evidence that almost all animals dream and that dreaming originated at least 300 million years ago. With that as our inspiration and in accordance with astrological omens, I urge you to enjoy an intense period of tapping into your dreams. To do so will help you escape from absolute reality. It will also improve your physical and mental health and give you unexpected clues about how to solve problems.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Capricorn writer Kahlil Gibran believed an essential human longing is to be revealed. We all want the light in us to be taken out of its hiding place and shown. If his idea is true about you, you will experience major cascades of gratification in the coming months. I believe you will be extra expressive. And you will encounter more people than ever before who are interested in knowing what you have to express. To prepare for the probable breakthroughs, investigate whether you harbor any fears or inhibitions about being revealed—and dissolve them.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
November is Build Up Your Confidence Month. In the coming weeks, you are authorized to snag easy victories as you steadily bolster your courage to seek bigger, bolder triumphs. As much as possible, put yourself in the vicinity of people who respect you and like you. If you suspect you have secret admirers, encourage them to be less secretive. Do you have plaques, medals, or trophies? Display them prominently. Or visit a trophy store and have new awards made for you to commemorate your unique skills—like thinking wild thoughts, pulling off one-of-a-kind adventures, and inspiring your friends to rebel against their habits.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
I’m glad we have an abundance of teachers helping us learn how to be here now—to focus on the present moment with gratitude and grace. I love the fact that books on the art of mindfulness are now almost as common as books about cats and cooking. Yay! But I also want to advocate for the importance of letting our minds wander freely. We need to celebrate the value and power of NOT always being narrowly zeroed in on the here and now. We can’t make intelligent decisions unless we ruminate about what has happened in the past and what might occur in the future. Meandering around in fantasyland is key to discovering new insights. Imaginative ruminating is central to the creative process. Now please give your mind the privilege of wandering far and wide in the coming weeks, Pisces.

ARIES (March 21-April 19):
“Our bodies sometimes serve as the symbolic ground where order and disorder fight for supremacy,” writes storyteller Caroline Kettlewell. Here’s good news, Aries: For you, order will triumph over disorder in the coming weeks. In part through your willpower and in part through life’s grace, you will tame the forces of chaos and enjoy a phase when most everything makes sense. I don’t mean you will have zero problems, but I suspect you will have an enhanced power to solve problems. Your mind and heart will coordinate their efforts with exceptional flair.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
I recently endured a three-hour root canal. Terrible and unfortunate, right? No! Because it brought profound joy. The endodontist gave me nitrous oxide, and the resulting euphoria unleashed a wild epiphany. For the duration of the surgery, I had vivid visions of all the people in my life who love me. I felt their care. I was overwhelmed with the kindness they felt for me. Never before had I been blessed with such a blissful gift.Now, in accordance with your astrological omens, I invite you to induce a similar experience—no nitrous oxide needed. It’s a perfect time to meditate on how well you are appreciated and needed and cherished.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
Unless you are very unusual, you don’t sew your clothes or grow your food. You didn’t build your house, make your furniture, or forge your cooking utensils. Like most of us, you know little about how water and electricity arrive for your use. Do you have any notion of what your grandparents were doing when they were your age? Have you said a prayer of gratitude recently for the people who have given you so much? I don’t mean to put you on the spot with my questions, Gemini. I’m merely hoping to inspire you to get into closer connection with everything that nourishes and sustains you. Honor the sources of your energy. Pay homage to your foundations.

CANCER (June 21-July 22):
Cancerian singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega has had a modest but sustained career. With nine albums, she has sold over three million records, but is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She has said, “I always thought that if I were popular, I must be doing something wrong.” I interpret that to mean she has sought to remain faithful to her idiosyncratic creativity and not pay homage to formulaic success. But here’s the good news for you in the coming months, fellow Cancerian: You can be more appreciated than ever before simply by being true to your soul’s inclinations and urges.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
“Everything in the world has a hidden meaning,” wrote Greek author Nikos Kazantzakis. Did he really mean everything? Your dream last night, your taste in shoes, your favorite TV show, the way you laugh? As a fun experiment, let’s say that yes, everything has a hidden meaning. Let’s also hypothesize that the current astrological omens suggest you now have a special talent for discerning veiled and camouflaged truths. We will further propose that you have an extraordinary power to penetrate beyond surface appearances and home in on previously unknown and invisible realities. Do you have the courage and determination to go deeper than you have ever dared? I believe you do.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
How many glowworms would have to gather in one location to make a light as bright as the sun? Probably over a trillion. And how many ants would be required to carry away a 15-pound basket of food? I’m guessing over 90,000. Luckily for you, the cumulative small efforts you need to perform so as to accomplish big breakthroughs won’t be nearly that high a number. For instance, you may be able to take a quantum leap after just six baby steps.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
In the 17th century, John Milton wrote a long narrative poem titled Paradise Lost. I’ve never read it and am conflicted about the prospect of doing so. On one hand, I feel I should engage with a work that has had such a potent influence on Western philosophy and literature. On the other hand, I’m barely interested in Milton’s story, which includes boring conversations between God and Satan and the dreary tale of how God cruelly exiled humans from paradise because the first man, Adam, was mildly rebellious. So what should I do? I’ve decided to read the *Cliffs Notes* study guide about *Paradise Lost*, a brief summary of the story. In accordance with astrological omens, I suggest you call on similar shortcuts, Libra. Here’s your motto: if you can’t do the completely right thing, try the partially right thing.

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)

SHARE The Wisdom With Friends Who Are Stars in Your Life on Social Media…

“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” – Anais Nin

By
Good News Network
-
By Dim Hou

Quote of the Day: “We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” – Anais Nin

Photo by: Dim Hou

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?

lonely man in window

Pieces of the Planet That Collided With Earth and Formed the Moon Are Still Buried Deep Inside Our Core

By
Andy Corbley
-
Illustration of aftermath of collision with Theia – Professor Hongping Deng of the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory / Hangzhou Sphere Studio
Illustration of aftermath of collision with Theia – Professor Hongping Deng of the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory / Hangzhou Sphere Studio

A proto planet the size of Mars called Theia may have collided, and remained, inside the Earth after ejecting enough material to form the Moon.

But in an expansive new study, researchers say there’s reason to believe that Theia’s impact on the solar system hasn’t concluded because it’s still influencing the forces of the Earth’s interior having been subsumed by our planet.

An international, interdisciplinary team of researchers identified something called Large Low-Velocity Provinces (LLVP) deep in the second layer of the Earth, known as the mantle, which could be relics of Theia.

The new study, published in the journal Nature, offers important new insights not only into the Earth’s internal structure but also its long-term evolution and the formation of the inner solar system.

How our own Moon was formed has proved a persistent challenge for several generations of scientists. The prevailing theories suggest that during the late stages of the Earth’s growth around 4.5 billion years ago, a huge collision known as the ‘giant impact’ formed the Moon from the debris.

Simulations have also indicated that the Moon likely inherited material primarily from Theia, whilst Earth, due to its bigger size, was only mildly mixed with Theian material.

Since Earth and Theia were relatively independent formations composed of different materials, previous theories suggested that the Moon, being dominated by Theian material, and the Earth, being dominated by Earthen material, should have distinct compositions.

However, high-precision isotope measurements later revealed that the compositions of the Earth and Moon are remarkably similar, thus challenging the conventional theory of the formation of the Moon.

Professor Hongping Deng of the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (SHAO) has been researching this topic since 2017.

Deng has discovered that the early Earth featured an upper and lower mantle of very different material compositions. Specifically, the upper mantle featured a magma ocean created through a thorough mixing of material from Earth and Theia, while the lower mantle remained largely solid and retained the material composition of Earth.

Following discussions with geophysicists from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Deng and his collaborators realized that this mantle layering may have persisted to the present day about 1,000 km (600 miles) beneath the Earth’s surface.

“Our findings challenge the traditional notion that the giant impact led to the homogenization of the early Earth,” Deng said. “Instead, the Moon-forming giant impact appears to be the origin of the early mantle’s heterogeneity and marks the starting point for the Earth’s geological evolution over the course of 4.5 billion years.”

Another example of the Earth’s mantle diversity is the two anomalous regions, the LLVPs mentioned earlier, which stretch for hundreds of miles at the base of the mantle.

One is located beneath the African tectonic plate, whilst the other is under the Pacific plate. When seismic waves pass through these areas, wave velocity is significantly reduced.

Previous research has demonstrated that LLVPs have significant implications for the evolution of the mantle, the separation and aggregation of supercontinents, and the Earth’s tectonic plate structures but their origins have remained a mystery.

MORE SCIENCE LIKE THIS: Asteroid Sample Delivered Back to Earth in a ‘Brilliant Feat’–a Time Capsule of Ancient Solar System

Dr. Qian Yuan, from the California Institute of Technology, proposed along with his collaborators that LLVPs could have evolved from a small amount of Theian material that entered Earth’s lower mantle.

“Through precise analysis of a wider range of rock samples, combined with more refined giant impact models and Earth evolution models, we can infer the material composition and orbital dynamics of the primordial Earth and Theia,” said Dr. Yuan. “This allows us to constrain the entire history of the formation of the inner solar system.”

Through in-depth analysis, the research team calculated that around 2% of denser, iron-rich Theian material rapidly sank to the bottom of the mantle and, over the course of long-term mantle convection, formed two prominent LLVP regions which have remained stable throughout 4.5 billion years of geological evolution.

MORE SOLAR SYSTEM STORIES: ‘Alien’ Minerals Never Found on Earth Before Reveal Their Traumatic Origin Story

Diversity in the deep mantle suggests that the Earth’s interior is far from a uniform system.

Evidence such as isotope ratios of rare gases in samples of Icelandic basalt suggest that remnants of diversity between Earth and Theia in the deep mantle still serve to shape the Earth today, and can be used to inform the 4.5 billion years of geological evolution that followed the great impact.

SHARE This Fascinating Chapter In The Earth’s History With Your Friends… 

​​Good Samaritan Dodges Cars to Clear Large Debris From Highway in Dubai, Video Goes Viral

By
Andy Corbley
-
Dubai Post/Dubai Police - Fair Use

From Dubai comes the story of an ordinary man being singled out for honors by the police department after a selfless display of civic-mindedness.

An unnamed Dubai resident was driving when he saw some debris on Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road. It’s a situation we’ve all been in before, and almost always simply passed by, thinking “someone should do something about that debris.”

Well, the resident decided that person should be him, and when the Dubai police arrived to do just that, they found the man had already cleaned up the debris for them.

The department claimed the man had explained he did it out of concern for the safety of other motorists.

“Celebrating unsung heroes. It’s not about physical strength, but about the initiative.” Here is a new story from the heart of Dubai, and a well-deserved recognition from Dubai Police,” the Department posted on X, formerly Twitter, with a short video of the story.

MORE GOOD SAMARITANS: A Family Treasure Scattered in the Street and the Good Samaritan Who Cared

Dubai Post then shared the video, calling it “an act of kindness and community spirit,” and causing it to go viral in the country.

In the UAE and the Muslim world at large, but particularly in Dubai owing to the mixing of cultures, gift-giving is practiced with extreme frequency, and in the video it appears the police gave the man a present of sorts. All in a day’s work.

WATCH the story below from the Dubai Police…

Have Any Friends In Dubai? SHARE This Example Of Civic-Mindedness…

Cop Saves Unconscious Driver From Burning Truck, ‘I’m either going to die here with him or get him out’ –WATCH

By
Andy Corbley
-
Salisbury Police Department – Released
Salisbury Police Department – Released

Salisbury Police Department of North Carolina is honoring one of their own who said he was willing to die in a car fire in order to save the unconscious motorist trapped within.

Lieutenant Corey Brooks is the hero in question—who saw a tractor-trailer hit the guardrails along Interstate 85 and catch fire on August 8th. The driver, Michael Williams, was unconscious.

“This truck can go at anytime and I was thinking ‘I am either going to die here with him or I am going to get him out of here,’” Brooks said. “When it hit the wall it scared me because it’s not everyday you see a tractor-trailer hit a wall that fast.”

For anyone who knows Brooks, this wouldn’t come as a surprise, who has already won commendations that include the City of Salisbury Bronze Keys of Excellence, Salisbury Police Veteran Officer of the Year, the 2016 Blue Line Brotherhood Award, and Lion’s Club Salisbury Police Veteran of the Year.

The Department released body cam footage of Brooks’ rescue, which is nothing short of something from a Die Hard film. It shows Brooks running down a line of burning fuel to the cab of the truck where Williams is slumped unconscious in his seat belt. Brooks screams at him to get out, but quickly realizes he must remove the driver himself, and does so after unlatching the seatbelt.

Another driver wearing an Argentina National Football Team shirt showed up out of the blue to help Brooks haul Williams across the street, whom the officer later called an “angel” and whose identity remains a mystery.

CHECK OUT: Police, Good Samaritans Team Up to Lift Two-Ton Car Off Crushed Teen Driver and Save His Life

Brooks’ remarks about the truck being capable of “going” at any time were no exaggeration, and just minutes after he pulled Williams to safety, something can be heard exploding from the direction of the semi.

Williams made a full recovery, and Brooks said the ordeal was the scariest moment in his 25 years of law enforcement.

WATCH the story below… 

SHARE This True Hero’s Life-Saving Work With Your Friends… 

Ring Camera Video Catches Teenage Trick-or-Treaters Refilling Empty Candy Bowl: ‘It feels really good’ – WATCH

By
Andy Corbley
-
Credit Jennifer Wyckoff - released
Credit Jennifer Wyckoff – released

A group of teenagers who came across an empty candy bucket decided to refill it with their own candy in order to ensure little kids could have some too.

Going viral on social media, the act of holiday generosity was filmed from the house owner’s Ring camera and captured the irony of the three young women, dressed as bald businessmen, donating their own candy and inviting other trick-or-treaters to follow suit.

Homeowner Jennifer Wyckoff of Redmond, central Oregon, was excited to watch the Ring camera footage back with her daughter Layla Glover, so as to see all the different costumes that paid them a visit. Their candy bucket had a note pinned to it: “Sorry we missed you, be kind and only take a few pieces.”

What they found was rather shocking, rather than coming up and taking candy, kids were coming up and replenishing Wyckoff’s pumpkin which was at that point empty.

“On our camera, I saw them come up to the house, there was no candy there. They said ‘Oh, let’s donate some to the bowl.’ There was some other kids walking up and they told them ‘Hey, come give some candy to this bowl, there’s none left,’” Glover told the Central Oregon Daily News

The TV station then got in contact with some of the kids, and they had some inspiring insight into their generous trick.

“We see the teenagers running around especially later at night taking the candy, and then all of the little kids who still want more candy when there’s none left in the bowl, it just makes you want to give more,” said Samantha Sale, one of the girls who donated some of her candy.

Another said that three pieces of candy from her already-bulging stash aren’t going to make much difference to her, but for a child arriving at the empty candy bucket who might really have their spirits dropped, the candy would make a big difference.

MORE DOORBELL STORIES: 70 Million People Cheer on Young Texan Boy Who Rang A Doorbell Asking for Help Finding Friends

After being shared on Facebook, someone commented that they “didn’t want to brag,” but their daughter was the one who started it all, to which another replied that “those teens were raised right! Great job! You should be extremely proud of your actions last night!!”

Still, another, proving that good deeds don’t go unrewarded, said “Reach out to me!! I will gladly give them some whole candy bars from my leftovers!!”

WATCH the story below from Central Oregon Daily… 

SHARE These Good-Natured Trick-Or-Treaters On Social Media… 

“If the world seems cold to you, kindle fires to warm it.” – Lucy Larcom

By
Good News Network
-

Quote of the Day: “If the world seems cold to you, kindle fires to warm it.” – Lucy Larcom

Photo by: (c) GWC

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?

Scientists Engineered a Bacteria to Eat Plastic Bottles and Transforming Them into Useful Liquids

By
Andy Corbley
-
These white beads contain engineered E. coli bacteria that can produce valuable chemicals from munching on plastic - University of Edinbrough via SWNS
These white beads contain engineered E. coli bacteria that can produce valuable chemicals from munching on plastic – University of Edinburgh via SWNS

Plastic-chomping bacteria could transform plastic bottles into make-up, drugs, and perfumes, according to a new study.

University of Edinburgh scientists engineered a simple E. coli bacteria to eat our litter and regurgitate it into something else. Writing in ACS Central Science, the researchers announced it was the first “one-pot” solution for making plastic waste useful, or valorizing it, using microbes.

Mountains of disposable polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles are thrown out every day. The world produces millions of tons of PET a year, over 80% of which is for single-use products.

The E. coli can upcycle discarded PET into adipic acid, widely relied on in cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and fragrance industries.

Adipic acid is generally created by an energy-intensive process that’s reliant on fossil fuels, and the team hopes their study will encourage industries to use fossil alternatives.

“This approach enables the upcycling of waste carbon from existing industrial processes to create circular economies, avoiding the environmental consequences of landfill and/or incineration processes,” write the authors.

“Although chemical and biological approaches to the depolymerization and recycling of PET waste are being investigated, bio-upcycling technologies to convert plastic waste into higher value small molecules are less established.”

“Herein we report the first one-pot bioproduction of adipic acid from terephthalic acid and terephthalate waste in engineered Escherichia coli.”

MORE INGENIOUS RECYCLING METHODS: Scientists Are Recycling Wastewater to Reclaim Valuable Phosphorous to Put Back in Soil

Looking to bacteria and other microbes for solutions to biodegrading petro-based plastic polymers is nothing new, and GNN has reported on it here in the Arctic, here in a cemetery, here from the University of Texas, and here from Montana State University.

Previously the authors write, other engineers created an E. coli strain that could transform the main component in PET, terephthalic acid, into vanilla flavoring, otherwise known as vanillin.

Building on that research, the University of Edinburgh’s team practiced getting microbes to metabolize terephthalic acid into small molecules including short acids.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: ‘Superworm’ With Appetite for Polystyrene Could be Key to Mass-Scale Recycling

They first turned terephthalic acid into muconic acid using one type of E. coli, and then transformed that into adipic acid using another E. coli. They managed to turn up to 79% of the terephthalic acid into adipic acid.

Next, the team hopes to find a way to create higher-value products through similar processes.

SHARE This Step In The Inevitable March To Biodegrading All Plastics…

Selfless Quad Amputee Summits a Peak to Raise Money for Other Disabled Kids

By
Andy Corbley
-
Luke Mortimer - SWNS
Luke Mortimer – SWNS

A ten-year-old quadruple amputee is going to attempt to summit a 656-foot mountain to raise money for other children with disabilities.

The climber, Luke Mortimer, is “determined” to summit Embsay Crag, in North Yorkshire. The kind-hearted youngster has dubbed the peak his ‘Everest,’ and is undertaking the challenge as an attempt to “return the favor” to charities which have helped him.

Mortimer was just seven years old when he contracted the severe bacterial infections meningococcal meningitis and septicemia. Although he survived the deadly illness, he lost all his limbs and needed 23 painful surgeries over a ten-week period to replace missing skin and address his wounds.

Ever since his family moved near the Embsay area in 2019, the plucky lad has had ambitions to summit the nearby crag, which he can see from the garden of his rural home.

This Saturday, (Nov 4) he’ll attempt the grueling trek in aid of amputee charity LimbPower and the BBC’s Children in Need (donate here), after appearing on its show last year.

“When we moved here, we were going down the road to Embsay, and I just saw the crag, and I said, ‘Mum, dad, one day can we climb it?'” said Mortimer. “It’s been a few years now, but I feel very determined about getting to the top and back down. I think the worst thing that can happen is probably rain.”

Luke’s dad, Adam Mortimer admitted the steep two-mile journey to the top of the summit and back would be a “tough challenge” for his intrepid son.

But he said Luke was intent on reaching the peak himself and would be wearing a set of shortened knee-length prosthetics called ‘stubbies’ for the climb.

“It will take as long as it takes. We don’t have a set time because I don’t want to put him under any pressure,” said Mr. Mortimer. “It’s just going to be at Luke’s pace, up and back down.”

MORE NEWS LIKE THIS: Woman Becomes First Human to be Fitted with Nerve and Bone Fused Bionic Limb

Charities and fundraisers set up in the wake of the amputations managed over £15,000 ($18,000) worth of donations from an army of well-wishers, allowing him to get a suite of prosthetics that he used in rehabilitation. They also paid for his first robotic arm so he could do more for himself.

Volunteer organization Band of Builders later helped his dad Adam fit the bungalow where Luke lives with a remarkable range of adaptions, which were unveiled on September 3 this year.

A charity called Band of Builders made a small house for Luke, with everything built to the specifications of his abilities – SWNS

Luke’s challenge will begin from a parking lot at the Embsay Reservoir at 10 a.m. on Saturday, where cakes and refreshments will be sold for charity prior to the ascent.

“There’s a few people that have said they’ll come along—it’s kind of an open invitation,” said Adam. “We’ve done it at his school, we’ve put it online.”

OTHER INSPIRING AMPUTEES: Amputee Who Can Only Walk for 20 Minutes at a Time Climbs England’s Three Highest Peaks

Simon Antrobus, Chief Executive at BBC Children in Need, wished Luke the best of luck for his fundraising initiative.

“We would like to extend our enormous thanks to Luke for taking on such an inspiring challenge and for choosing BBC Children in Need as one of the charities to benefit from his fundraising,” he said. “We wish him lots of luck for next weekend and cannot wait to see how he gets on.”

WATCH the story below from SWNS… 

SHARE This Inspiring Ascent Of Mini-Everest By This Intrepid Boy…

Portland’s New Airport Built with Local Tribal Timber is Inherently Fire Resistant and Less Carbon-Intensive

By
Andy Corbley
-
Port of Portland - released
Port of Portland – released

Oregon is famous for forests, and so it makes sense that the new “Port of Portland” airport terminal is going to be built almost entirely of state-of-the-art timber.

Cross-laminated timber (CLT) also known as “mass-timber” is taking the construction world by storm with its incredible durability, robust fire resistance, low carbon footprint, and beautiful aesthetic. In Europe, CLT has been used to build skyscrapers, aka “plyscrapers.”

But CLT is not plywood, and is instead made of long boards pressed together cross-ways with glue and high temperatures, making it strong but also flexible.

In Portland’s new terminal, a giant roof for the main atrium—9 acres in area, is being built with CLT made from Douglas fir, hemlock, and southern yellow pine sourced entirely from within 300 miles of its location, all from either Oregon landowners or Tribal nations.

“The process was so exacting, the architects knew every board that frames the skylights above the 26 Y-columns came from the Yakama Nation, and all the double beams in the six massive oval skylights came from the Coquille Indian Tribe,” writes Patrick Sisson from Fast Company. 

“The Portland project has almost created a market across the country,” Dean Lewis, director of mass timber and prefabrication for Skanska, the company that is handling construction, told the magazine. “We’re getting calls from Atlanta and New York asking about the kinds of timber we can get within 300 miles of the city. ‘Can we do that here?’ They all want that local story.”

Port of Portland at its current state of construction – released

Along with being a beautiful place to embark and disembark, the terminal is envisioned as a huge flexing of the muscles of the American mass timber market, which internationally is mainly controlled by other countries like Sweden and Canada.

SWEDEN’S MASS TIMBER MARKET: Sweden Is Trying to Build a Whole City Borough Out of Wood to ‘Show What is Possible’

Mass timber is also, despite the chopping down of the trees, a low-carbon building solution. Concrete manufacturing is one of the three largest emitters of greenhouse gases in the world economy, and part of the appeal of mass timber is that by the time the tree is of the right age for building, the carbon absorbed in the tree is not only significant but removed from the global carbon cycle when it’s turned into mass timber.

MORE ALTERNATIVE BUILDS: World’s Tallest ‘Hempcrete’ Building in South Africa Captures More Carbon than it Emits

If, as is so often the case on timber plantations, trees die of natural causes, their decomposing releases that carbon into the atmosphere anew.

SHARE This Beautiful All-Oregon Airport With Your Friends From The Northwest…

Double Whammy of Pleiades and Leonid Meteor Showers Arrive Together This Month in November Sky

By
Andy Corbley
-
The Pleiades - Davide Simonetti, CC 3.0.
The Pleiades – Davide Simonetti, CC 3.0.

This month’s night sky will feature two wonderful celestial phenomena appearing in the sky together under a very small moon—leaving nearly nothing to dampen their splendor.

The Pleiades is one of the most regal star clusters visible from Earth with the naked eye, and a source of endless fascination among our ancient ancestors.

The Pleiades has many names: the Seven Sisters, Messier 45, or Mul Mul in ancient Mesopotamia, where it was found inlaid of gold on the Nebra Sun Disk from 1,600 BCE.

It is arguably the most famous deep-space object, located about 440 light-years away in the constellation Taurus and consisting of thousands of stars, though 7 stand out in particular.

Around midnight on November 18th, the Pleiades will be in a great spot for viewing—overhead towards the equator. Depending on the light pollution in your area, you won’t need a pair of binoculars, but with them, the Seven Sisters are truly stunning to behold.

It’s also on that night that Earth will pass the peak of the Leonid Meteor Shower, named for the constellation Leo. Leo will be lounging in the northeastern sky for most people, according to Valerie at Space Tourism Guide, and if you can spot the Big Dipper/Plough, you’re in the right part of the sky to spot some shooting stars.

There should be around 15 per hour—a good clip for what should be a pretty cold night. Ideal for this situation, the moon will be only 6 days old.

In other stargazing news, on November 2nd (tonight) Jupiter will be in perfect opposition to the Sun from the Earth’s perspective, meaning it will be lit up and visible in detail for those with telescopes and binoculars.

On the night of November 12th, the Taurid Meteor Stream will peak at around 10 meteors per hour under the complete darkness of a New Moon—optimal time for some star photography.

On November 27th, a full “Frost” or “Beaver” moon will reach opposition at 4:16 a.m. US Eastern Time. The Anishinaabe People of the Northern US/Canada called this “Little Spirit Moon” and was recognized as a time of healing.

SHARE These Great Opportunities To Go Outdoors For Some Stargazing… 

“Nature… is nothing but the inner voice of self-interest.” – Charles Baudelaire

By
Good News Network
-

Quote of the Day: “Nature… is nothing but the inner voice of self-interest.” – Charles Baudelaire

Photo by: Nathan Anderson

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?

11th c. Monastery Gets Back Statues from Two US Museums–And Discovers Hundreds of Treasures in the Process

By
Andy Corbley
-
Intricate carvings and bronzes on display outside the monastery – Pranab Joshi/Courtesy Itumbaha
Intricate carvings and bronzes on display outside the monastery – Pranab Joshi/Courtesy Itumbaha

A Buddhist monastery in Nepal is experiencing a true renaissance following a series of museum repatriations that brought about an increased interest in the monastery’s 900-year history.

The revival in interest led to a hidden trove of Buddhist artifacts being discovered “buried in layers of dust and dirt and mud and sand,” the earliest of which date from the 13th century.

First established in the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu in the 11th century, the Itumbaha Monastery was a collection of warrens, shrines, and columned halls that gradually accumulated many treasures of the Saha world, including ornate halos and swords, golden crowns, mini stupas, and statues of deities, all collected there by kings and abbots.

The story of art theft and black market antiquities trade in Nepal is long and tragic, but as seen in Cambodia, West Africa, and Indonesia, museum curators are more ready than ever to make amends for the crimes of the past, and several priceless pieces have already been returned to Itumbaha.

These include a 13th-century wooden temple carving of a deity called “salabhinka,” from the Met in New York, and two carvings from the Rubin Museum, one of which was taken from Itumbaha, and another from a nearby temple complex.

CNN, reporting on the opening of the new Itumbaha museum, details that up until 1951, foreigners were not permitted into Nepal. After the country opened up, large amounts of religious artworks and artifacts were stolen while the country fought a long civil war.

Two decades ago, the World Monuments Fund, one of the largest non-profits in the world dedicated to preserving cultural heritage, began restoration work on the monastery—known in Sandskrit as a “vihara,” when workers and temple stewards came across a trove of hundreds of artifacts that had not been stolen, but instead had been hidden in forgotten storehouses and covered in dust.

The vihara was helped to properly inventory and digitize its collections by the Rubin Museum, perhaps as a bid to “make merit,” as the Buddhists say, for being the endpoint of the stolen religious artwork.

MORE MUSEUM REPATRIATIONS: Stolen Trove of Angkor Royal Jewelry Returned to Cambodia After Resurfacing in London

“It is our hope that through this collaboration we can create further awareness around the cultural importance of historic collections held in religious institutions like our own and the need to document and protect them,” said Pragya Ji, president of the Ithum Conservation Society which takes care of the vihara, in a statement announcing its partnership with the Rubin.

Executive director of the Rubin Museum, Jorrit Britschgi, told CNN over a phone call that the museum’s number one priority beyond its own operations is a doubling-down in efforts to look at its own collections and those of other institutions for artifacts that could have come from the vihara and others like it.

MORE WORLD MUSEUM NEWS: German Museums Work Year-Round to Find Rightful Heirs to Hundreds of Stolen Jewish Silver Pieces

Now, the vihara has its own museum of 500 pieces, 150 of which are on display at any given time. But being that Itumbara is a place where religious activities are held daily, the museum is “open” and the objects retain their roles in rites and festivals. Locals can touch, examine, and honor them if they wish, and it’s a far cry from climate-controlled rooms full of glass, cameras, and whispers like one would find in the Met.

“It’s entirely up to that community what they want to do with these objects, and most of the time they’re (put) back into the temple and shrines, and they will be worshipped,” Roshan Mishra, founding member of the non-profit Nepal Heritage Recovery Campaign, told CNN.

SHARE This Monastery’s Glory Days Restored With New Museum…

Ocean Lover Saves 1,000 Seals off Britain–and Even Built Them a Hospital

By
Andy Corbley
-
Lizzi Larbalestier at British Divers Marine Life Rescue Hospital givinG medication to a seal - SWNS
Lizzi Larbalestier at British Divers Marine Life Rescue Hospital giving medication to a seal – SWNS

In the beautiful, blustery seaside city of Cornwall, a woman runs a hospital for injured seals amid volunteer work rescuing all kinds of sea life, and was recently awarded the Animal Action Award for her heroic work.

Lizzi Larbalestier is a volunteer for British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) who spent nine months caring for injured seals after she turned her Airbnb into a makeshift animal hospital. After determining it simply wasn’t enough, she, her husband, and other volunteers have built a fully functioning seal hospital from the ground up in Cornwall.

The new facility has ten pens, while the couple’s home facility had just six. Now in their third birthing season of operation, Larbalestier is expecting around 100 seals to come for rehabilitation each year, after last year saw 3,000 calls to respond to injured or displaced sea life.

Some need first aid and are brought in after suffering a wound from boats or fishing equipment. Others are pups that get separated from their parents, and still others are juveniles who weren’t successful hunters and would have otherwise died because they became too malnourished.

And just as the reasons for a seal’s arrival in Larbalestier’s hospital may vary, their time spent there also varies between a simple check-up, first aid, a disentanglement from a fishing net, or an entire foster and rehabilitation program that will usually see them shipped off to a larger facility.

Larbalestier is also a member of the Surfer’s Against Sewage campaign and Ghostnetbuster, and as a result of all her dedicated environmental work, she received the prestigious Animal Action Award from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), presented in London, this week.

A volunteer at work in Larbalestier’s new hospital – SWNS

Lizzi emphasizes the day-to-day work is shared by all of their team, and each volunteer is ‘crucial’ to BDMLR’s marine conservation efforts.

“The pups get rescued by any one of us volunteer medics and, if necessary, get brought into the hospital where a vet will check them over and create a treatment plan,” she said. “We have clear protocols to ensure pups get the very best care, it is a real team effort.”

“We offer critical care for these animals post-rescue, [and] this stabilizes the pups and prepares them to move to larger rehabilitation centers.

Larbalestier with her award – SWNS

After the hospital treatment, the pups in Cornwall are transferred to the Cornish Seal Sanctuary or West Hatch RSPCA facility, prior to their release out into the wild.

OTHER GREAT OCEAN HEROES: Remarkable Man Averts Oil Tanker Disaster by Crowdfunding to Remove Crumbling Ship From Red Sea

Despite their main rescue efforts involving seals, Larbalestier says the team of volunteers at BDMLR are called out on all sorts of marine wildlife including whales, dolphins, and porpoises.

Recent ones have included responding to a turtle that came into Perranporth (which she relayed to Newquay Blue Reef Aquarium for specialist care), and a rescue operation for eight dolphins who were stranded in the mud at Mylor Bridge.

MORE MARINE RESCUE LIKE THIS: Look at The Trouble Taken to Return Rehabbed Manatees into Home Waters

“I have been lucky to be involved in several successful refloats of stranded dolphins,” she said, reflecting on her career. “It is so important if anyone comes across a stranded marine mammal that they call for trained responders.”

“The Animal Action Awards are our long-standing commitment to honor and herald the animal heroes that make an impact,” stated Azzedine Downes, President and CEO, IFAW, on the occasion of the presentation of the award to Lizzi. “I’m thrilled we are now able to showcase inspiring people from all across the globe – from all different walks of life.

WATCH the story below from British news…

SHARE This Hero Of The British Sea With Your Friends… 

‘Cat-ching Criminals’ Just Became a Lot Easier Thanks to New Method for Analyzing Cat Hair

By
Andy Corbley
-
Credit - Tom Szymanski - CC 4.0.
Credit – Tom Szymanski – CC 4.0.

There are some people who will say that for home defense, you’re better off having a dog. Well, it turns out almost every cat has a unique DNA mutation detectable in their hair, and it’s offering CSI detectives an almost sure-fire way to put criminals at the scene of their crimes or their homes, provided there was a cat there.

Anyone who of course has a cat will know that it’s almost impossible to get out of their house without cat hair stuck somewhere on their clothes. Thanks to an innovative DNA analysis technique developed at the University of Leicester, this has already been used to place a murderer at the scene of their cat.

While any perpetrator will take pains to not leave any of his own DNA behind, it’s unlikely that a burglar rummaging through your home possessions will be able to avoid every last strand of cat hair.

“Hair shed by your cat lacks the hair root, so it contains very little useable DNA,” said Emily Patterson, the lead author of the study published in Forensic Science Internationa and a Leicester Ph.D. student.

“In practice we can only analyze mitochondrial DNA, which is passed from mothers to their offspring, and is shared among maternally related cats.”

Patterson and her team however have now increased by ten-fold the detail with which they can analyze the mitochondrial DNA, and because virtually every cat has a rare DNA type, the test will almost certainly be informative if hairs are found.

The team tested the method in a lost cat case, according to the University of Leicester press, where DNA from the skeletal remains of a missing female cat could be matched with DNA from hair from her surviving male offspring.

MORE HELPFUL CAT FACTS: Cats and Dogs May Protect Owners From Memory Loss in Later Life, Study Finds

“In criminal cases where there is no human DNA available to test, pet hair is a valuable source of linking evidence, and our method makes it much more powerful,” said study co-lead, Professor of Genetics, Mark Jobling. “The same approach could also be applied to other species—in particular, dogs.”

Even while they were developing this new technique, Patterson and her team had used it in a previous murder case to identify the DNA of the perpetrator’s cat.

SHARE This Sure-Fire Way To Catch A Cat-Burglar With Your Friends… 

Abandoned Ohio Golf Course Being Rewilded into Public Land with Native Fish and Wildlife Returning

By
Andy Corbley
-
Nature takes back the Valley View Golf Course near Akron, Ohio. credit - Summit Metro Parks
Nature takes back the Valley View Golf Course near Akron, Ohio. credit – Summit Metro Parks

Near Akron, Ohio, an abandoned golf course has been rewilded into a splendid slice of natural Rustbelt nature that includes a restored section of the now nationally protected Cuyahoga River.

Golf courses around the country are being closed faster than they’re being opened, and the vast acreage of the fairway is often reclaimed by nature, but not always by native vegetation.

With vast tracks of non-native grass that’s heavily watered, mowed, and sprayed with pesticides covering gradient changes that may not necessarily be conducive to the growth of native species, they can easily become prey for invasive colonizer species.

That’s why Summit Metro Parks, when they acquired the Valley View Golf Course, knew they had to take an active role in returning the fairway to how it looked before settlers arrived.

“We had to undo the golf course before we could restore the landscape,” said Mike Johnson, chief of conservation at the Summit Metro Parks. “Golf courses are harsh environments, and to create them the vegetation used is usually non-native… It doesn’t have value for our local fish and wildlife.”

However big the job was, it offered the non-profit a tremendous opportunity to connect two of its existing properties into a single, 1,900-acre haven for fish, birds, and native plants.

Before the golf course, the river section had been channelized, and so earth-moving equipment had to be brought in to widen and bend the river back into its pre-industrialized, meandering course.

OHIO REWILDING STORIES: Acres of Toxic Chemicals and Rusting Cars Becomes National Park After Amazing Transformation

It being the Cuyahoga River, famous for catching on fire several times during the 20th century due to pollution, its status now as a naturally-flowing river that floods the surrounding wetlands during periods of intense rain, and already harboring near-perfect conditions for biodiversity is an inspiring site to native Ohioans.

“The response from wildlife has been huge,” Johnson told CNN. “Prior to our work, we documented about 200 species of plant and wildlife that were living on the golf course at the time we acquired it. Today we have documented over 900 species of fish and wildlife that have returned to this area.”

MORE OHIO PARKS: Little Known Ancient Site in Ohio Crowned by UNESCO–for Incredible Alignment with Moon and Sun

The golf course has now been attached via hiking and biking trails to the Cascades Valley Park, also owned and managed by Summit Metro. Located in the valley’s pre-glacial bedrock canyon, Cascades Valley contains a canopy of oak, American beech, sassafras, black cherry, and the endangered butternut tree.

WATCH the story below from CNN… 

SHARE This Perfect Rewilding Story With Your Friends From Ohio… 

“Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in the nick of time.” – Theodore Roosevelt

By
Good News Network
-

Quote of the Day: “Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in the nick of time.” – Theodore Roosevelt (paraphrased)

Photo by: Tolga Ahmetler

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?

Deaf Children Are First Humans to Have Hearing Pathway Restored in Dramatic Demonstration of New Gene Therapy

By
Andy Corbley
-
Les Anderson

In China, a true medical breakthrough has been achieved in a human trial that had as many as 10 children born deaf have their hearing restored through a genetic therapy method.

MIT hailed it as China’s first domestic gene therapy breakthrough, as well as “the most dramatic restoration of a lost sense yet achieved.”

Much like other gene therapy treatments, children like Li Xincheng were injected with a reprogrammed virus that carried replacement DNA into the part of her body the scientists hoped to alter—in this case the location of the inner ear canal that detects vibrations and sends that information to the brain.

In less than a month, her mother, Qin Lixue, said she was hearing out of her treated ear for the first time in her 5 years of life, and repeating various rhymes and songs back to Lixue as she sang them with her hand over her mouth to prevent lip-reading.

It bears repeating that this, according to MIT Technological Review, has never happened before.

“We were careful, and a little bit nervous, because it was the first in the world,” says Yilai Shu, a surgeon and scientist at Fudan University in Shanghai, and part of the team who treated 5 children.

“Before the treatment, if you put them in a movie theater with the loudest sound, they wouldn’t hear it,” says Zheng-Yi Chen, an associate professor at Mass Eye and Ear, a Harvard-affiliated hospital in Boston, who helped design and plan the study. “Now they can hear close to normal speech, and one can hear a whisper.”

Of Shu’s five children, 4 recovered hearing, and one did not, which the team hypothesizes could be because the child already had a developed immune response to the virus that they used.

This new gene therapy is not a cure-all, as it was designed to correct a defect in a gene that produces a protein called otoferlin that is necessary to build the special hairs that vibrate to different frequencies in the inner ear and relay that information to the brain.

MORE GENE THERAPIES: New Hope For Babies Born Without Immune System as Gene Therapy Breakthrough Looks Like Cure

This is present in only 1% to 3% of those born deaf, amounting to 900 children a year in the world’s second-most populated country. But Lawrence Lustig, a physician at Columbia University who runs studies of hearing treatments, told MIT Tech Review that this dramatic success—allowing children to hear sound for the first time—may be a “gateway drug” that spurs funding toward more causes of deafness.

MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: Researchers Overcome ‘Major Hurdle’ in Reversing Deafness, Discovering Gene Responsible for Crucial Cells

Genetic therapy, such as CRISPR and other methods, has also had remarkable successes with blindness, including in 2021 of a Frenchman with retinitis pigmentosa, the degradation of photoreceptive cells in their eyes, another two patients from Portland, Oregon who had Leber congenital amaurosis, or LCA, a rare mutation in the retina, and another 10 with LCA who were treated at the Perelman School of Medicine in the University of Pennsylvania

SHARE This World First Incredible Medical Achievement With Your Friends… 

French Company Discovers Massive Reserve of Clean Hydrogen Gas that Could Start Renewable Revolution

By
Andy Corbley
-
A mining pit in the Lorraine Basin - Hydrogen Fuel News
A mining pit in the Lorraine Basin – Hydrogen Fuel News

Millions of tons of pure hydrogen have been found underneath the earth in Northern France, prompting interest in a renewables gold rush of the rarest kind.

Despite being the most abundant element in the universe, hydrogen is almost always attached to something else (oxygen for example). Deep underground, geologic forces can create sometimes massive pockets of hydrogen gas that if extracted like shale gas, can be burned to power airplanes, trains, heavy machinery, and steel production, all with the only direct emission being water.

The story that is now sweeping international energy headlines began when Jacques Pironon and Phillipe De Donato, directors of research at France’s National Centre of Scientific Research, were out assessing methane stores using a state-of-the-art probe in France’s Lorraine Basin.

They realized they had reached a previously unknown hydrogen gas deposit when readings from the probe showed 20% hydrogen at 3,300 feet (1,100 meters) down—much higher than they would ever imagine finding in normal conditions.

CNN broke down the “rainbow” of colors used to describe hydrogen fuels. Brown hydrogen is produced from coal operations—so little climate friendly-value there. “Green” hydrogen is made through electrolysis, or water splitting, and powered by renewable energy, yet this kind of production is small-time and expensive.

Still, at the moment pure hydrogen is the best hypothetical solution for heavy machinery that requires high-octane fuels for long-distance transportation.

That’s why interest in geologic hydrogen like the kind found in France, known as both “white” and “gold” hydrogen, can reach feverish intensity: just look at Mali.

In 1987, in the village of Bourakébougou, a driller was left with burns after a water well unexpectedly exploded as he leaned over the edge of it while smoking a cigarette, reports CNN. The well was capped until 2012 when a village entrepreneur hired Chapman Petroleum to come and investigate the strange gas which in the daytime shone with a blue color like sparkling ocean water, and at night like golden dust.

Today, Bourakébougou is powered entirely by the hydrogen in this deposit which has a purity of 98%—the highest ever recorded.

Geoffrey Ellis, a geochemist with the US Geological Survey, has been studying hydrogen deposits ever since the discovery in Bourakébougou, but remained convinced that finding extractable deposits on land and shallow enough to reach was going to be almost impossible.

Following a paper published on the Bourakébougou site in 2018, scientists and entrepreneurs rushed to try and find deposits and more information about how they form and where best to look for them.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: After Fracking is Halted, the Site’s Drill Hole is Now A Source of Clean Geothermal Energy

Ellis believes based on estimates that there are tens of billions of tons of white hydrogen out there.

“Most of this is almost certainly going to be in very small accumulations or very far offshore, or just too deep to actually be economic to produce,” he told CNN. But if just 1% can be found and produced, it would provide 500 million tons of hydrogen for 200 years, he added.

MORE HYDROGEN NEWS: Chicken Feathers Can Replace ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Renewable Hydrogen Fuel Cells, Lowering Cost

In France’s Lorraine Basin, once a hotbed for European coal mining, De Donato and Pironon are preparing to drill down to 3,000 meters, or more than 2 miles underground, and assess the potential for white hydrogen extraction, specifically to find out how much is there. They already estimate that at that depth the purity could be as high as the wells in Mali.

The two are working alongside the energy company La Française de l’Énergie (FDE), which has existing wells, equipment, and operational licenses across a wide area of land in the Lorraine Basin’s Grand-Est Region. The company has already submitted an application for exclusive rights to use their shale gas wells to extract the white hydrogen if it is there, meaning it’s possible no new mining pits need be dug.

SHARE This Impressive Discovery In France On Social Media… 

Farmers Were Organized to Collect Eggs of Endangered Wildfowl, Which is Saving a Species in Australia

By
Andy Corbley
-
The endangered Malleefowl - Mal Carnegie
The endangered Malleefowl – Mal Carnegie

There are 25,000 Malleefowl left in Australia, but only 2,800 in the densely-populated state of New South Wales. But an unlikely group of heroes are stepping up to be the rescuers of these endangered birds: farmers.

Whatever natural balance existed in the ecosystem that these ground-nesting birds evolved into, the presence of feral cats and invasive foxes has greatly disrupted their survival and reproduction strategy, and the survival rate of Malleefowl chicks is less than 2% in the wild.

These interesting birds rely on intricate plumage for camouflage and are adept at staying hidden from all other creatures in their range. Malleefowl come from a family of Galliformes called “mound builders.”

In the winter, males select a spot of about 3 square yards typically in the shade of the mallee tree to build a nesting mound by raking sandy soil backwards with their feet. They will dig about 3 feet deep, and then spend the rest of the winter accumulating organic material around the depression until they have a mound that can be as tall as 2 feet.

For the past three years, farmers living and working in the Rankins Springs area, near West Wyalong have been collecting eggs from the birds’ nesting mounds and transferring them to a special incubation facility for release into a feral-free enclosed environment.

The initiative was organized by an Australian wildlife champion, Mal Carnegie, who founded the Lake Cowal Foundation to protect the unique ecosystem around that lake, and managed to squeeze an endowment from a nearby gold mining company to pay for it all.

Now working on behalf of the Malleefowl, he told ABC News AU that 10 juveniles have been spotted on cameras in the 140-acre (60-hectare) enclosure that they released about 12 months ago.

MORE GREAT AUSSIE CONSERVATION: Threatened Western Quolls Return to Western Australia After 100-Year Absence

“Once the chicks come out of the mound they are on their own, they are well adapted but obviously we have got predators like foxes and cats,” he said regarding the species’ low survival rate. “The average survival rate of chicks up to 12 months of age in the wild is very low, we are talking numbers up to 2%”

A Malleefowl chick being released into the wild 12 hours after hatching – Mal Carnegie

Through the catch, incubate, and release program, they’ve managed to increase the likelihood of reaching maturity tenfold.

Interestingly, before the farmers got involved in the species’ protection, this exact strategy had proven an unsuccessful one in the past.

MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: To Halt Ibis Extinction Austrian Man Shows Birds a New Migration Route With His UltraLight–And it’s Working

“They didn’t have a great deal of success but we have just put a bit of farmer logic into the whole process of incubation and releasing,” one farmer named Rodney Guest told ABC. He has spent the last 20 years clearing feral cats and foxes from his property all in order to help this bird.

“We have been picking up birds from the previous and current season, we are really over the moon with what we have achieved.”

SHARE These Interesting Birds And Their Heroic Farmer-Allies… 

1...245246247...1,721Page 246 of 1,721
© Copyright 1997–2026 GNN, LLC