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India Becomes Fourth Nation to Touch Down on the Moon In Mission to Study its South Pole

By
Andy Corbley
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Chandrayaan-3's rover Pragyan – Image credit: ISRO
Chandrayaan-3’s rover Pragyan – Image credit: ISRO

“India is on the Moon,” exclaimed S. Somanath, chief of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) after their lander/rover combo touched down on the Lunar South Pole on Wednesday, August 23.

In doing so India became the fourth nation to operate on the Moon after the US, Russia, and China, while also beating Japan to our nearest satellite after their attempted mission failed after hitting a crater rim. India is the first-ever nation to visit the South Polar Region.

Nestled between Manzinus C and Simpelius N craters, the Chandrayaan-3 mission is reportedly working well, with both the Vikram lander and the Pragyan rover establishing communications with ISRO command center and deploying solar panels.

The pair comes equipped with a variety of scientific instruments. The Vikram lander has 4 in total, including a seismometer to detect moonquakes, and a passive laser array. Another, a thermophysical probe, is already returning data after having drilled into the Lunar surface to measure temperature differentiations between various depths.

A fourth Vikram instrument, reports Space.com, will study the Moon’s ionosphere, which is filled with electrons and ions formed largely as a result of solar radiation. Indian physicists hope to determine if the ionosphere remains stable over time or changes in density.

The southern pole of the Moon is believed to potentially contain large amounts of frozen water trapped in ice. To that end, the Pragyan rover will spend 2 weeks trundling about examining the messy mixture of small rocks and dust known as regolith.

The ice is believed to be located at the bottom of permanently shadowed craters. Along with water for astronauts, potential harvesting of this water could also mean in situ production of rocket propellant for return journeys. Both uses would dramatically reduce the cost of manned lunar missions.

MORE SPACE MISSIONS: For New Rover, NASA is Swapping Buggy Shape for a Giant Snake in Hopes it Can Explore Icy Moon of Saturn

Another potential use of those craters, because of their permanent umbrage, is the placement of sophisticated space telescopes that would allow scientists to peer farther into the universe.

Nations need to be thrifty in space, and the thrust module that brought the lander and rover to the Moon is also equipped with a science instrument, one that will monitor the orbit of Earth as if it were an exoplanet.

Vikram is Sanskrit for valor, while Pragyan is wisdom.

WATCH the landing video below… 

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City Sparrows Make Better Dads Than Their Country Cousins, Says New Research

By
Andy Corbley
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A sparrow in Berlin - Svetozar Cenisev
A sparrow in Berlin – Svetozar Cenisev

Despite being more aggressive in defending their territory, sparrows that live in urban areas find more time to visit the nest and feed their young, a surprise to scientists who believed that more aggression would mean less time with their offspring.

Researchers have dubbed them city sparrows, as city life seems to make the males better parents.

There’s something about the big city that can make humans agitated. Scientists were once able to predict the population of a city based solely on the average walking speeds of its citizens.

Scientists observing the sparrows believe that as a result of less predation pressure in the city compared to the country, the birds breed more successfully, and that this potentially increases the habits of the city sparrow sire to visit its nest.

“Male songbirds in temperate zones are thought to reduce parental care when they are more aggressive,” said Dr. Samuel Lane, lead author of the study at Virginia Tech. “Yet in this study, we show that urban male song sparrows provided more care for their young.”

“Against our expectations, we found that they visited nests more frequently and were more successful parents than rural males.”

The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, studied six sites in southwest Virginia characterized by recent urban sprawl over four breeding seasons.

The team already knew that urbanized sparrows were more aggressive in defending their territory despite lower density than those in the countryside.

They thought that this would leave them less time to invest in the care of their offspring.

MORE CITY BIRDS: Falconry Saves Man from Life of Crime, Now he Helps Birds and At-Risk Youth Take flight

The researchers expected that more aggressive urban male sparrows were sacrificing parental care for territorial aggression, which in turn was expected to have a negative impact on the survival of their young.

But not only did they visit their nests significantly more often than their rural fellows, but on top of this they also began feeding nestlings earlier in the day.

And their efforts paid off despite brood parasitism, where other species lay their eggs in the sparrow nest like a cuckoo, which is more common in cities.

MORE GREAT ANIMAL PARENTS: Dolphin Moms Use ‘Baby Talk’ with Their Calves, Research Shows

“It turns out urban males are super males—able to defend their territories and care for their young,” said Dr. Lane.

“Our study adds to growing evidence that certain species of songbirds even benefit from living in urban environments when there is sufficient green space for them to find food and nest locations.”

MORE GREAT ANIMAL PARENTS: The Animal Kingdom’s Top 10 Best Dads for Father’s Day

The scientists hope ongoing research in this field will contribute to designing urban environments that support wildlife better.

However he cautioned that these results, however, should not be generalized to all locations, or other species and animals.

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Off-Duty Officer Hailed as Hero for Rescuing Woman Who ‘Disappeared’ Under the Waterfall

By
Andy Corbley
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courtesy of Dave Brosha
courtesy of Dave Brosha

During a hiking trip in Fundy National Park, New Brunswick, a group of swimmers had the good fortune of being found by some hikers that included an off-duty police officer who ended up saving their friend from a raging edy.

The officer, Bruce Lake, was exploring the Laverty Falls area with his wife and friends, and though being hailed as a hero, he was initially told that everything was okay.

Thankfully piercing the veil of the social contract, one of Lake’s friends said that a woman out in the water appeared to be exhausted and might need some help, and that’s when the whole party watched her disappear under the foam after making a short-lived attempt to return to shore.

“She was kind of stuck between these two little waterfalls,” Lake recalled. “She immediately went underneath and then came back up again right near the rock and then grabbed the rock and held on. So she was obviously a little scared.”

Global News quotes Dave Brosha, one of Lake’s friends, who described the events as something “out of a bad movie” after the woman disappeared a second time, but wasn’t remerging, and that’s when the aptly-named Lake made his move, jumping into the water and swimming to the rock to help.

Reaching the rock, the water was deeper than he expected, and the rescue plan devolved to essentially waving his arms and legs about seeing if he could touch her, and as fortune would have it, his hand brushed her arm.

MORE RESCUE STORIES: Pakistani Man is True Hero in Dramatic Cable Car Rescue After Youth Were Stranded 15 Hours–WATCH

Grabbing her and swimming like mad, they approached their friends.

“So I pushed her toward the shore. Her friend got her arm and then I lost touch with her… I was getting sucked back into the exact same spot and only for her to turn around, and she reached her arm and I actually grabbed her arm and we got pulled in together,” he told Global News.

Lake’s wife Bernadette says it’s exactly the sort of man he is to risk his life for a complete stranger.

MORE WATER RESCUES: 7-Year-Old Massiah Is Hero After Rescuing a Drowning 3-Year-Old – All on His Own

Dave Brosha is a professional photographer and snapped a photo post-rescue to honor the savior, but described that after asking the Truro police officer if he could have permission to do so, the response was something like utter disbelief—which Brosha interpreted as a man feeling he did what anyone would have done in that situation.

WATCH the story below from Global News… 

SHARE This Right Place Right Time Rescue With Your Friends From Canada…

“The little things? The little moments?… They aren’t little.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn

By
Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “The little things? The little moments? They aren’t little.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn

Photo by: Stas Ostrikov

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?

Pakistani Man is True Hero in Dramatic Cable Car Rescue After Youths Were Stranded 15 Hours–WATCH

By
Andy Corbley
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Sahib Khan and Nasir Khan - released by family.
Sahib Khan and Nasir Khan – released by the family.

A rather unassuming young man with kind brown eyes is being hailed as a hero for his volunteer efforts to rescue 7 teenagers trapped in a cable car in Pakistan.

After two of the three supporting cables snapped, the teenagers were left dangling from an hour before school opened to the darkest watches of the night. A military helicopter originally came to affect a rescue, but fading light and high winds allowed them to save only 1 individual.

Sahib Khan and his older brother Nasir volunteered to rescue the remaining 7, having some experience with such things since they ran a cablecar business themselves. They used a zipline to reach the cable car with enough equipment to help the 5 children and 2 adults back to solid ground at a time.

Footage captured by local news and widely reported shows villager after villager embracing Sahib.

“Today, the way these two young men carried out the rescue operation has made the whole nation proud of them,” said Javed Nasir, a local resident with his arm wrapped around Sahib’s slight shoulders.

The rescue took place in the remote Battagram District of northern Pakistan where building cable cars across ravines can save millions of dollars and months of labor, and it began after the military, who had originally prohibited the villagers from doing anything, acquiesced to the idea that a zipline could be suspended close to the remaining suspension cable.

SIMILAR RESCUE STORIES: All His Training Pays Off: Slackliner Wins Carnegie Medal for Ski Lift Rescue Over Cables

Sahib and Nasir could then use the zipline to come close enough to help the teenagers escape the hanging metal box, but the line and its “dolly,” a byword for a small makeshift gondola, was only big enough for 1 person.

“Our dolly was small, but we were afraid of the load on the zip line. It was a little bit windy and very dark, everything was difficult,” Sahib told Al Jazeera. “But by the grace of God, we were able to bring the second child back down.”

WATCH the rescue happen from SCMP… 

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Ospreys Breed in Ireland for the First Time in More Than 200 Years

By
Andy Corbley
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The Golden Eagle Trust
The Golden Eagle Trust

Irish conservationists report that the magnificent osprey has successfully bred in the wilds of the Emerald Isle for the first time in almost 250 years.

Worldwide, ospreys are doing great—listed as “Least Concern” by the IUCN who add they are increasing in population. However their massive brown and white wings have been absent from Irish skies for two centuries after being hunted to extinction.

The last recorded osprey to nest in Ireland was found in 1779 writes the Ireland-based conservation group Golden Eagle Trust on Facebook.

Visiting ospreys sometimes stop on the island to rest, but almost since the signing of the US Declaration of Independence, no pair has ever deemed it a safe environment to raise young.

A nesting pair (ospreys mate for life) was discovered by experienced birdwatcher Giles Knight, the Environmental Farming Scheme Advisor with Ulster Wildlife, a conservation non-profit.

“Along with my son Eoin, I have watched the adults return to the same site since 2021, so you can imagine my excitement the moment that I saw three chicks and two adults this year,” said Knight in a statement. “It was a rub-your-eyes, once-in-a-lifetime moment; an absolute highlight of my 30-year wildlife career—like finding long-lost treasure.”

“With at least two of the chicks fledging this season, this is a huge conservation success story and indicates a healthy wetland ecosystem with plenty of suitable habitat and fish to bring this apex predator back to our skies and plunging into the Fermanagh Lakelands. Truly the return of a living countryside!”

MORE NEWS FROM THE BRITISH ISLES: For the First Time in 240 Years, White-Tailed Eagles Spotted Flying Over England

Ireland has experienced a fair amount of recent raptor conservation success, and Ulster Wildlife admits that all the signs have been pointing toward this long-awaited return.

The old Gaelic name for osprey was “Iascaire Coirneach”, meaning “Tonsured Fisherman”, possibly related to how its black eye band and white crown give it the appearance of the semi-bald tonsure typical of medieval Christian monks, the Golden Eagle Trust wrote on Facebook in a celebratory post.

“Now these birds are back in Ireland and breeding successfully, it is critical that they are left in peace so their numbers can continue to grow by returning year on year to breed,” Knight added in the statement. “We believe and hope that this could be the start of a raptor dynasty.”

SHARE This Long-Awaited Return With Your Friends… 

A 5-Year-Old’s Lemonade Stand in Seattle Raised Over $17,000 for Victims of Maui Wildfires

By
Andy Corbley
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Edison’s lemonade stand – Courtesy: Ami Jean Juel
Edison’s lemonade stand – Courtesy: Ami Jean Juel

This young boy in Seattle is showing that there’s no barrier to entry for disaster relief; that all it takes is a willing heart, a hot summer day, and some ice-cold lemonade.

Having recently returned from a family vacation on the Big Island, Ami Juel and her husband were watching the devastation of the Lahaina fires on television when their son, Edison, asked them to turn it off because it was too sad.

They didn’t realize the 5-year-old could become so emotionally connected to an abstraction so far away and seen only on television, so they decided to take the time to make a life lesson out of it and explain what had happened to the famous Maui town.

Edison immediately wanted to help and suggested setting up a lemonade stand like he saw once in Colorado. Ami and Edison’s father thought it a great idea, and so stocked up on pink and yellow lemonade, ice cream sandwiches, candy, sparkling water, and popsicles.

The hard opening came last Saturday on a busy Seattle street, where the response was absolutely prolific—stunning the family.

Even though the lemonade sold for $1.00 per cup, drivers regularly paid with $5, $10, or $20 bills with instructions to donate the change.

“Most people were like, ‘this is so cool. What a great idea. We’ve been looking for ways to help. We felt so helpless and didn’t know where to donate,'” Ami with USA Today. “A lot of people came by and stopped and told us like their story of a trip to Hawaii or some connection they had to the island.”

MORE MAUI STORIES: ‘My Brother Died a Hero’ Going Back to Save 4 Seniors in Maui Wildfire

Ami took the idea a bit further and set up ways to donate online, and she and her husband even got their corporate jobs to match whatever was made from selling lemonade. After a week’s worth of sales, Ami and Edison had $17,000 to send to Lahaina.

SHARE This Young Man’s Inspiring Efforts With The World…

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

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Good News Network
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Our partner Rob Brezsny 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 August 26, 2023
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
“I don’t believe that in order to be interesting or meaningful, a relationship has to work out—in fiction or in real life.” So says Virgo novelist Elizabeth Curtis Sittenfeld, and I agree. Just because a romantic bond didn’t last forever doesn’t mean it was a waste of energy. An intimate connection you once enjoyed but then broke off might have taught you lessons that are crucial to your destiny. In accordance with astrological omens, I invite you to acknowledge and celebrate these past experiences of togetherness. Interpret them not as failures but as gifts.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
The amount of rubbish produced by the modern world is staggering: over 2 billion tons per year. You and I can diminish our contributions to this mess, though we must overcome the temptation to think our personal efforts will be futile. Can we really help save the world by buying secondhand goods, shopping at farmer’s markets, and curbing our use of paper? Maybe a little. And here’s the bonus: We enhance our mental health by reducing the waste we engender. Doing so gives us a more graceful and congenial relationship with life. The coming weeks will be an excellent time to meditate and act on this beautiful truth.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
I hope that in the coming weeks, you will wash more dishes, do more laundry, and scrub more floors than you ever have before. Clean the bathrooms with extra fervor, too. Scour the oven and refrigerator. Make your bed with extreme precision. Got all that, Scorpio? JUST KIDDING! Everything I just said was a lie. Now here’s my authentic message: Avoid grunt work. Be as loose and playful and spontaneous as you have ever been. Seek record-breaking levels of fun and amusement. Experiment with the high arts of brilliant joy and profound pleasure.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
Dear Sagittarius the Archer: To be successful in the coming weeks, you don’t have to hit the exact center of the bull’s-eye every time—or even anytime. Merely shooting your arrows so they land somewhere inside the fourth or third concentric rings will be a very positive development. Same is true if you are engaged in a situation with metaphorical resemblances to a game of horseshoes. Even if you don’t throw any ringers at all, just getting close could be enough to win the match. This is one time in your life when perfection isn’t necessary to win.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
I suspect you are about to escape the stuffy labyrinth. There may be a short adjustment period, but soon you will be running half-wild in a liberated zone where you won’t have to dilute and censor yourself. I am not implying that your exile in the enclosed space was purely oppressive. Not at all. You learned some cool magic in there, and it will serve you well in your expansive new setting. Here’s your homework assignment: Identify three ways you will take advantage of your additional freedom.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Though my mother is a practical, sensible person with few mystical propensities, she sometimes talks about a supernatural vision she had. Her mother, my grandmother, had been disabled by a massive stroke. It left her barely able to do more than laugh and move her left arm. But months later, on the morning after grandma died, her spirit showed up in a pink ballerina dress doing ecstatic pirouettes next to my mother’s bed. My mom saw it as a communication about how joyful she was to be free of her wounded body. I mention this gift of grace because I suspect you will have at least one comparable experience in the coming weeks. Be alert for messages from your departed ancestors.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
“Those who know the truth are not equal to those who love it,” said the ancient Chinese sage Confucius. Amen! Seeking to understand reality with cold, unfeeling rationality is at best boring and at worst destructive. I go so far as to say that it’s impossible to deeply comprehend anything or anyone unless we love them. Really! I’m not exaggerating or being poetical. In my philosophy, our quest to be awake and see truly requires us to summon an abundance of affectionate attention. I nominate you to be the champion practitioner of this approach to intelligence, Pisces. It’s your birthright! And I hope you turn it up full blast in the coming weeks.

ARIES (March 21-April 19):
None of the books I’ve written has appeared on the New York Times best-seller list. Even if my future books do well, I will never catch up with Aries writer James Patterson, who has had 260 books on the prestigious list. My sales will never rival his, either. He has earned over $800 million from the 425 million copies his readers have bought. While I don’t expect you Rams to ever boost your income to Patterson’s level, either, I suspect the next nine months will bring you unprecedented opportunities to improve your financial situation. For best results, edge your way toward doing more of what you love to do.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
Addressing a lover, D. H. Lawrence said that “having you near me” meant that he would “never cease to be filled with newness.” That is a sensational compliment! I wish all of us could have such an influence in our lives: a prod that helps arouse endless novelty. Here’s the good news, Taurus: I suspect you may soon be blessed with a lively source of such stimulation, at least temporarily. Are you ready and eager to welcome an influx of freshness?

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
Humans have been drinking beer for at least 13,000 years and eating bread for 14,500. We’ve enjoyed cheese for 7,500 years and popcorn for 6,500. Chances are good that at least some of these four are comfort foods for you. In the coming weeks, I suggest you get an ample share of them or any other delicious nourishments that make you feel well-grounded and deep-rooted. You need to give extra care to stabilizing your foundations. You have a mandate to cultivate security, stability, and constancy. Here’s your homework: Identify three things you can do to make you feel utterly at home in the world.

CANCER (June 21-July 22):
On Instagram, I posted a favorite quote from poet Muriel Rukeyser: “The world is made of stories, not atoms.” I added my own thought: “You are made of stories, too.” Many of my stories happen while I’m alone with my inner world. My nightly dreams are some of my favorite stories.” Anyway, Cancerian, I’m offering this exchange to you now because you are in a story-rich phase of your life. The tales coming your way, whether they occur in social settings or in the privacy of your own fantasies, will be extra interesting, educational, and motivational. Gather them in with gusto! Celebrate them!

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Author A. Conan Doyle said, “It has long been my axiom that the little things are infinitely the most important.” Spiritual teacher Jon Kabat-Zinn muses, “The little things? The little moments? They aren’t little.” Here’s author Robert Brault’s advice: “Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” Ancient Chinese sage Lao-Tzu provides even further nuance for you to contemplate this week: “To know you have enough is to be rich.”

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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“I do not give up, I never give up, for there is nothing in this entire world that is irrevocably unchangeable.” – Sri Chinmoy

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “I do not give up, I never give up, for there is nothing in this entire world that is irrevocably unchangeable.” – Sri Chinmoy (on the anniversary of the spiritual leader’s birth in 1931)

Photo: Utah climber by arbyreed, CC license

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?

A Powerful Antibiotic That Can Tackle Superbugs Has Been Discovered in the ‘Dark Matter’ of Bacteria

By
Andy Corbley
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VRSA (Staphylococcus Aureus), a kind of medically-resistant infection, under a microscope
VRSA (Staphylococcus Aureus) under a microscope

A new drug, called Clovibactin, has been created out of “dark matter bacteria” which rather than being a research term, was created by the press to suit the mysterious origins of Clovibactin and potential future drugs like it, which could represent an urgently needed new font of antibiotics.

Scientists in the US managed to grow the bacteria out of a morass of life cleverly coined ‘bacterial dark matter,” due to the fact that it was based on a lifeform that can’t be cultured in a petri dish.

99% of all bacteria are similarly unculturable and could not be grown in laboratories previously, hence the moniker dark matter, because 95% of the universe is made up of dark matter and dark energy.

The new drug was discovered from bacterial dark matter found in sandy soil from North Carolina, and developed by an international team of researchers alongside the company NovoBiotic in Boston.

“We urgently need new antibiotics to combat bacteria that become increasingly resistant to most clinically used antibiotics,” said Dr. Markus Weingarth, a researcher from the chemistry department of Utrecht University.

“Clovibactin is different. Since Clovibactin was isolated from bacteria that could not be grown before, pathogenic bacteria have not seen such an antibiotic before and had no time to develop resistance. In fact, we did not observe any resistance to Clovibactin in our studies.”

MORE NEWS LIKE THIS: Life-Saving Breakthrough for Antibiotics Uses Shapeshifting Chemistry that Won 2022 Nobel Prize

Clovibactin successfully attacked a broad spectrum of bacterial pathogens in mice, including the so-called antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

It targets not just one, but three different precursor molecules that are all essential for the construction of the cell wall, an envelope-like structure that surrounds bacteria.

“The multi-target attack mechanism of Clovibactin blocks bacterial cell wall synthesis simultaneously at different positions,” said co-author Professor Tanja Schneider from the University of Bonn in Germany. “This improves the drug’s activity and substantially increases its robustness to resistance development.”

The results, published in the journal Cell, revealed the drug was named after its mechanism acting like a cage, with Clovibactin derived from the Greek word “Klouvi”, which means cage.

This was because it was discovered that Clovibactin self-assembles into large fibrils on the surface of bacterial membranes.

MORE NEW DRUGS: Scientists Develop Invisibility Cloak for Cancer Drugs

These fibrils are stable for a long time and ensure that the target molecules remain locked in for as long as necessary to kill bacteria.

“Since these fibrils only form on bacterial membranes and not on human membranes, they are presumably also the reason why Clovibactin selectively damages bacterial cells but is not toxic to human cells,” Dr. Weingarth said.

“Clovibactin hence has potential for the design of improved therapeutics that kill bacterial pathogens without resistance development,” he added.

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Airline Pilot Reunites 9-Year-Old with Her Beloved Doll Lost Half a World Away

By
Andy Corbley
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From Texas comes the story of a girl named Beatrice who was taken to meet the captain on a flight home from Tokyo.

Beatrice is an American Girl Doll, and her flight home would see her reunited with her loving owner, 9-year-old Valentina Dominguez who was left devastated after losing the doll on a similar trip a month before.

Returning to Plano, Texas from a family trip a Japan, Valentina and her parents frantically searched through the luggage trying to find her best friend, to no avail. Her father Rudy reasoned they must have lost Beatrice at Haneda Airport, or perhaps even left her on the plane.

Fortunately, a social media post about the doll alerted a friend, who alerted a neighbor, who alerted American Airlines First Officer of 30 years, James Danen.

Describing his readiness to help others as something “in his nature,” he got in contact with the lost and found staff at Turkish Airlines, and was directed to their workers at Haneda Airport in Tokyo who had by that time found Beatrice.

“It’s my nature. I like helping people… that’s just what I like doing,” said Danen, adding that he just so happens to fly to Tokyo often. “I was really glad I could do something nice for somebody.”

ANOTHER STORY LIKE THIS ONE: Airline Captain Writes Sweet Note to Tooth Fairy For Girl on Plane

It took Danen two such trips to finally get his hands on Beatrice.

Last Monday, Danen, who lives just a few miles from the Dominguez Household, personally escorted Beatrice back into the loving arms of her best friend.

“Thank you! Was she well-behaved on the flight?” Valentina asked Jim who brought back some Japanese candy and a map of the world showing all the places Beatrice had visited on her travels, according to WFAA.

WATCH the news story below from WFAA…

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Tree-Loving Brits Crowdsource a National ‘Ancient Tree Inventory’ – 200,000 Unique Trees

By
Andy Corbley
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Tom (ATI Citizen Science Officer), Hilary and Jeremy measuring a huge ancient oak at Petworth Park - credit Woodland Trust Blog
Tom (ATI Citizen Science Officer), Hilary and Jeremy measuring a huge ancient oak at Petworth Park – credit Woodland Trust Blog

A UK non-profit has leveraged the special relationship that the British have for trees to create an ‘Ancient Tree Inventory’ to coordinate conservation, environmental activism, and scientific research by allowing anyone familiar with an ancient tree to record and share its existence with the country.

Perhaps a lesser-known trait in the world at large of the British is their faithful love and dedication to the surprising numbers of ancient and elder trees on their islands.

Even by the late Neolithic, much of the woodlands that would have covered lower Britain had been cleared by stone axes. Waves of immigration and warfare continually reduced the size of forests, and industrialization accelerated it even further.

Despite this, there are hundreds of thousands of trees on the British Isles that are hundreds of years old.

The Ancient Tree Inventory organized by the Woodland Trust is more than just a national tree registry, such as they have in Italy; it’s crowdsourced, and each tree is not only measured by its size but by the number of species living on or inside it.

Italy’s Monumental Tree Registry has about 22,000 individuals—the ATI from Woodland Trust has almost ten times as many.

OTHER COOL CITIZEN SCIENCE PROJECTS: Fungi Species New to Science Discovered in Scottish Highlands

“As I find and record these magnificent trees, I’m grateful to be playing a small part in helping to protect them and to preserve them for [posterity],” writes Kevin Stanley, an ancient tree “verifier.”

The Woodland Trust maintains an app as well as printed sheets to allow anybody to officially register the location and characteristics of ancient, ‘veteran,’ or ‘notable’ trees, which can then be found on a GPS map on the Trust’s website.

Ancient trees are fundamental to the health of forested ecosystems worldwide. Having survived myriads of storms, insects, cold snaps, and droughts, their seeds contain vital genetic memories to help future trees adapt to changing conditions.

MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: Ancient Cypress in Chile May be World’s Oldest Tree, at 5,000 Years Old

Studies done on woodland health have shown that when a forest loses too many ancients or elders, the overall survival of the whole ecosystem falls precipitously. By contrast, forests that have their ancients are much more likely to maintain high biodiversity and canopy cover, even those that exist in unstable areas.

The Woodland Trust every year organizes the Tree of the Year contest in the UK to raise awareness and celebrate these ancient woody Britons. See this year’s contestants here.

WATCH the Ancient Tree Inventory explainer video below…

SHARE This Awesome Project With Your Friends In The UK… 

Horses Can See Emotions in Our Face and Voice–and Have a Preference, Reveals New Study

By
Andy Corbley
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Ivana Cajina - unsplash

 

Ivana Cajina – unsplash

Horses have incredible sensitivity to not only outward human emotions such as joy and anger, but also inward, low arousal emotions like sadness, a new study shows.

This emotional sensitivity isn’t limited simply to facial expressions, but extends to the sounds coming from the individual whom the horse is observing as well.

Perhaps even more than other domestic animals like dogs, horses are incredibly tuned in to their environment. They’ve not only been selected for close cooperation with humans, but are herd animals of prey. As such, changes in the emotional contours of their surroundings are about the most important thing for a horse to be able to detect.

A Finnish-French study wanted to investigate whether horses were able to discern sadness in human faces, and also whether the animals were able to detect emotional content by sounds.

“Sadness is an intriguing emotion, as it is not only negatively charged but also represents a low arousal state. Previous studies have demonstrated that horses respond to high arousal emotions, like anger or joy,” explained Plotine Jardat, lead author of the study and doctoral researcher at the University of Tours.

“However, can they also detect cues of low arousal emotions, like sadness? We wanted to investigate whether horses can associate human expressions of sadness with the corresponding sounds, as they do with joy and anger.”

In the study they showed a horse an image of a joyful face and a sad face along with sounds and tones associated with human joy or human sadness.

OTHER STORIES ABOUT HORSES: Iceland Trots Out Service That Lets Horses Reply to Work Emails While You’re On Vacation

When sad tones were accompanied by a sad face, or joy with joy, the horses could quickly change their focus, but when a joyful face was matched with sorrowful sounds or vice versa, the horses were deemed to be confused, because their attention remained fixed on the images for much longer.

“This is intriguing because it would mean that when horses observe our faces and hear our voices, they do not perceive them as separate stimuli, but can integrate them across different sensory modalities,” Océane Liehrmann, a doctoral researcher from the University of Turku, told the Finnish Times.

MORE ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE: Parrots Kept as Pets Were Taught to Video Call Each Other—and They Loved It

The horses tended to remain fixated on the joyful human expression during which time their heart rate also rose, and the researchers believe this could be because the joyful imagery tended to have more colors and movement, or because it was associated joyful expressions with those observed in their lives and related it to pleasant memories.

The researchers want to continue investigating horses’ abilities to detect sadness, particularly wheather they can detect sadness amongst othe negative emotions.

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“People are not disturbed by things, but by the view they take of them.” – Epictetus

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “People are not disturbed by things, but by the view they take of them.” – Epictetus

Photo by: Brad West

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Military Veterans Who Lost Limbs Receive Mortgage-Free Homes to Honor Their Service

By
Andy Corbley
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Former Sergeant Honda with his family in front of their new home - credit Operation Finally Home
Former Sergeant Honda (right) with his family in front of their new home – credit Operation Finally Home

Across the country, soldiers who came home mangled from the wars in the Middle East are receiving mortgage-free homes as a small measure of gratitude and honor for their sacrifices.

In DeForest, Wisconsin, a medically-retired former Sergeant Tory Honda was recently given the keys to a new mortgage-free home. Walking through it alongside television cameras, he, his wife Marsela, and their kids were overwhelmed by the gesture.

They learned back in March that a coalition made up of Operation Finally Home, Tim O’Brien Homes, and the Structural Building Components Association had secured a new home for their family in the Bear Tree Farms area of DeForest.

“It means so much to me. Perspective? I can’t even put that into words. I’m just grateful, and I hope I deserve every bit of it. I feel like I don’t, but I really hope I do. I hope I can live up to the standards that everybody looks forward to,” he told Channel 3000, after cutting the ribbon in front of the house.

For an even more unfortunate soldier, retired Army Sergeant Shane Parsons, the gesture was even more grand.

Wheelchair-bound after losing both legs and suffering a traumatic brain injury, the Gary Sinise Foundation built a smart, 100% accessible home for the man, his wife Jennifer, and their two sons Owen and Emmett.

MORE NEWS LIKE THIS: Call of Duty Game Hits Milestone of 100,000 Veterans Placed in Meaningful Jobs–And Blizzard Gives $30 Mil More

“In the living situations we’ve had, he could only really live through 70 to 80% of the house, it was about as much as he could access,” said Jennifer, adding that this new home is all built specifically for him. “Even though he’s already a wonderful dad, it’s going to allow him to be more hands-on, be able to participate more where before he wasn’t able to.”

Located in central Ohio in Plain City, Shane says he’s looking forward to settling into a normal life.

MORE VETERANS NEWS: Marine Vet Gifted With New Vehicle to Resume His Service to Disabled Veterans and Children

The Gary Sinise Foundation has provided 80 mortgage-free homes to veterans who have lost physical capacity in some form or another, and while the process isn’t fast, it’s certainly very rewarding.

“It’s surreal, I can’t believe I’m actually in my own home,” Parsons told WCMH. “I keep thinking that I’m in somebody else’s house.”

WATCH Former Sgt. Honda receive his house via Channel 3000…

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Dog Saves Foster Parents from Fire–Finds Forever Home 1 Day Later

By
Andy Corbley
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Moose in his new home - WTRK
Moose in his new home – WTRK

A Great Pyrenees who saved his foster family from a fire on their houseboat has been adopted just 1 day later by a secret admirer.

The fluffy white dog named Moose alerted Sheila Janes and her husband Chris, asleep on their houseboat, that a fire had broken out on another boat moored nearby which quickly spread to their own, ready to consume them all.

More remarkably, Moose was only with the family for 48 hours—he was a foster dog who Sheila and Chris thought would give a weekend of fun for their three kids.

They first came to know Moose when they discovered the Portsmouth Humane Society’s ‘Paws Around Portsmouth’ weekend foster program.

They were having so much fun doing all kinds of activities, and it was at a farmers market that they met someone who wanted to adopt the pooch.

“The paperwork was to be finalized the next day, so we had one last night with Moose before he went to his new home. We spoiled him that day with an ice cream pup cup, a visit to the park, and a chicken sandwich,” said Sheila, adding that they decided to keep him at their houseboat rather than bring him back to the shelter.

That night, their houseboat caught fire, and the impromptu sleepover guest potentially saved all 5 of them. Moose was hailed as a hero and followed through with the paperwork the following day.

MORE HERO ANIMALS: ‘Hero’ Dogs From Rescue Operation in Turkey Get First Class Seats on Airliners Flying Them Home

However, the new family and home wasn’t the right fit for the big athletic dog.

Watching local news coverage and social media updates from afar was Ciara Hill. Proud owner of dogs, cats, chickens, and a tortoise on 5 acres of land, when she heard that Moose’s original adoption fell through, her husband gave her the green light for the plus-one.

MORE GREAT DOGS: Big White Dogs Save the World’s Smallest Penguin in Australia

“We saw that he had been returned, and I was talking to my husband. He was like, ‘Well, go get him,’” Hill told WTKR. “My other animals are welcoming him in, and he seems to be pretty comfortable.”

You can watch the news story, including images of the fire, on WTKR’s YouTube channel.

SHARE The Amazing Story Of This Wandering Hero Getting To Put His Paws Up…

Barnacles Could Lead Investigators to the Wreck of the Missing Malaysian Airways Flight 370

By
Andy Corbley
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Barnacles on the Channel Islands - Travis Leery
Barnacles on the Channel Islands – Travis Leery

Apart from a few pieces of debris that washed onto an Indian Ocean island, no trace has been found of the Malaysian Airlines flight that vanished in March 2014, but an innocuous marine limpet could provide clues to its whereabouts, as bizarre as it sounds.

Scientists believe they could have the answer to one of the ocean’s biggest mysteries and it lies in the shells of barnacles.

A team of researchers at the University of South Florida has found a method to extract ocean temperature records from the shells. How could this help, you might ask?

Using the record of water temperature, the team believes they will be able to reconstruct the drift path of the barnacles on the washed-up debris back to its point of origin.

The official hunt for the plane, traveling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, was called off in January 2017. A six-month private search a year later also failed to find any trace of the aircraft.

So far they have only partially reconstructed the path due to only having access to smaller shells on the wreckage but they believe if they can apply it to the larger ones that formed at the crash site they will find the plane.

University of South Florida geoscientist Associate Professor Gregory Herbert said he got the idea the moment he saw photographs of the plane debris that washed ashore on Reunion Island off the coast of Africa a year after the crash.

“The flaperon was covered in barnacles and as soon as I saw that, I immediately began sending emails to the search investigators because I knew the geochemistry of their shells could provide clues to the crash location,” said Professor Herbet.

An expert in shelled marine invertebrates, Herbert has spent two decades refining a way to extract ocean temperatures stored in shells.

Barnacles and other shelled marine invertebrates grow their shells daily, producing internal layers similar to tree rings. The chemistry of each layer is determined by the temperature of the surrounding water at the time the layer was formed.

Professor Herbert and his team did a growth experiment with live barnacles to read their chemistry, and for the first time unlocked temperature records from their shells.

According to the study, published in the journal AGU Advances, they applied the method to small barnacles from MH370 debris.

With help from barnacle experts and oceanographers at the National University of Ireland Galway, they combined the barnacles’ water temperature records with oceanographic modeling and successfully generated a partial drift reconstruction.

An example from the study here shows each piece of debris from the crash moving around the so-called “Seventh Arc.”

“Sadly, the largest and oldest barnacles have not yet been made available for research but with this study, we’ve proven this method can be applied to a barnacle that colonized on the debris shortly after the crash to reconstruct a complete drift path back to the crash origin,” said Dr. Herbert.

INTERESTING SEA SCIENCE: Man’s Biological Clock Set Back 10 Years After 93 Days Living Under the Ocean in a Research Station

The official search covered 120,000 square kilometers (46,000 sq miles) of ocean, including several thousands of miles along a north-south corridor deemed “The Seventh Arc,” where investigators believe the plane could have glided after running out of fuel.

Ocean temperatures can change rapidly along the arc, leading him to believe that his method could reveal precisely where the plane is.

“Even if the plane is not on the arc, studying the oldest and largest barnacles can still narrow down the areas to search in the Indian Ocean,” he adds.

MORE MYSTERIES UNRAVELLED: Secrets of Namibia’s Fairy Circles Were Demystified After Half-Century

“The plane disappeared more than nine years ago, and we all worked aiming to introduce a new approach to help resume the search, suspended in January 2017, which might help bring some closure to the tens of families of those on the missing plane,” said Dr. Nassar Al-Qattan.

“Knowing the tragic story behind the mystery motivated everyone involved in this project to get the data and have this work published.”

SHARE This Bizarre Yet Ingenious Idea To Solve A Forgotten Mystery… 

Paralyzed Woman ‘Speaks’ with Brain Signals Turned into Talking Avatar in World First

By
Andy Corbley
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Ann, plugged into the decoder software - credit UCSF via SWNS
Ann, plugged into the decoder software – credit UCSF via SWNS

A paralyzed woman has spoken again after her brain signals were intercepted and turned into a talking avatar, complete with facial expressions and sound samples from the woman’s real voice, all in a world first.

48-year-old Ann suffered a brainstem stroke when she was 30, leaving her paralyzed.

Scientists at the University of California then implanted a paper-thin rectangle of 253 electrodes onto the surface of her brain covering the area critical for speech. They then used artificial intelligence to produce the brain-computer interface (BCI).

These intercept ‘talking’ brain signals and are fed into a bank of computers via a cable, plugged into a port fixed to her head.

The computers can decode the signals into text at a rate of 80 words a minute, while an audio recording of her voice from her wedding day years before the stroke reproduced her voice and then gave it to an on-screen avatar that uses it with facial expressions.

The team from the University of California San Francisco says it is the first time that either speech or facial expressions have been synthesized from brain signals.

“Our goal is to restore a full, embodied way of communicating, which is really the most natural way for us to talk with others,” said Dr. Edward Chang, chair of neurological surgery at UCSF. “These advancements bring us much closer to making this a real solution for patients.”

For weeks, Ann worked with the team to train the system’s artificial intelligence algorithms to recognize her unique brain signals for speech.

This involved repeating different phrases from a 1,024-word conversational vocabulary over and over again, until the computer recognized the brain activity patterns associated with the sounds.

Rather than train the AI to recognize whole words, the researchers created a system that decodes words from phonemes. “Hello,” for example, contains four phonemes: “HH,” “AH,” “L” and “OW.”

Using this approach, the computer only needed to learn 39 phonemes to decipher any word in English. This both enhanced the system’s accuracy and made it three times faster.

MORE CRAZY TECH LIKE THIS: First Time Someone With Cut Spinal Cord is Able to Walk Freely, Thanks to New Swiss Technology

“The accuracy, speed, and vocabulary are crucial,” said Sean Metzger, who developed the text decoder in the joint Bioengineering Program at UC Berkeley and UCSF. “It’s what gives a user the potential, in time, to communicate almost as fast as we do, and to have much more naturalistic and normal conversations.”

Using a customized machine-learning process that allowed the company’s software to mesh with signals being sent from her brain, the computer avatar was able to mimic Ann’s movements, making the jaw open and close, the lips protrude and purse and the tongue go up and down, as well as the facial movements for happiness, sadness, and surprise.

The team is now working on a wireless version that will mean the user doesn’t have to be connected to the computers.

MORE DISABLED RESTORED: Revolutionary Music Therapy Helps Paralyzed Man Walk and Talk Again – It ‘Unlocked the Brain’

The current study, published in the journal Nature, adds to previous research by Dr. Chang’s team in which they decoded brain signals into text in a man who had also had a brainstem stroke many years earlier.

But now they can decode the signals into the richness of speech, along with the movements that animate a person’s face during conversation.

WATCH the story and tech in action from UCSF…

“What would be left of our tragedies if an insect were to present us his?” – Emil Cioran

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “What would be left of our tragedies if an insect were to present us his?” – Emil Cioran

Photo by: Charlotte Descamps

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?

Orphaned Deer Falls Head Over Hooves For Rescuer’s 11-Month-Old Daughter–LOOK

By
Andy Corbley
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credit - Mountfitchet Castle - via SWNS
credit – Mountfitchet Castle – via SWNS

After an open-air museum took in an orphaned fallow deer, the little thing fell head over hooves for the owner’s 11-month-old daughter.

The deer, named Ziggy, was rescued and taken in by Jeremy Goldsmith who runs Mountfitchet Castle, a Norman castle and museum.

Goldsmith and the staff at Mountfitchet care for a variety of orphaned animals, and it took just a few hours for Ziggy to settle into her new environment.

The fawn, believed to be a two-month-old, was spotted on the side of a road near the castle in Essex after its mother was hit by a car. A passer-by called Mountfitchet Castle who thankfully took in the deer and gave it a warm shed to sleep in.

After settling in, it wasn’t long before Goldsmith found that the fawn had taken a peculiar liking to his daughter. Now, three times a day Jeremy goes to the barn to feed the fawn and takes young Isabella with him.

credit – Mountfitchet Castle – via SWNS
credit – Mountfitchet Castle – via SWNS

The two spend hours together and Isabella loves to pet and kiss Ziggy. The castle already has a herd of five fallow deer, and the deer will spend the rest of its life well-fed and with company.

“We can’t release her back to the wild now, as she would be too tame and not at all scared of people,” said Goldsmith.

MORE ADORABLE RESCUES: Sam the Lamb is Nursed Through Incredible Recovery After Falling off Highway Truck – WATCH

“We’re an animal-loving family. I was brought up in an animal-loving family and I did the same for my daughter. It’s just so natural, they spend hours kissing and [petting] each other. There’s no fear like you would expect there to be,” he added.

SHARE These Touching Images With Your Friends On Social Media… 

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