Quote of the Day: “Love cures people—both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it.” – Karl A. Menninger
Photo: copyright GWC
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A low-cost version of ketamine to treat severe depression has performed strongly in a double-blind trial that compared it with placebo.
In a study published this week in the British Journal of Psychiatry, researchers from University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia found that more than one in five participants achieved total remission from their symptoms after a month of bi-weekly injections—while a third had their symptoms improve by at least 50 percent.
“This brings definitive evidence to the field,” said lead researcher Professor Colleen Loo.
“For people with treatment-resistant depression—those who have not benefitted from different modes of talk-therapy, commonly prescribed antidepressants, or electroconvulsive therapy—20 percent remission is actually quite good.”
Funded by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, the researchers recruited 179 people, which makes this, according to Prof. Loo, the largest study in the world to date that compares generic ketamine with placebo in treating severe depression.
Participants were given an injection of either a generic form of ketamine, which is already widely available in Australia as a drug for anesthesia and sedation, or placebo. They received two injections a week in a clinic where they were monitored for around two hours while acute dissociative and sedative effects wore off—usually within the first hour.
The treatment ran for a month and participants were asked to assess their mood at the end of the trial and one month later.
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As a double-blind trial, neither participants nor researchers administering the drug were aware which patients received generic ketamine or placebo, to ensure psychological biases were minimized. Importantly, a placebo was chosen that also causes sedation, to improve treatment masking. Midazolam is a sedative normally administered before a general anesthetic, while in many previous studies the placebo was saline.
“Because there are no subjective effects from the saline, in previous studies it became obvious which people were receiving the ketamine and which people received placebo,” Prof. Loo says.
“In using midazolam – which is not a treatment for depression, but does make you feel a bit woozy and out of it – you have much less chance of knowing whether you have received ketamine, which has similar acute effects.”
Other features of the recent trial that set it apart from past studies included accepting people into the trial who had previously received electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).
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“People are recommended ECT treatment for their depression when all other treatments have been ineffective,” Prof. Loo says. “Most studies exclude people who have had ECT because it is very hard for a new treatment to work where ECT has not.”
Apart from the positive results, one of the standout benefits of using generic ketamine for treatment-resistant depression is that it is vastly cheaper than the patented S-ketamine nasal spray currently in use in Australia.
“This is why we’re applying for a Medicare item number to fund this treatment now, because it’s such a powerful treatment,” explained Loo.
“And if you consider that many of these people might spend many months in hospital, or be unable to work and are often quite suicidal, it’s quite cost effective when you see how incredibly quickly and powerfully it works. We’ve seen people go back to work, or study, or leave hospital because of this treatment in a matter of weeks.”
MORE: How Ketamine is a Speedster Antidepressant and Could Be Adapted For Use to Avoid Side Effects
The researchers will next be looking at larger trials of generic ketamine over longer periods, and refining the safety monitoring of treatment.
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A 33-year-old paleontologist is celebrating a mammoth discovery after finding a four-foot-long tusk in a quarry 90 miles north of London.
Jamie Jordan spied the 450,000 year-old steppe mammoth tusk last week while on a routine visit to a local quarry where he often leads groups on fossil-finding tours.
The incredible find from the last ice age has now been taken to Jamie’s Fossils Galore centre in March, Cambridgeshire, where he will carry out research and preservation.
“I could not believe my eyes,” said Jamie, who found his first fossil when he was four-years-old, but has never found a tusk. “It was sticking out like a sore thumb.”
“They normally get broken up when they are quarried – but this one was in one piece.
“It was just on top of the ground—and very heavy to pick up.”
In its own day, the mammoth would have looked much bigger than a modern day elephant, up to 13 foot tall, and weighing 14 tons.
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After recovering it from the quarry floor, the tusk was carefully wrapped to transport it– but the Fossils Galore team had to ensure it stayed wet, to prevent it from becoming damaged. They will now spend six months working to preserve the tusk, and then be able to examine it to find out more about the animal’s life.
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“You can learn a lot about the animal by looking at the rings of the tusk—like looking at a tree trunk.
“If the rings are tight, then it shows the habitat was not good, and the food supply was poor. But if the rings are thick, then it shows it had a good habitat.
“We will also look for signs of predation – whether from early humans or other animals.”
Along with the mammoth tusk, the team at Fossils Galore are also working on analyzing a skeleton they found in Surrey in 2017—an Iguanodon dinosaur that lived more than 100 million years ago. In 2008, they also discovered of a nearly complete skeleton of a Plesiosaur.
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Every summer, Jamie’s centre conducts a range of activities for families, such as fossil hunting and cracking open geodes, that allowing youngsters to get involved and become the paleontologists of the future.
To visit Jamie and find more information, visit FossilsGalore.com.
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A new random survey of teachers in grades Kindergarten through high school found that two of three missed their classrooms during the summer.
The average teacher in this U.S. poll said they think about the upcoming school year eight times during summer break, with 45% sharing that it comes to mind even more often.
More than a quarter are still in “education mode” during the summer, saying that part of their break will be dedicated to planning and decorating their classroom for next year (27%).
But teachers are still making the most of their time off by spending time with family and loved ones (60%), relaxing at home (50%) and traveling (38%) this summer.
It’s not just teachers. Parents were also contacted in this survey by OnePoll and 58% percent of said they were looking forward to the 2023-2024 school year and 66% are anticipating it’ll be better than last year.
The poll commissioned by Office Depot also examined parents’ and teachers’ thoughts on how this past school year went, finding that a whopping 70% of all respondents said they or their family’s experience was positive overall.
Parents said the 2022-2023 school year was a success because their child received good grades (46%), learned skills that will help them outside of the classroom (34%) and became more social (30%).
Teachers credit the success of the post-pandemic school year to being able to inspire their students (41%), teach in person (37%) and get creative with their teaching methods (36%).
Almost half of teachers agreed that they ‘can’t wait to help a new set of students learn and grow’—and 39% are excited to ‘find new and creative ways to teach material’.
But the double-opt-in poll also found that teachers plan to spend about $320 of their own money to set up their classrooms for the upcoming school year.
“It’s important to support teachers and set them up for success by offering them the creative solutions they need to help their students learn and grow,” said Kevin Moffitt, president of Office Depot.
Popular websites like DonorsChoose.org allow you to send donations to fund teacher projects and supplies. You can also search the 25-year-old Adopt a Classroom website for teachers in your area—and every penny of your donation goes straight to classrooms without any fees taken out.
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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 July 15, 2023
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
The Simpsons animated show has been on TV for 34 seasons. Ten-year-old Bart Simpson is one of the stars. He is a mischievous rascal who’s ingenious in defying authority. Sometimes teachers catch him in his rebellious acts and punish him by making him write apologetic affirmations on the classroom blackboard. For example: “I will not strut around like I own the place. I will not obey the voices in my head. I will not express my feelings through chaos. I will not trade pants with others. I will not instigate revolution. I am not deliciously saucy. I cannot absolve sins. Hot dogs are not bookmarks.” In accordance with your unruly astrological omens, Cancerian, I authorize you to do things Bart said he wouldn’t do. You have a license to be deliciously saucy.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Early in her career, Leo actor Lisa Kudrow endured disappointments. She auditioned for the TV show Saturday Night Live but wasn’t chosen. She was cast as a main character in the TV show Frasier but was replaced during the filming of the pilot episode. A few months later, though, she landed a key role in the new TV show Friends. In retrospect, she was glad she got fired from Frasier so she could be available for Friends. Frasier was popular, but Friends was a super hit. Kudrow won numerous awards for her work on the show and rode her fame to a successful film career. Will there be a Frasier moment for you in the coming months, dear Leo? That’s what I suspect. So keep the faith.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
The coming weeks will be a good time to seek helpful clues and guidance from your nightly dreams. Take steps to remember them—maybe keep a pen and notebook next to your bed. Here are a few possible dream scenes and their meanings. 1. A dream of planting a tree means you’re primed to begin a project that will grow for years. 2. A dream of riding in a spaceship suggests you yearn to make your future come more alive in your life. 3. A dream of taking a long trip or standing on a mountaintop may signify you’re ready to come to new conclusions about your life story. (PS: Even if you don’t have these specific dreams, the interpretations I offered are still apt.)
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
In reviewing the life work of neurologist and author Oliver Sacks, critic Patricia Holt said he marveled at how “average people not only adapt to injury and disease but also create something transcendent out of a condition others call disability.” Sacks specialized in collaborating with neurological patients who used their seeming debilitations “to uncover otherwise unknown resources and create lives of originality and innovation.” I bring this up, Libra, because I suspect that in the coming months, you will have extra power to turn your apparent weaknesses or liabilities into assets.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
It’s a mistake to believe we must ration our love as if we only have so much to offer. The fact is, the more love we give, the more we have available to give. As we tap into our deepest source of generosity, we discover we have greater reserves of it than we imagined. What I’ve just said is always true, but it’s especially apropos for you right now. You are in a phase when you can dramatically expand your understanding of how many blessings you have to dole out.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
Home computers didn’t become common until the 1980s. During the previous decade, small start-up companies with adventurous experimenters did the grunt work that made the digital revolution possible. Many early adapters worked out of garages in the Silicon Valley area of Northern California. They preferred to devote their modest resources to the actual work rather than to fancy labs. I suspect the coming months will invite you to do something similar, Sagittarius: to be discerning about how you allocate your resources as you plan and implement your vigorous transformations.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
I’m tempted to call this upcoming chapter of your life story “The Partial Conquest of Loneliness.” Other good titles might be “Restoration of Degraded Treasure” or “Turning a Confusing Triumph into a Gratifying One” or “Replacing a Mediocre Kind of Strength with the Right Kind.” Can you guess that I foresee an exciting and productive time for you in the coming weeks? To best prepare, drop as many expectations and assumptions as you can so you will be fully available for the novel and sometimes surprising opportunities. Life will offer you fresh perspectives.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
By 1582, the inexact old Julian calendar used by the Western world for 13 centuries was out of whack because it had no leap years. The spring equinox was occurring too early, on March 10. Pope Gregory commissioned scientists who devised a more accurate way to account for the passage of time. The problem was that the new calendar needed a modification that required the day after October 4 to be October 15. Eleven days went missing—permanently. People were resentful and resistant, though eventually all of Europe made the conversion. In that spirit, Aquarius, I ask you to consider an adjustment that requires a shift in habits. It may be inconvenient at first, but will ultimately be good for you.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
Piscean novelist Peter De Vries wrote, “Sometimes I write drunk and revise sober, and sometimes I write sober and revise drunk. But you have to have both elements in creation—the Apollonian and the Dionysian, or spontaneity and restraint, emotion and discipline.” In the coming weeks, you Pisces folks will be skilled at weaving these modes as you practice what you love to do. You’ll be a master of cultivating dynamic balance; a wizard of blending creativity and organization; a productive change-maker who fosters both structure and morale.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
Many astrologers enjoy meditating on the heavenly body Chiron. With an orbit between Saturn and Uranus, it is an anomalous object that has qualities of both a comet and a minor planet. Its name is derived from a character in ancient Greek myth: the wisest teacher and healer of all the centaurs. Chiron is now in the sign of Aries and will be there for a while. Let’s invoke its symbolic power to inspire two quests in the coming months: 1. Seek a teacher who excites your love of life. 2. Seek a healer who alleviates any hurts that interfere with your love of life.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
It’s high time for some high culture! You are in a phase to get rich benefits from reading Shakespeare, listening to Beethoven, and enjoying paintings by Matisse and Picasso. You’d also benefit lavishly from communing with the work of virtuosos like Mozart, Michelangelo, and novelist Haruki Murakami. However, I think you would garner even greater emotional treasures from reading Virginia Woolf, listening to Janelle Monáe’s music, and enjoying Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings. For extra credit, get cozy with the books of Simone Weil, listen to Patti Smith’s music, and see Frida Kahlo’s art. If you read between the lines here, you understand I’m telling you that the most excellent thing to do for your mental and spiritual health is to commune with brilliant women artists, writers, and musicians.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
The French phrase j’ajoute (translated as “I adjust”) is a chess term used when a player is about to adjust their pieces but does not yet intend to make a move. J’ajoute might be an apt motto for you to invoke in the coming days. You are not ready to make major shifts in the way you play the games you’re involved in. But it’s an excellent time to meditate on that prospect. You will gain clarity and refine your perspective if you tinker with and rearrange the overall look and feel of things.
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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Quote of the Day: “The return we reap from generous actions is not always evident.” – Francesco Guicciardini
Photo by: Silas Baisch
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?
After its first-ever left-wing presidential administration took charge of negotiating permanent peace with the socialist FARC rebels, Colombia’s forests are feeling the effects with a 26% reduction in deforestation in the conflict areas.
These dense, biodiverse rainforests that are a part of the Amazon in places, and independent of it in others, have been one of the many victims of the country’s civil war.
However, President Gustavo Petro is conducting peace negotiations that put the environment first with around 20 splinter factions of the FARC guerillas, who have responded positively.
De-facto leadership in the conflict areas in the forested state of Gauviare has instituted its own deforestation moratorium, and an estimated 50,000 hectares of rainforest have been saved as a result.
“This is really dramatic,” conservationist Rodrigo Botero told The Guardian. “It’s the highest reduction in deforestation and forest fires that there has been in two decades.”
The Guardian recently covered these peace negotiations alongside a delegation from Norway which included that country’s environment minister, Espen Barth Eide.
“What I’m hearing, seeing, and feeling in these meetings is that there is an enhanced understanding that you cannot build a new Colombia on the basis of the further deterioration of nature, so you have to find an economic, social, political, inclusive process that is more respectful towards nature than before,” Barth told the English paper.
SIMILAR STORIES: Ex-Guerrillas Turn into Citizen Scientists Using Their Knowledge of the Colombian Jungle to Protect Biodiversity
Often flying under the radar when compared to its neighbor Brazil, Colombia is the second-most biodiverse country on Earth, and the most biodiverse in terms of bird life.
It’s the 25th-highest country in the world for Forest Integrity Index score (8.26) and boasts twice as many square miles of highly-intact forest than of poorly-intact forest, almost all of which resides in the conflicted states of Amazonia, Caquetá, and Putumayo.
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If the Petro government can really put the brakes on the conversion of forests into pastureland for cattle, it would be helping to save one of the most valuable tropical forest ecosystems on Earth.
SHARE This Forest-First Peace Proposal With Your Friends…
Arlington, Virginia is like a gateway to the city of Washington D.C. Part of the Metro line, but across the Potomac, it’s nevertheless a busy area and not the kind of place you’d expect to be able to get minutes-old, farm-fresh produce.
But Area 2 Farms is growing greens, herbs, and root vegetables in a vertical farm thanks to the dearth of traditional office tenants. With high-rise office space remaining vacant even after the end of the pandemic, landlords are open to ideas.
Jackie Potter and Tyler Baras pitched the idea of an indoor farm and it was obviously a good one because Area 2 is already well-established in the Arlington area such that they offer subscription delivery of fresh veggies to fellow urbanites starting at $40 per week.
Area 2 Farms uses a sophisticated conveyor belt system called Silo to cut down on the more laborious hours of indoor farming. It’s not a hydroponic system—there is soil inside Area 2 Farms which means they can grow root vegetables like potatoes, carrots, and radishes.
When executed correctly, vertical farming can produce as much as traditional farming but with a lot less space, and no concern over weather or pests. Obviously as well it can be done in the center of a city, where land is at a premium.
MORE INDOOR FARMING STORIES: Canadian Family Turns Old School into Hydroponic Farm Growing Fresh Veggies Even in Winter For the Whole Town
Ciara O’Brien at Modern Farmer did some research in an article covering Area 2 Farms and found that 20% of office space in the US is unoccupied, and that by 2030, about 300 million square feet across the country’s cities will simply be obsolete because of companies that couldn’t make it out of the government-enforced or voluntary closures of their businesses during COVID, coupled with the fact that many people are more content working remotely.
“Cities are changing every day,” Potter tells Modern Farmer. “There’s a really great economic opportunity as well. Our farms create new green jobs, they beautify spaces and provide fresh food to local communities. That’s something that’s really precious.”
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Up on the Colorado ski slopes in 2017, a man was suspended from a chairlift by the strap of his backpack coiled around his neck. Nearby, professional slackliner and ski instructor Mickey Wilson knew that there was no one better trained to affect a rescue than he.
For those outside of the know, slacklining is a fun activity similar to tightrope walking in which people practice balance, nerve, and coordination by walking and doing tricks on a single line of nylon strapping that has a lot of bounce.
Normally done between trees with soft grass or sand underneath, professional slackliners will fasten their strap over bodies of water or canyons, with dozens, even hundreds of feet of empty space below them.
It wasn’t a nylon slackline, but the cables on which the chairlifts were mounted may as well have been a sidewalk for Wilson, who despite having a broken hand at the time, won the Carnegie Hero Medal for climbing up one of the lift towers, shimmying 30 feet along the cable, and the adjacent chairlift where Richard Rattenbury was stuck.
Once there, he couldn’t find any way to unlatch the backpack that had already choked Rattenbury out of consciousness. Below them, Hans Meuller and another comrade had tried standing on each other’s shoulders to reach their pal, but couldn’t manage it.
“It’s the scariest thing I’ve ever seen—the most helpless I’ve ever felt—being two feet away from one of my best friends—my best man—[and] watch him lose consciousness,” Meuller told CBS News Colorado.
“I can climb up that tower,” said Wilson confidantly, recounting how he calculated his approach to saving the man. “The first thing that went through my hand was ‘thank God I’m a slackliner and a good slackliner.'”
OTHER SKI RESCUES: Dramatic Moment Skier Rescued a Snowboarder Who Was Buried Head First in Snow and Running Out of Air (Watch)
Hard part done, the backpack was so far extended under the chairlift that Wilson couldn’t even reach it. That’s when a ski patrol tossed him a knife which he caught first time (wearing ski gloves? who knows) and cut the man free, who was rushed to the hospital and made a full recovery.
The Carnegie Medal is awarded to civilians who put their lives in danger in attempt to save another. Wilson was recently announced as the winner among other heroes, despite his rescue taking place 6 years ago.
The moral of the story? Get your children into slacklining
WATCH the story below from CBS News CO… *Note to Those Outside the U.S: View video at CBS.com…
CELEBRATE This Man’s Heroism With Any Slackliners You Know…
Glioma tumors in the brain have a survival rate of 12-18 months when advanced, but now, a simple urine test which could be administered in routine check-ups can detect the cancer even in its earliest stages.
The inventors believe the same technique could be used to spot early signs of other hard-to-detect cancers as well.
Brain cancers are often detected late and so are difficult to remove using surgery. Most sufferers aren’t aware of a glioma—a brain tumor, until they get symptoms such as paralysis of the limbs.
But now, researchers have found a way of capturing cancer DNA using nanowires in urine which will give patients vital extra time.
Led by a team at Japan’s Nagoya University, scientists were able to successfully detect IDH1 mutation, a characteristic genetic mutation of gliomas.
The team, whose findings are published in the journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics,
suggest their invention could be used in routine physicals to catch early signs of the disease.
“The detection of these cells as a non-invasive way to check for cancer has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for cancer screening, diagnosis, prognosis, and monitoring of cancer progression and treatment response,” said Professor Takao Yasui, a member of the research group.
The test works because brain tumors release small DNA particles as they grow and although much is cleaned up by the body, excess particles are excreted in urine.
“However, a major bottleneck is the lack of techniques to isolate these particles, known as cfDNA efficiently from urine, as the excreted cfDNA may be short, fragmented, and low concentration,” details Yasui.
The team came up with a solution in the form of a catch-and-release method on zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowire surfaces to capture cfDNA and extracellular vesicles from gliomas.
MORE BREAKTHROUGHS FROM JAPAN: World’s First ‘Tooth Regrowth’ Medicine Moves Toward Clinical Trials in Japan
ZnO was chosen because water molecules adsorb on the surface of ZnO nanowires. These water molecules then form hydrogen bonds with any cfDNA in the urine sample.
The bonded cfDNA can then be washed out, allowing researchers to isolate trace amounts of it in a sample.
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“Our technique was a resounding success,” said Yasui. “We succeeded in isolating urinary cfDNA, which was exceptionally difficult with conventional methods.”
“Although we tested gliomas, this method opens new possibilities for the detection of tumor mutations. If we know the type of mutation to look for, we can easily apply our technique to detect other types of tumors, especially the detection of those that cannot be isolated by conventional methods.”
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Quote of the Day: “I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives… and to see a man live so that his place is proud of him.” – Abraham Lincoln
Photo by: Raul De Los Santos
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In the UK, the nation’s largest end-of-life service provider is now going to add “resomation” or water cremation, to its offerings.
Perhaps the most eco-friendly funeral procedure beyond just illegally burying someone in a forest somewhere, resomation has a lot of work to do in terms of gettings its name out there.
Resomation, also known as alkaline hydrolysis, neatly deconstructs a human body all the way down to a skeleton in just 4 hours using an alkaline solution. After that, the bones are ground into a powder and placed in an urn for the family.
It’s the method that anti-apartheid hero Archbishop Desmond Tutu chose after he passed away in 2021. It uses 5 times less energy than a fire cremation.
The UK’s biggest funeral provider, Co-op Funeralcare, has announced that it will introduce the practice later this year following last year’s approval by regulators.
“[We] will be providing people with another option for how they leave this world because this natural process uses water, not fire, making it gentler on the body and kinder on the environment,” Julian Atkinson, director of resomation company Kindly Earth, told Euro News.
For those who care, Euro News claimed in their write-up of the new resomation service that 245 kilograms of CO2 and equivalents are released for every fire cremation. They also cited polling data that showed 89% of UK adults had never heard of water cremation before.
GNN has stayed abreast of alternative end-of-life options for several years, reporting on green funeral industry developments as they come. Chemically-treated bodies laid to rest in a chemically-treated wood coffin inside a concrete-lined burial vault isn’t a particularly green process either, and this Dutch entrepreneur is replacing at least the second part with a coffin made of fungal mycelium.
It takes as little as two to three years for the mushroom coffin to completely turn a deceased into nutrients for the soil and the Earth—the ultimate in eco-friendly end-of-life options.
In America, where a double grave plot in a cemetery could cost a family more than their house, a company called Better Place Forests is selling trees like gravestones in memorial forest preserves, with the proceeds from the business going towards protecting these forests for all time—literally, since US law states that once land is declared a cemetery, it can never become anything else.
They protect forests in Connecticut, Massachusetts, California, Arizona, Minnesota, and soon Illinois. These preserves feature heritage sugar maple stands, California redwoods, quaking aspen colonies, and views out across the Pacific or the Twin Lakes, and every tree is treated like a gravesite with exclusive ash-scattering rites, allowing families to visit the final resting place of their loved ones.
In 2019, GNN reported that Washington state became the first in the nation to allow human composting, and in 2016, GNN interviewed the “Green Reaper” who was among the first entrepreneurs in the country to offer eco-friendly mortuary services through her company Cornerstone Funeral Services.
All these have to do with the Earth, or fire in the case of traditional cremation, but there have always been human beings who feel an inseparable connection with water, and resomation offers them that connection and the peace of mind to their loved ones that their passions were observed even after they were gone.
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Spectators of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris will be watching the aquatic events from seats made of plastic collected in recycling bins from around the area.
In fact, 80% of the 100 metric tons of plastic needed to make the seats came from a single neighborhood—which is also where it’s being processed into new material by a firm called Le Pavé.
“It’s collected in Seine-Saint-Denis, shredded in Seine-Saint-Denis, processed in Seine-Saint-Denis, all for a swimming pool that’s still in the area,” Augustin Jaclin, co-founder of Lemon Tri, the company which collects the recycling, told Euro News.
Numerous tests have been carried out on the chairs, which include UV resistance, fire resistance, and toxicity, but also mechanical resistance tests to see how well they remain anchored to the floor under persistent attempts to rip them off of it—perhaps by a drunken angry spectator.
Marius Hamelot, co-founder of Le Pavé, said that in the lead-up to the Olympics, manufacturers have been encountering problems getting a hold of new plastics, so they switched to using waste streams. One rich vein in particular was soda bottle tops, of which 5 million were shredded by various companies looking to produce infrastructure like seating for the games.
“It’s a huge communication tool,” says Augustin. “When we tell children to come and put your bottles in the bins, tomorrow they’ll be in the seats of the Olympic swimming pool, it raises awareness [of waste recycling].”
MORE NEWS FROM FRANCE: World’s First Non-Polluting Ferry Sets Sail From Marseille, France
Paris, and France at large, have set ambitious targets of sustainability for the games, hoping to reduce downstream emissions by half compared to the 2012 and 2016 games.
But their approach isn’t only about carbon, they’re also trying to advocate against general environmental degradation with a flagship effort to make the Seine swimmable for the first time in many decades so as to host the triathlon there.
As GNN reported earlier this year, the Seine was well on its way to being ecologically dead in the mid-2010s, and despite being immortalized in song, poetry, and art, the river had an unappealing green-brown color—typical of the waste it was subjected to.
MORE CLEVER RECYCLING: This Greek Island Replaced its Landfill with Recycling Plant That Now Reduces Waste by 85%
Tests from August and July of last year have found the water quality “overwhelmingly good,” making Parisians realize that for the first time in most or perhaps all of their lives, they can swim in their own river again.
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Rachel Mayta was just 18 months old when her doctor spotted a white glow in her eye which led to her retinoblastoma diagnosis, or cancer of the eye.
The cancer was so advanced doctors made the choice to remove her eye in a two-hour operation, but far from donning an eyepatch and feeling sorry for herself, she filled a prosthetic eye with glitter to create an unforgettable persona, and now helps others “own” their difference.
Rachel grew up without any concern for the missing eye, but after surgery in her 20s made the prosthetic eye more apparent, she began to lose her confidence a little. As an eventual remedy, she began to look for fun or creative prosthetics, rather like a quirky piece of jewelry, to transform her disability into a bit of “bling.”
“They are full bling,” said Rachel from Portland, Oregon of her more than 20 fake eyes. “I just get to focus on being me rather than looking normal.”
One day, Rachel, who hadn’t thought to wear glittery or glow-in-the-dark eyeballs, met a little girl who also had been diagnosed with retinoblastoma.
“I knew I never wanted her to feel the way I was feeling about myself; I thought—‘why am I allowing myself to feel that way?’” she said.
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That’s when she got the idea to find someone who would make her a gold eye—instead of a regular-looking prosthetic, since there was no movement in her eye anyway and it was always quickly noticed to be a fake.
“I had a gold crystal one and one with holographic mirrors,” she said. “I had a brand new one made for my bachelorette party that looks like a turquoise stone.”
Rachel set up a Facebook group called ‘One-eyed and Wonderful’ and began connecting with others who had one eye like her, as well as hosting fundraisers to buy fun fake eyes for people who want them.
She also helps raise awareness for retinoblastoma in children and helps educate people on the early signs of the disease.
MORE POWERFUL PROSTHETICS: World’s First 3D-Printed Eye Offers Digital Prosthetics
She set up the fun eye fund with her ocularist Christina King and between them have helped fund 43 eyes.
“For every $500 raised we get one prosthetic made,” she says. “I want others to see they are not alone, and it is something to be proud of. Own the fact you are different.”
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It’s been a long and successful year for the James Webb Space Telescope, and to mark the anniversary of its entry into service, NASA has shown off Webb’s vibrant picture of a small star-forming region in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex.
“From our cosmic backyard in the solar system to distant galaxies near the dawn of time, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has delivered on its promise of revealing the universe like never before in its first year of science operations,” NASA stated.
The first-anniversary image displays star birth “like it’s never been seen before,” full of detailed, impressionistic texture. The subject is the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, the closest star-forming region to Earth.
“It is a relatively small, quiet stellar nursery, but you’d never know it from Webb’s chaotic close-up,” boast NASA. “Jets bursting from young stars crisscross the image, impacting the surrounding interstellar gas and lighting up molecular hydrogen, shown in red. Some stars display the telltale shadow of a circumstellar disk, the makings of future planetary systems.”
Two critical differences single out the JWST as such a remarkable machine: the first is that it sees into infrared light—a spectrum which the human eye cannot see, and the second is that it orbits the second LaGrange Point a million miles from Earth, removing any light pollution of our world from diluting its imagery.
It’s made some important discoveries and snapped some incredible photographs. From our own solar system, Webb has clarified details on Jupiter, such as the planet’s minuscule rings, as well as the Jovian aurorae, on Neptune where the telescope was able to clearly image the planet’s rings and moons together for the first time, and from Saturn where it was able to gather exquisite data on the effect of methane clouds in Saturn’s atmosphere.
Webb has also been studying Saturn’s moons and managed to record a plume of water erupting from the surface of the ocean world Enceladus that was 6,000 miles long.
Outside the solar system, the JWST has taken amazing photos of the oldest galaxies ever found, created just 500 million years after the Big Bang, of an exploding star in the constellation Cassiopeia, and also lent a hand to a European effort to study X-ray light in the universe with a 4-panel mosaic of technological artwork.
MORE ASTRONOMY NEWS: Scientists Discover Time Moving 5x Slower After Big Bang–Exactly as Einstein Predicted
“In just one year, the James Webb Space Telescope has transformed humanity’s view of the cosmos, peering into dust clouds and seeing light from faraway corners of the universe for the very first time,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “Every new image is a new discovery, empowering scientists around the globe to ask and answer questions they once could never dream of.”
“Thousands of engineers, scientists, and leaders poured their life’s passion into this mission, and their efforts will continue to improve our understanding of the origins of the universe—and our place in it.”
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Discovering a whole new species is an exciting moment for scientists; when they determined it was Critically-Endangered it probably induced the opposite reaction.
The kipunji was only identified in 2003 living on the slopes and forests of Mt. Rungwe and Livingstone Mountains within Kitulo National Park in Tanzania, after locals gave scientists the news that there were monkeys there.
Twenty years later and this monkey of gentle visage has been the beneficiary of ‘holistic’ conservation undertaken by the talented scientists at the Wildlife Conservation Society. By “sandwiching” hard science on top of protected area management and local community outreach, the kipunji monkey population has increased 65% from when it was first discovered by Westerners.
“Our new survey in 2020—just published in the International Journal of Primatology—shows… illegal activities have fallen in Mount Rungwe and Livingstone/Kitulo forests by 81%, with a total reduction in illegal timber activity of 90%,” writes Tim Davenport on the WCS blog.
Mongabay recounts that the southern highlands of Tanzania were poorly charted or surveyed before WCS began working there in 1999. Lacking the big game of the Serengeti, it had been ignored by Western scientists.
However the biodiversity is outstanding, and several species have been named after Mount Rungwe, including the kipunji which was characterized as one of the 25 most-endangered primates on Earth.
Ranging from black to a multi-coloration like karst rock, the monkeys aren’t very large. They have small black faces and large triangular crests of hair like a pompadour.
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There are “good reasons to be optimistic” about the kipunji, as the Tanzanian government quickly established nature reserves in all the areas of the kipunji’s habit that weren’t already protected, and the WCS built up long-term monitoring programs to ensure any change, positive or negative, is noticed.
As is often the case now in Africa, locals are being incentivized away from cutting down trees for charcoal with beekeeping. Beekeeping is becoming an excellent way for rural communities to earn a living that doesn’t involve poaching or deforestation.
Without the need to sell firewood, lumber, and charcoal for money, locals can leave much more of the forest alone.
MORE MONKEY BUSINESS: World’s Most Endangered Primate Population Triples After 17 Years of Careful Conservation
“You’re permanently looking for the end game. And there are now opportunities, there are people doing tourism, both the Tanzania Forestry Service [and] Tanzania National Parks is doing good stuff,” Davenport told Mongabay.
“It’s not perfect by any means. There are still pressures, there are still, just as anywhere in the world, illegal activities. There is still poverty around the edge. But it’s in a considerably better place than it used to be.”
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A man in Kentucky recently found a buried cache of gold coins from the Civil War period rumored to be worth millions of dollars.
Consisting of nearly seven hundred $1, $10, and $20 gold dollars issued by the US Mint between 1840 and 1863, the discovery is being called the “Great Kentucky Hoard.”
“This is the most insane thing ever: Those are all $1 gold coins, $20 gold coins, $10 gold coins,” said the finder in a camera phone video.
Many wealthy Kentuckians are rumored to have buried large quantities of gold and silver in advance of the Civil War, and Ryan McNutt, a knowledgeable archaeologist with a specialty in conflict areas, suggests that since these gold coins were federally issued, it meant that the original owner might have been wary of being identified as a collaborator with the feds during a time when Kentucky was still neutral.
“Given the time period and the location in Kentucky, which was neutral at the time, it is entirely possible this was buried in advance of Confederate John Hunt Morgan’s June to July 1863 raid,” McNutt told LiveScience.
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According to the Numismatic Guaranty Co. (NGC) which certified the hoard’s authenticity, the rarest items are the 1863-P $20 1-ounce gold liberty coins, which can go for 6-figures at auction. 18 were included in the hoard.
These were minted by the US Treasury after gold was discovered in California, and do not include the phrase “In God We Trust” which was added after the end of the Civil War.
WATCH what it looks like to find legit buried treasure…
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Construction of a massive municipal park—over 20 years in the making, is finally underway in the city of Irvine.
They say if California became its own country, it would have one of the world’s largest economies. The new Great Park of Irvine is a reflection of the always lofty ambitions of the state, and is expected to dwarf Central Park by more than 500 acres.
It was on May 23rd this year that the “Great Park Project” broke ground on the long-derelict El Toro Marine Corps Base, 21 years after voters approved a ballot measure ordering the state to create a park on the site.
Expected to take another 10 years to complete, the park will span 1,300 acres and include several museums, an amphitheater, a veterans memorial garden, an aquatics center, a sports complex, and not one but two lakes.
“After many years of community input and after the last year of intensive planning and design, we are excited to be launching what is a $1 billion investment to establish the world’s next great metropolitan park,” said Irvine City Councilman Michael Carroll who serves as Chairman of the Great Park Board.
$455 million was raised for the project through 30-year municipal bonds that will pay off $1 billion to investors and comes after repeat failures from past governments to find money and time to kick start the work.
OTHER BIG PARK PLANS: Abandoned Airport Turned into Sensory Experience Park Providing Green Refuge in Crowded Taiwan City
Irvine professionals from SWA Group and Kellenberg Studios will be in charge of the transformation.
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First item of work on the agenda is to demolish and clear away 77 old military buildings while leaving the El Toro air traffic control tower which will be leased by the FAA. However a portion of the Irvine Great Park, as it’s being called, is already open to visitors and includes a soccer pitch and some other amenities including tethered balloon to take visitors up into the sky.
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Editor’s note: The headline here has been altered to reflect its size.
The world’s largest 3D-printed building has been completed by Florida-based Printed Farms—a luxury horse barn spanning 10,100 sq. feet, which they claim is almost 50% larger than the previous record-holder in the Middle East.
The firm used the COBOD BOD2 construction 3D printer to create the structure in Wellington in Southern Florida.
The building has been constructed to endure the extreme weather challenges of the hurricane-prone, horse-loving region, with a “focus on structural integrity and occupant safety.”
“The versatility and benefits of 3D printing technology are also demonstrated through the structure’s 3D printed walls that create a cavity and air gap which provides natural cooling to the building,” COBOD said in a statement.
The building is 155 feet and 83 feet wide. The build process involved five repositionings of the printer, with the two sides completed twice and the middle section executed once.
COBOD printers have now created the world’s tallest 3D-printed building (33 feet) the world’s fastest (3 buildings in 8 days in Oman), and now the world’s largest 3D-printed building.
“Printed Farms has done a remarkable job in completing this massive structure and the project demonstrates again how 3D printing is transforming the construction industry for the better,” said Philip Lund-Nielsen, COBOD Co-founder and Head of Americas.
MORE 3D-PRINTED NEWS: First 2-Story Home to be 3D Printed in the U.S. Reaches for the Sky in Texas
“We are especially proud to observe our 3D printers being utilized for a broad range of applications besides housing, which is the industry’s predominant use case.”
“Our machines dominate this space already, but are in addition also used to print turbine bases, schools, office buildings, data centers, silos, and… [now] horse barns are added to the list.”
WATCH the printing below…
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