Quote of the Day: “Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind.” – Johannes Brahms
Photo by: Weiqi Xiong
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There’s a unique kind of crescent moon in the sky tonight (May 24th,) and possibly the next two days as well.
It’s a crescent moon lit by Earthshine, also known as the “Da Vinci Glow” after the main man himself, who finally discovered what this common, yet difficult-to-explain phenomenon was.
Though the moon is just a crescent, it’s glowing via light reflecting off the face of the Earth, sometimes called “the old moon in the new moon’s arms” which is about 50-times brighter than a full moon.
This allows stargazers and star-crossed lovers alike to look up and see the whole moon like in the picture above.
In a rather textbook example of Da Vinci’s brilliance, his theory describing Earthshine was published before Copernicus revealed to the world that the Earth in fact revolved around the Sun, rather than the other way around.
Da Vinci instead used his artistic insights into the nature of light, and his engineering-level knowledge of geometry to ascertain where the ethereal glow around the moon came from.
“It’s easiest to see during either a waxing or waning crescent. You’ll need clear skies to see the Moon, but parts of the Earth need to be cloudy enough to reflect a fair amount of light onto the Moon,” Christine Shupla, science engagement manager at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, told CNN in an email.
MORE STARGAZING EVENTS: See 40 Shooting Stars Per Hour Under the Aquariid Meteor Shower in May Night Sky
There’s quite a lot of reporting on the possibility of Earthshine tonight and tomorrow in the news media, suggesting perhaps the chances are high. Try to keep it in mind when you’re taking out the trash after dinner!
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Editor’s note: This story has been changed regarding the cause of crescent moons.
Adorable photos show a newborn litter of 5 Critically-Endangered Scottish wildcat kittens.
First-time mom Talla gave birth to the litter at Wildcat Wood in Highland Wildlife Park, on April 2nd, and the kittens are due to receive their first veterinary check soon to determine their sexes.
The Scottish wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris) is one of the country’s most iconic animals, but also one of the most endangered. This is mostly because of inbreeding with feral or domestic house cats, and habitat loss.
Taxonomically speaking, it’s a subspecies of the European wildcat (Felis silvestris) but appears so much like just a rugged tabby cat that two hikers, in one instance GNN reported on, believed they had found a lost tabby kitten in the snow on a hike in Cairngorms National Park.
One of the hikers noted that the animal’s claws were like “miniature razors,” and he and his friend joked that the little creature must be a Scottish wildcat.
A total of nine wildcats live at the Highland Wildlife Park. The new kittens will be on show for the public to visit, unlike other wildcats which are part of a breeding project. At 5 weeks old, they are already exploring their enclosures and playing atop the plastic and wood crates that form their den.
Keepers at the wildlife conservation charity will name the youngsters in the coming weeks
“We are thrilled to welcome five Scottish wildcat kittens born to mum Talla and dad Blair on April 2nd,” said Keith Gilchrist, animal collection manager at Highland Wildlife Park.
“This is Talla’s first litter, and she is taking to motherhood brilliantly and being very attentive. The kittens are doing extremely well and are getting more confident every day.”
MORE BREEDING PROGRAMS: Critically-Endangered Amur Leopard Twins Born at San Diego Zoo: ‘A Glimmer of Hope’
“It has been fantastic to see them growing curious about their surroundings and start exploring their home in Wildcat Wood with Talla by their side.”
The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland leads the partnership project Saving Wildcats, working with global experts to restore Scotland’s Critically-Endangered wildcat population by breeding and releasing them into the Cairngorms National Park, Scotland’s largest.
All those cats born last year are soon to be released.
MORE ZOO BIRTHS: A Pair of the World’s Rarest–and Most Adorable—Piglets Are Born in a UK Zoo
“It’s an incredibly exciting time for wildcats in Scotland and we are delighted the kittens will help engage visitors with this iconic species and inspire more people to protect, value, and love nature,” said Gilchrist.
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An environmentally clean fuel made from the power of the sun has been devised by scientists which could revolutionize motoring.
The solar-powered technology converts carbon dioxide and water into liquid fuels that can be directly dropped into a vehicle’s engine.
The researchers from the University of Cambridge harnessed the power of photosynthesis to convert CO2, water, and sunlight into multi-carbon fuels—ethanol and propanol—in a single step.
These fuels have a high energy density and can be easily stored or transported, according to scientists whose work was published in Nature Energy.
“Shining sunlight on the artificial leaves and getting liquid fuel from carbon dioxide and water is an amazing bit of chemistry,” said Dr. Motiar Rahaman, the new study’s first author.
“Normally, when you try to convert CO2 into another chemical product, you almost always get carbon monoxide or syngas, but here, we’ve been able to produce a practical liquid fuel just using the power of the Sun.”
They managed this by developing a copper and palladium-based catalyst, optimized to allow the artificial leaf to produce more complex chemicals.
Unlike fossil fuels, these solar fuels produce net zero carbon emissions and are completely renewable—and unlike most bioethanol, they do not divert any agricultural land away from food production, experts said.
OTHER BIOFUEL DEVELOPMENTS: First Flight of Regional Jet Powered by Hydrogen Fuel Cells–40-Seater is Largest Ever to Fly
While the technology is still at laboratory scale, the researchers said their ‘artificial leaves’ are an important step in the transition away from a fossil fuel-based economy.
Bioethanol is often touted as a cleaner alternative to gasoline since it’s made from plants instead of fossil fuels.
The United States is the world’s largest bioethanol producer. According to the USDA, almost 45% of all corn grown in the USA is used for ethanol production.
MORE AUTOMOTIVE NEWS: Car Makes Record-Breaking 621-Mile Trip on Single Charge Powered by the Sun
Currently, the artificial leaf and copper catalyst are proof of concept devices, and show only modest efficiency, the study authors added. They are now working to optimize the light absorbers so that they can better absorb sunlight and optimize the catalyst so it can convert more sunlight into fuel.
Further work will also be needed so the device can be mass-produced and make large volumes of fuel.
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Just off the coast of Warrnambool city, Australia’s Middle Island is home to some very small residents, at the center of a big achievement.
There one can find the little penguin, also known as the fairy penguin, which as the same suggests is the world’s smallest—standing just 35 centimeters tall.
Starting in 1991, sedimentation and tidal patterns created a short window during the year when a tidal causeway allowed access to Middle Island from the mainland, which foxes quickly discovered and used to devastate this ground-nesting bird population.
Enter a rather unlikely hero. A local chicken farmer named Swampy Marsh had no professional background in conservation, but what he did understand over many years of keeping chickens was how to defeat or outfox foxes.
Running up to 5,000 chickens free-range, Marsh used Maremma dogs as guardians. These great big white pooches, officially known as Pastori Maremma-Abruzzesi owing to their Italian origins from the coastal region of Maremma, were excellent protectors of Marsh’s flock, and he figured that since little penguins are equally as defenseless against foxes, the same protection scheme would work.
And it did; though officially no dogs were allowed on Middle Island, the severity of the little penguins’ plight convinced Warrnambool city council to give it a go. Marsh then arrived with his dog Oddball and got to work.
Their success was immediate and sustained. It totally changed the fox pattern for entry onto the island and soon Oddball’s role was professionalized, creating the Middle Island Project for breeding these Maremma dogs for use in protecting Middle Island.
During 2006 and 2017, the first two Mamemma dogs, Eudy and Tula, ensured that not a single fox attack took place, and the island’s penguins grew to 180 birds.
MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: Island is Wonderland for Penguins Once Again After Dog Helps Eradicate 300,000 Invasive Rabbits
The dogs don’t actually attack the foxes, they just hang out on the island in pairs. If they smell a fox in the distance, their deep, basso barks are enough to scare the predators away. Conservationists ensure the dogs can take a few days off, and have everything they need to do their job, including food, water, shade, and company.
WATCH the story below from Terra Mater…
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Editor’s note: This story has been altered to better reflect the distribution of little penguins in Australia.
Quote of the Day: “Develop enough courage so that you can stand up for yourself, and then stand up for somebody else.” – Maya Angelou
Photo by: Dalton Touchberry
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 Nepali veteran of the British operations in Afghanistan has become the first double above-the-knee amputee to summit the world’s tallest mountain.
Hari Budha Magar, who lives in Canterbury reached the top at 3 PM last Friday, having started the climb on April 17th—13 years to the day since he lost his legs in an IED explosion.
Anyone with knowledge of the history of warfare knows about the almost mythical bravery and exceptionalism of the Ghurkas. Hari is one of these people—Ghurka being a historical term for a Nepali warrior, and a modern legal term for a Nepali foreign fighter that isn’t considered a mercenary under the Geneva Convention.
In the face of that legacy, Hari’s accomplishment is perhaps to be expected, though he certainly didn’t feel like that 13 years ago, battling alcoholism and depression.
“I grew up in Nepal, up to age of 19, and I saw how the disabled people were treated in those remote villages,” he said. “Many people still think that disability is a sin of previous life and you are the burden of the earth. I believed this myself because that is what I saw. That is how I grew up.”
He tried to kill himself a pair of times, but eventually decided to climb Everest instead. However, there was a legal summit to conquer in his native Nepal before he could tackle the Mountain So High No Bird Can Fly Over It.
OTHER EVEREST CONQUERERS: All-Black Climbing Team Makes History Reaching Top of Everest, Inspiring Diverse Adventurers
Disabled people had been banned by the Nepali government from attempting the mountain. Enough people die on the journey every year, and the authorities saw no reason to risk that. But, Hari was able to overcome that roadblock and prepare for the real quest.
PA News was at Everest Base Camp after Budha Magar, supported by his all-Nepalese team, completed their descent from the peak.
“All of my jackets were completely freezing,” he said. “It was all frozen. Even our warm water, we put hot water in the Thermos, and that was also frozen and we were not able to drink.”
MORE AMAZING DISABLED PEOPLE: Disabled Student Can Pursue Her Dreams of Being a Cellist After Teens Build Her a Specialized Prosthetic
He used a variety of interchangeable prosthetics for the climb, which included some equipped with ice spikes, and others with mountaineering boots attached.
Completing the mission, Budha Magar says he wants to return to the spot in Afghanistan where he lost his legs in order to say ‘thank you’ because if he still had his legs, he would never have climbed Everest.
SHARE This Inspiring Man’s Journey From Rock Bottom To The Top Rock…
For no other reason than that she was a working mom with a great personality and an important job making sure people drive safely through the city of Detroit, a traffic control officer was recently on the receiving end of all the goodness social media can wield.
It started when TikTok account MDMotivators interviewed Lanita Edge on duty in the middle of the road, gabbing as she does with passers-by, and wishing people a happy Mother’s Day.
She revealed in the video which went viral that she felt it was an important service to the city—to help people get where they need to go and get home safely. She explained she was born and raised in the Motor City, and was a Tigers fan.
In that first video, Edge was surprised when the TikToker Zackery invited her to the Tigers game for Mother’s Day. The working mom recently lost her husband and asked if the invitation was reliant on the fruits of her paycheck, at which point Zackery surprised her with $500.
Meanwhile, Zackery had secretly set up a crowdfunding campaign that amassed $50,000, a gift simply for being her fine self, that was delivered on the grass in the Tiger’s ballpark.
MORE DETROIT NEWS: How One Developer is Turning Farm Storage into Soaring Yet Affordable Apartments
“The people of Detroit have watched the video and donated an additional $50,000,” he said.
Her son and Detroit Tigers catcher Jake Rogers handed her the check.
“It was like a movie. It was beautiful. I feel very blessed to be able to just witness this,” Zackery told ABC 7 Detroit. “All I am doing is showcasing who she is as an individual and the people online came together and created this.”
SIMILAR SOCIAL MEDIA STORIES: Delta Flight Attendant Consoles Fearful Passenger and Photo Goes Viral
“God uses wonderful people every day,” Edge said, explaining she was at a loss for words. “I didn’t know this man and God used him to be a blessing to me. I couldn’t thank him enough. I couldn’t give God thanks enough.”
Now, 9 million social media views later, and dozens of people stop along the crosswalk to say hello, congratulate, or wish her well.
WATCH the news story below…
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In a potentially huge development for fashion in tropical countries, an entomologist has come up with a Spandex-polyester weave that’s impermeable to the proboscis of the mosquito.
Mosquitos hospitalize hundreds of thousands every year in the tropics by spreading malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, and West Nile virus, and every major proposed solution has failed to alleviate these burdens to any degree that can’t be obtained with a simple mosquito net over someone’s bed.
There have been news reports recently of genetically engineered mosquitos that can sterilize populations in areas to prevent the spread of the diseases they carry, but to John Beckmann who designed the new cloth weave, the simplest solutions are probably the best ones given past experience.
Using a hi-tech knitting machine Beckmann and his team experimented with different weave patterns. They needed to find one that didn’t provide any space for the proboscis to exploit, while at the same time offering comfort and breathability for tropical weather conditions; a tough ask.
To the naked eye, the mosquito’s proboscis, which it uses to feed, appears needle-like, but Beckmann points out that this appendage is so advanced it can go right through most fabrics thanks to a pair of saw-like bladed segments along its sides, microneedles that vibrate like a drill, and the ability to bend at 90 degrees.
MORE ANTI-MOSQUITO NEWS: New Mosquito Repellent Works Better Than DEET, is Safer, and Smells Good
“Knitting is essentially like tying little knots—you’re making loops, and you’re wrapping loops through loops,” Beckmann told Fast Company. “If you do it in the right geometric ways, you can create a chainmail effect at the microscopic level.”
It took a lot of tweaking and refinement, but the finished fabric was described by one of his graduate students at Auburn University, Alabama, as something similar to “Lululemon leggings.”
MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: We Can Now Use CRISPR Gene Editing on Ticks – to Fight Lyme Disease in Humans
The team submitted a paper describing their findings and the tests of the various weaves they used by way of putting a sleeved arm into a glass box full of mozzies and counting the bites.
Now they plan to continue refining the technology with the aim of releasing a clothing line, and licensing the weave to various outdoor companies.
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A pair of dirty windows bought on Facebook during a church demolition is set to sell for $225,000.
Antiques hunter Paul Brown from Pennsylvania paid around five grand for a bundle of various items from St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church in West Philadelphia.
They included these stained glass windows which were discovered to be made by the noted company Tiffany Glass Studios, (1878 – 1933) founded by Louis Comfort Tiffany.
Philadelphia-based auctioneers Freeman’s say the sale marks the first time a Tiffany Studios rose window has ever been offered at auction.
“This is such a rare and exciting market appearance,” said Tim Andreadis, Head of Freeman’s 20th Century and Contemporary Design department. “The intricacy of these works is stunning, and it’s meaningful to bring to market pieces that have such a deep, meaningful history in Philadelphia.”
Freeman’s explains that the twin roses of St. Paul were likely commissioned around 1904, completed in 1906, and supported in part by master merchant John Wanamaker, owner of the eponymous Philadelphia department store.
“The resulting windows feature leaded, mottled, streaky, acid-etched, and ripple glass in vibrant hues,” they add. These were all various forms of glass sold at Tiffany which made them one of the most coveted stained glass designers in North America.
Brown saw the windows on Facebook Marketplace, and bought them along with wooden pews and doors. He then hired workers to sensitively extract the windows and, after confirming they were made by Tiffany Studios, reportedly paid $44,000 for restoration.
Created by what Freeman’s describes as “America’s skillful and most famous art glass designer”, the roses of St. Paul not only respond to the effects of the sun throughout the day, they also feature powerful symbolic imagery: one rose is centered by a crown representing Christ, and the other a dove representing the Holy Spirit.
SHARE This Stunning Art Saved From Destruction On Social Media…
Quote of the Day: “You always have to stand up to your fears. You never want to get caught soggy.” – Katharine Hepburn
Photo by: Shashank Sahay
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?
Seeking to find sustainable solutions to low-cost housing in Indonesia, scientists in the world’s third-most-populous nation hypothesized that used diapers could, if one can believe it, replace some of the sand in concrete mixtures.
Disposable diapers are usually manufactured from wood pulp, cotton, viscose rayon, and plastics such as polyester, polyethylene, and polypropylene.
Because of this mix of materials, not to mention their disgusting purpose, the majority are disposed of in landfills or by incineration.
“Currently, the essential step in the recycling process for used diapers is to separate the plastic components from the organic fibers,” write the authors of the paper on diaper construction, published in Nature.
“It necessitates the execution of many complicated procedures, including collecting, crushing, sanitizing, and sorting the components. Due to the difficulty involved in the process, only a few businesses are currently interested in recycling used diapers.”
Siswanti Zuraida from the School of Environmental Engineering at the University of Kitakyuku in Japan, worked with colleagues to prepare concrete and mortar samples by combining washed, dried, and shredded disposable diaper waste with cement, sand, gravel, and water.
OTHER ALTERNATIVE MATERIALS: Build With Compost: Researchers Turn Food Scraps Into Materials Stronger Than Concrete
These samples were then cured for 28 days. The authors tested six samples containing different proportions of diaper waste to measure how much pressure they could withstand without breaking. They then calculated the maximum proportion of sand that could be replaced with disposable diapers in a range of building materials that would be needed to construct a house with a floorplan of 387 square feet (37 sq. meters) that complies with Indonesian building standards.
The authors found that disposable diaper waste could replace up to 10% of the sand needed for concrete used to form columns and beams in a three-story house.
This proportion increased to 27% of the sand needed to make concrete columns and beams in a single-story house, 40% of the sand needed for mortar in partition walls, compared to 9% of the sand in mortar for floors.
MORE SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS: Visionary Gardener Turns Piles of Beached Seaweed Into Bricks for Sustainable Construction
The authors point out a few limitations, namely that no cooperation or supply chain exists for the collecting, washing, and shredding of diapers for material purposes. Furthermore, the amount of shredded diaper waste needs to be carefully calculated, since tests showed that differences as high as 2% compromised structural integrity.
However, for reducing landfill burden, using diapers is very low-cost compared to other recyclable materials.
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A mother in Arizona woke to find she was trapped in the second story of her apartment home as it quickly engulfed in flames.
Claudia Jimenez opened the window and called out to anyone who could hear, needing somehow to find a way to escape while the front door was blocked by the fire.
The first person on the scene wasn’t a firefighter, it was Joe Hollins, who lived in a homeless encampment with his wife near Jimenez’s house.
“All I see is a lady pull open the window and she’s screaming ‘Please help me, please help me,'” Hollins told CBS News.
The mother of two then had to make a difficult choice. It’s not unusual or prejudicial to be wary of people living on the streets, but for her one-year-old daughter Valerie and eight-year-old Natalie, Hollins may have been their only hope of survival.
Under the window, Hollins called to Jimenez saying that he would catch the children in his arms. She trusted the man, and not only dropped Valerie and Natalie, but the two dogs as well. It took Jimenez herself a while to summon the courage to jump, but she managed it, and Hollins still had the strength to catch her.
As things calmed down, the family thanked Hollins profusely, though the man said that he did what anyone would do in that situation.
“Yes, anyone would. Those were children,” he said.
MORE FIRE RESCUES: Watch Hero Firefighters Perform Incredible Rescue, Rappelling Down NYC High-Rise Apartment
“I will forever be thankful to him, you know?” said Jimenez. “Like I said, to me he was an angel,” Jiminez said. “Because of him we’re here, we’re alive and my daughters are safe.”
While the family lost everything, community members are helping support them to get back on their feet, while viewers at CBS want to know how they can support Hollins and honor what he did.
WATCH the story below, (For Those Outside the U.S: View video at CBS.com)
MULTIPLY THE GOOD – Share the Good Fortune On Social Media…
Fishermen in Mississippi are getting paid to collect derelict crab traps, saving wildlife from getting caught in them.
A bounty of $5 is offered for every abandoned trap collected, and in just three years the program, launched by Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United, a nonprofit fishermen’s organization, has collected over 3,000 such traps.
Crab traps work pretty simply—the crustaceans crawl in, and then they can’t crawl out.
This is perfect for fishermen looking to supply the Gulf Coast with delicious seafood, but what happens when the traps are abandoned or become lost? Their lethal trapping power remains and carries on indiscriminately, a phenomenon known as ghost fishing.
Participating shrimpers and crabbers register for the program, then they catalog and tag every trap they collect on their way toward turning them in at a redemption site.
Alyssa Rodolfich, a graduate student at Mississippi State University, told Hakkai Magazine that it was really gratifying to see the number of derelict traps being turned in, having at first never realized the problem.
“I didn’t realize how big of a problem it was until I was on the cleaning-up end of it, after a few months of removing, like, 200 crab traps at a time,” she says. “It was heavy and gross, and the amount of by-catch in the traps was a lot.”
MORE GULF NEWS: Watch 2,200 Cold-Stunned Turtles Being Released by Volunteers Back Into the Gulf
MSU was also involved with the program alongside Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United, the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Together, scientists documenting the project published a paper on its successes, on which Rodolfich was the lead author.
MORE FISHING NEWS: Tuna Population is Being Restored–While Boosting Fishing: World’s Largest No-Catch Zone is 4x Size of California
The program has so far cost around $34,000 per year, which is nothing compared to the annual loss of gross revenue attributable to ghost fishing, which is estimated at $15 million from over 5,000 lost crab traps every year.
With such rapid, demonstrable success, the project just received a grant from NOAA to pay for the collection of other debris from the Gulf, which Hakkai explains is already taking off, with fishermen bringing in old tires, shopping carts, washing machines, and toilets.
SHARE These Awesome Fishermen Helping To Clean The Gulf…
Elizabeth Softky is aptly named: when you hear her speak, there is a soft, lyrical quality to her voice, supported by deep notes of strength. It’s a voice that she used while working as a journalist, as a mother of three, and as a teacher, to calm down an unruly classroom of squirming students.
Never would she have dreamed that she’d become homeless—or feel voiceless.
Not only did she teach in a classroom for more than 10 years, she had founded a nonprofit ‘Jump Into Writing’, to organize creative writing workshops for elementary school students. And she put her bilingual voice to good use, leading English workshops for immigrant Spanish-speaking families in Los Angeles.
Then came her diagnosis of advanced-stage cancer, immediate surgery, and a “super aggressive” chemo regimen.
“My immune system was so compromised that I was not allowed to return to work—and that meant digging into my savings to pay rent,” she says. “When I ran out of money, I was evicted from my home of 14 years. I was looking at the reality of nowhere to go, except for sleeping at a bus stop.”
LOOK: Teen Finds Woman’s Purse and is Rewarded With $17,000 After He Delivers it to Her Door
Weakened by chemo, she walked through the practicals of survival, and navigated a difficult system to find temporary housing through a program repurposing hotel rooms for the unhoused during the pandemic.
COVID added a new layer of uncertainty to everything Elizabeth was going through. While grateful to have a room and a bed, there was an intense feeling of loneliness as the world shut down.
That’s when Elizabeth met Joan, a volunteer phone buddy for Miracle Messages—and the two hit it off right away
“She’s brilliant!” Joan says of Elizabeth.
AMAZING STRANGERS: Burger King Worker of 27 Years Gets $270,000 From Strangers When They See Lack of Company Goodbye Gift
Early in the pandemic, Miracle Messages, the nonprofit that reunites families with relatives who’ve become homeless, saw the isolation happening when unhoused individuals had to stay in their rooms alone, and wanted to help. So they created a program called Miracle Friends, in which volunteers from around the world are paired with unhoused participants staying in hotel rooms for a weekly friendship phone check-in.
Joan and Elizabeth used their weekly phone calls to practice their Spanish together, and swap stories about their days. Joan was there to talk as Elizabeth finished her chemo treatments and worked to regain what she had lost.
During this time, Miracle Messages expanded into a basic income pilot program known as Miracle Money. Elizabeth was chosen as a participant, and was given $500 a month for 6 months to help her on her journey. The money combined with the friendship made all the difference: in a matter of weeks, Elizabeth secured a new apartment.
DID YOU KNOW: A Stranger’s Kindness Helped Boy Escape the Nazis Who Would Go On to Win Nobel Prize–And He Never Knew it
Joan visited Elizabeth in her new place.”This is so cool…your front yard! It’s awesome!”
“Being back here is a major part of being restored back to the world,” says Elizabeth, looking around her new place. “The Miracle Messages family has been a miracle for me.”
Now Elizabeth uses her voice as a speaker and advocate on the topic she never thought she’d need to have a voice in—homelessness.
See her story on the PBS News Hour below – and visit the MM website to learn how quickly you can become a volunteer for Miracle Friends.
(Co-written by GNN editors and Jenni Taylor)
SHARE This Happy Ending AND Volunteer Idea With Friends on Social Media…
Quote of the Day: “There are moments in life when keeping silent becomes a fault and speaking an obligation.” – Oriana Fallaci
Photo by: Jason Blackeye (cropped)
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
The UK’s first ‘bee therapy’ retreat has been launched in Scotland.
Apipods—wooden huts with beehives around the exterior—have been popular in Eastern Europe for years. In Ukraine and Slovenia, the scent of honey along with the vibrations from bees are believed to have healing properties for treating respiratory conditions.
Charlotte Blacker, a business owner who works with the Monachyle Mhor Hotel, got to try the relaxing experience in Slovenia and wanted to give guests back in the UK a chance to relax in the same way.
And Tom Lewis, the hotel’s owner and chef, agreed.
“We absolutely love the idea of working in harmony with the bees to create this unique experience,” he told SWNS news service.
Six beehives housing 60,000 honey bees have been placed in compartments underneath the wooden floor of the apipod, which is nestled in a wooded glade.
The bees come and go freely through their own special entrance and the company says they don’t pose a threat to humans.
LOOK: 80-Year-old Friends Go On Adventure of a Lifetime: Around the World in 80 Days
Guests can book a 45-minute session to relax or fall asleep on two sheepskin-covered beds inside the apipod, which are situated directly above the hives so the micro-vibrations can be felt in the body.
“There’s loads of therapeutic value with bees. The notes they buzz in help out nervous system,” said Blacker. “There are trials with people with PTSD.”
BEE HEALTH EFFECTS: The Impressive Medicinal Value of Bee Products and Honey
Bookings for the hotel in Crieff, Perthshire, have already been filled through June, which is the launch month.
“We have the perfect spot to do it. The hotel is in a wilderness with freshwater lochs. Everyone has really embraced it.
“You de-stress listening to the sounds of the bees going about their daily life, surrounded by the aromas of honey, propolis, nectar and pollen.
“The vibrations caused by bees’ wings also have a positive energizing effect, which calms and relaxes,” suggested Blacker.
“Why not spend the day immersed in nature, wild swimming, hiking, and relaxing over lunch before being lulled to sleep by the gentle vibration of thousands of tiny wing beats enveloped in the heavenly scent of warm honey from the hives beneath you?”
RELATED: Manuka Honey Could Help to Clear Deadly Bacteria Which Cause Cystic Fibrosis
Each 45-min session costs £80 for single use, and £120 for two people, and includes a basket of fresh lemon balm tea, picked from the kitchen garden, and raw honey on Mena bread, along with a snack bar made by Charlotte’s health food company Herb Majesty.
Mr. Lewis said it has been a tough few years for the hospitality industry, but “always doing things differently” has been a key for survival.
“The apipod fits with what we already do here, which is to provide our guests with great food, warm hospitality and unforgettable memories. ”
START SOME BUZZ on Your Social Media Feed–Share the BEE-autiful Destination….
If you asked any American what they’d like to do after they retire—and you offered them the chance to go on a road trip to see all 63 national parks—most might consider that a great way to sail into the sunset.
Well more than just saying it, a 93-year-old grandmother has done it—all 63 parks in about 8 years time, becoming the oldest person ever to do so.
But, Joy Ryan didn’t do it herself. She had a handsome young man—her grandson Brad—for company, who described the adventure as “the greatest privilege.”
Their journey began in October of 2015 when they visited Great Smokey Mountains National Park in Tennessee and concluded last Monday when they made it all the way out into the South Pacific to American Samoa.
“We departed from our hometown of Duncan Falls, Ohio at 3:00 am on Saturday,” Brad Ryan told Good Morning America via email.
“We took a two-day break in Oahu before boarding our final flight to Pago Pago, American Samoa, on Monday. Three flights and nearly seventeen flying hours were required before we touched down in American Samoa on Monday evening.”
Throughout the recent parks, Brad and Joy have been documenting their trips on the @grandmajoysroadtrip Instagram account.
“Grandma Joy has taught the world that you are never too old to show up and live the adventurous life of your dreams. It has been the greatest privilege of my life to be in the driver’s seat as Grandma Joy made history to become the oldest person to achieve this historic feat.”
The most recent and final trip, organized by Brad who works as a veterinarian, has been particularly bittersweet (though he emphasizes the ‘sweet’) since it came just a week after the death of his father, Joy’s oldest son.
Out in American Samoa, a park that spans 7 villages of Indigenous land, the duo got to enjoy breathtaking views of the South Pacific, and see interesting wildlife like a colony of fruit bats.
While Brad said their national park adventure has ended, their travels will not. They plan to take it internationally, visiting Kenya on a National Geographic-organized expedition as the first stop on a mission to touch all seven continents, and maybe, if Joy keeps her enthusiasm, outer space as well.
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A tipsy crossword enthusiast was caught on camera transforming the ‘gloomy mood’ of delayed train passengers by coaxing them into answering puzzle clues.
Damion Francis was traveling back from London to Bath on the evening after day drinking with friends when his pal pulled out an old newspaper crossword.
At first the 39-year-old pretended not to know him, when he started asking bemused travelers the name of a Venezuelan river, as he casually sipped from a wine miniature.
But the other passengers, frustrated by delays due to flooding, soon transformed into smiling brainiacs shouting out answers as quickly as the puzzle-master could ask them.
The funny footage was uploaded to TikTok with the caption ‘How one guy changes the mood of the whole train car through a crossword puzzle. Wait til the end…’. The video has since gone viral, racking up almost 4 million views and lots of comments.
“He started doing the puzzle and calling out for answers and the whole train started getting involved,” said Damion, from Swindon, Wiltshire.
“It really lightened the mood because everyone was a bit peed off because of all the delays on the train.
“To our surprise, there was someone on the train who knew the answer to each of the questions.
“It was a bit of a collective thing really. Everyone was connecting over it and joining in. It was from all age groups as well, there were younger and older people all getting involved.”
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“The reaction to it was all positive, I don’t think there was any negative reaction to it at all.
“It feels good that we’ve been able to send out so many positive vibes just from one video, and it’s good to see positive comments from people.”
One person commented: “So much better than everyone ignoring each other like normal!”
Another said it showed the upside of being tipsy and fun in public. “This is lovely. Humans are so cute sometimes.”
“Drunk guy unifies everyone,” concluded another. “It’s Britain in a nutshell.”
MORE FUN: Devious Dog Fakes a Coma to Avoid Toilet Duty in the Rain –And it’s So Cute
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When schools partner with local nonprofits like this Albuquerque animal shelter, good news will not be far away.
Teachers at Polk Middle School in the Albuquerque’s South Valley reached out to the Bernalillo County Animal Care Center with an idea for how to bring attention to long-term dogs at the shelter so they can get adopted into loving families.
The wonderful collaboration began in the Fall semester when the shelter sent photographs and notes about each of the hard-to-place pets to art students in Ms. McCrady’s class and to writing students in Ms. Arriaga’s class.
The art class created portraits of the pooches, and young writers in language class came up with first-person appeals, written in the voices of the dogs.
The artistic and literary works were posted by each of the dogs’ kennels, visible to all the visitors to the shelter.
LOOK: Till Death Do Us Bark: Watch Inseparable Shelter Dogs Get Married in Adorable Ceremony
This Spring, Mr. Beverly’s 7th grade gifted class went a step further, after shelter staff provided folders of notes about the dogs and students crafted their “resumes.”
The mission was to list all the skills and tricks that would make each dog a suitable family member: Uses doggie door, stays when commanded, comes when called.
Thanks to the students, by May 17 six of the dogs had been adopted!
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According to Animal Protection New Mexico Education Director Sherry Mangold, it was the Polk students’ empathy and concern for shelter dogs that delivered so many of them into new ‘fur-ever’ homes.
WATCH the local news coverage from KOB-TV 4…
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