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

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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 8, 2023
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com

CANCER (June 21-July 22):
I wrote my horoscope column for over ten years before it began to get widely syndicated. What changed? I became a better writer and oracle, for one thing. My tenacity was inexhaustible. I was always striving to improve my craft, even when the rewards were meager. Another important factor in my eventual success was my persistence in marketing. I did a lot of hard work to ensure the right publications knew about me. I suspect, fellow Cancerian, that 2024 is likely to bring you a comparable breakthrough in a labor of love you have been cultivating for a long time. And the coming months of 2023 will be key in setting the stage for that breakthrough.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Maybe you wished you cared more deeply about a certain situation. Your lack of empathy and passion may feel like a hole in your soul. If so, I have good news. The coming weeks will be a favorable time to find the missing power; to tap into the warm, wet feelings that could motivate your quest for greater connection. Here’s a good way to begin the process: Forget everything you think you know about the situation with which you want more engagement. Arrive at an empty, still point that enables you to observe the situation as if you were seeing it for the first time.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
You are in an astrological phase when you’ll be wise to wrangle with puzzles and enigmas. Whether or not you come up with crisp solutions isn’t as crucial as your earnest efforts to limber up your mind. For best results, don’t worry and sweat about it; have fun! Now I’ll provide a sample riddle to get you in the mood. It’s adapted from a text by David Wallechinsky and Irving Wallace. You are standing before two identical closed doors, one leading to grime and confusion, the other to revelation and joy. Before the doors stand two figures: an angel who always tells the truth and a demon who always lies. But they look alike, and you may ask only one question to help you choose what door to take. What do you do? (Possible answer: Ask either character what the other would say if you asked which door to take, then open the opposite door.)

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
I found a study that concluded just 6.1 percent of online horoscopes provide legitimate predictions about the future. Furthermore, the research indicated, 62.3 percent of them consist of bland, generic pabulum of no value to the recipient. I disagree with these assessments. Chani Nicholas, Michael Lutin, Susan Miller, and Jessica Shepherd are a few of many regular horoscope writers whose work I find interesting. My own astrological oracles are useful, too. And by the way, how can anyone have the hubris to decide which horoscopes are helpful and which are not? This thing we do is a highly subjective art, not an objective science. In the spirit of my comments here, Libra, and in accordance with astrological omens, I urge you to declare your independence from so-called experts and authorities who tell you they know what’s valid and worthwhile for you. Here’s your motto: “I’m the authoritative boss of my own truth.”

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Is it a fact that our bodies are made of stardust? Absolutely true, says planetary scientist Dr. Ashley King. Nearly all the elements comprising our flesh, nerves, bones, and blood were originally forged in at least one star, maybe more. Some of the stuff we are made of lived a very long time in a star that eventually exploded: a supernova. Here’s another amazing revelation about you: You are composed of atoms that have existed for almost 14 billion years. I bring these startling realities to your attention, Scorpio, in honor of the most expansive phase of your astrological cycle. You have a mandate to deepen and broaden and enlarge your understanding of who you are and where you came from.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
I foresee that August will be a time of experiments and explorations. Life will be in a generous mood toward you, tempting and teasing you with opportunities from beyond your circle of expectations. But let’s not get carried away until it makes cosmic sense to get carried away. I don’t want to urge you to embrace wild hope prematurely. Between now and the end of July, I advise you to enjoy sensible gambles and measured adventures. It’s OK to go deep and be rigorous, but save the full intensity for later.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Is there a crucial half-conscious question lurking in the underside of your mind? A smoldering doubt or muffled perplexity that’s important for you to address? I suspect there is. Now it’s time to coax it up to the surface of your awareness so you may deal with it forthrightly. You must not let it smolder there in its hiding place. Here’s the good news, Capricorn: If you bring the dilemma or confusion or worry into the full light of your consciousness, it will ultimately lead you to unexpected treasure. Be brave!

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
In Larry McMurtry’s novel Duane’s Depressed, the life of the main character has come to a standstill. He no longer enjoys his job. The fates of his kids are too complicated for him to know how to respond. He has a lot of feelings but has little skill in expressing them. At a loss about how to change his circumstances, he takes a small and basic step: He stops driving his pickup truck and instead walks everywhere he needs to go. Your current stasis is nowhere near as dire as Duane’s, Aquarius. But I do recommend you consider his approach to initiating transformation: Start small and basic.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
Author K. V. Patel writes, “As children, we laugh fully with the whole body. We laugh with everything we have.” In the coming weeks, Pisces, I would love for you to regularly indulge in just that: total delight and release. Furthermore, I predict you will be more able than usual to summon uproarious life-affirming amusement from the depths of your enchanted soul. Further furthermore, I believe you will have more reasons than ever before to throw your head back and unleash your entire self in rippling bursts of healing hysterical hilarity. To get started, practice chuckling, giggling, and chortling for one minute right now.

ARIES (March 21-April 19):
Genius physicist Albert Einstein said, “The formulation of a problem is often more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skill. To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old questions from new angles, requires creative imagination and makes real advances.” What he said here applies to our personal dilemmas, too. When we figure out the right questions to ask, we are more than halfway toward a clear resolution. This is always true, of course, but it will be an especially crucial principle for you in the coming weeks.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
“Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority.” So said Taurus biologist and anthropologist Thomas Huxley (1825-1895). I don’t think you will have to be quite so forceful as that in the coming weeks. But I hope you’re willing to further your education by rebelling against what you already know. And I hope you will be boisterously skeptical about conventional wisdom and trendy ideas. Have fun cultivating a feisty approach to learning! The more time you spend exploring beyond the borders of your familiar world, the better.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
Hooray and hallelujah! You’ve been experimenting with the perks of being pragmatic and well-grounded. You have been extra intent on translating your ideals into effective actions. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen you so dedicated to enjoying the simple pleasures. I love that you’re investigating the wonders of being as down-to-earth as you dare. Congratulations! Keep doing this honorable work.

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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“He who loves, flies, runs, and rejoices; he is free and nothing holds him back.” – Henri Matisse

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Quote of the Day: “He who loves, flies, runs, and rejoices; he is free and nothing holds him back.” – Henri Matisse

Photo by: Timon Studler

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?

Fire Department Intern Finds Out His Mentor Helped Deliver Him as a Baby 18 Years Ago

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Andy Corbley
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Kevin Faddis (far left) and Mark Wilbanks (far right) delivered young OT (in green) as a baby credit - Knoxville Fire Department
Kevin Faddis (far left) and Mark Wilbanks (far right) delivered young OT (in green) as a baby credit – Knoxville Fire Department

From a Knoxville fire department comes the bizarre story of a small-world encounter when a high school graduate named ‘OT’ was interning there and thought he was meeting the firefighters for the first time.

Unbeknownst to him, some of the firefighters already had had the pleasure of making his acquaintance—when OT was buck naked, quivering from the light from his mother’s bedroom after they helped deliver him 18 years ago.

O’Tavais (OT) Harris is the seventh son of Lateshia Hall, who at that point in her life knew when a baby was on its way. At a little before 7:00 pm on New Year’s Day 2005, Hall asked her mother to call 911, knowing this baby wasn’t waiting for anyone.

In came Kevin Faddis and Mark Wilbanks from the Knoxville Fire Department to help deliver Hall’s baby, clamp off and cut the umbilical cord, and hang around until an ambulance arrived to take Hall and OT to the hospital.

Fast-forward 18 years and O’Tavais had graduated from high school and was accepted into Knoxville’s Summer in the City program. A paid internship that allows departing students to intern at various civic departments.

One day, Lateshia received a video call from her son standing next to Kevin Faddis, the mentor of his internship program, and said that OT asked if she knew the man.

“He doesn’t even want to be a firefighter, so it was one in a million,” OT’s mom Lateshia told the Washington Post. “This man had delivered my baby, and now OT was standing next to him? Incredible!”

Telling the Post how the encounter went, OT said they put two and two together after Faddis learned where OT used to live.

“He asked me how many siblings I had, and I told him I had a lot—more than a lot,” Harris said. “Then he asked what part of town I lived in, and I told him some of the streets I’d lived on.”

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: Newborn Left in a Florida Rescue Station Adopted by the Firefighter Who Found Her

At that point, Faddis exclaimed he had delivered a baby in that part of town, something which OT had always heard from his mom—at which point it all became clear.

Faddis said he remembered the day as clear as ever—the first time he got a call for such a thing. He recalled that Lateshia was as cool as a cucumber saying that there wasn’t time to go to the hospital. His colleague Wilbanks has delivered 6 in his career as a firefighter, but OT was the only spontaneous one, with the whole thing taking less than a minute.

SIMILAR STORIES: Twin ‘Saved Sister’s Life’ in Womb by Sending Distress Signal Forcing Early Delivery That Uncovered Major Problem

It’s a small world, and though OT doesn’t have an interest in fighting fires (or delivering babies) he was very appreciative of the opportunity to thank the two men who have a unique place in his life story.

He plans to study English when he goes off to East Tennessee University, after which he hopes to work in education.

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Dolphin Moms Use ‘Baby Talk’ with Their Calves, Research Shows

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Andy Corbley
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A new examination of dolphin vocalizations found that mother bottlenose dolphins whistle at a higher pitch when talking to their offspring, exactly like human mothers do with theirs.

While difficult to confirm in theory, a number of highlights from the study reveal the finding to be a robust one, including that the dolphins only used their “baby talk” voice with their calves, only in situations that weren’t stressful, and that human babies are known to prefer baby talk to adult speech.

The study was conducted off the Sarasota coast, Florida, with mother-calf pairings that were herded into a wide ocean-going enclosure. The animals were monitored to ensure they weren’t stressed or in poor health while the study commenced.

The researchers at the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program used spectrograms to study the contour and bandwidth of every call. Every dolphin has a unique whistle, and the spectrograms showed that the whistling directed at the calves had lower lows, and higher highs, just like the way humans tend to coo at their babies with whooping tones.

“It was very much like what human mothers do when they talk in a high-pitched voice to their infants,” Laela Sayigh, a biologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the study’s lead author, told Science News. “We have no idea of what they’re communicating, but likely, it’s, ‘I’m here. I’m here.’”

Sayigh’s reasoning is that the ocean is vast, and in a pod of dolphins, the whistles may be difficult to separate for the calf’s still-developing ears. The baby talk would make any mother’s whistle much more identifiable amid the racket.

MORE ANIMAL KINGDOM PARENTING: Size Doesn’t Matter to a Dolphin Mom As She Adopts a Whale Calf

Some scientists are seeing the study as a landmark: the touchstone of a future host of papers looking for baby speech in other animal vocalizations like parrots or primates.

In the video below, one can hear the recordings of their whistling slowed down. It first plays the call without calf, then the call with calf, then repeats this a second time.

LISTEN and hear for yourself… 


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Finally Rid of Invasive Shrubs, Scientists Use Lichen to Regrow the Celtic Rainforest in Loch Lomond, Scotland

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Andy Corbley
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Scottish birch with lichen – by Spodzone, CC license
Scottish birch with lichen – by Spodzone, CC license

By yon bonny banks, and by yon bonny breaks, where the sun shines bright on Loch Lomond, the famous song goes. But while the loch may indeed be bonny, the hills around it were in trouble for decades.

Now however, invasive plants that outcompeted the natives have been removed, and the hills around Scotland’s Loch Lomond are set for a bonny transformation.

Over the past 5 years, the Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) has been working to restore the oak woodlands around Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park to their natural state of temperate rainforest like the ones so plentiful in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula.

Anyone familiar with the Pacific Northwest’s rainforests will know the ubiquitous presence of mosses and clinging lichens in the forests there—exactly what Scotland’s had before invasive Rhododendron poticum acidified the soil and shaded out other delicate epiphytes and bryophytes—two species that are always present in rainforests; temperate or tropical.

Epiphytes are plants that grow on other plants, and they include things like this Bryoria fuscescens or horsehair lichen, that cling onto birches and oaks to give the elderly visage to Scotland’s forests. The horsehair lichen and other plants are all part of a massive reintroduction by the RBGE to restore the rainforests to the country, and Inkcap Journal, a Welsh publication specializing in environmental stories, spoke with botanists and lichenologists working on the project firsthand.

“When you get rid of the rhododendron, you are left with the trees—but a lot of the biodiversity that makes the rainforest special is missing,” Christopher Ellis at the RBGE told Inkcap. “Some of those species find it very hard to recolonize into recovered woodland, so that’s what the project is about.”

MORE GOOD EARTH STORIES: Wales is Building a National Forest That Will Span the Length and Breadth of the Country

Applying what looks like tree paint but was actually a mixture of thousands of propagules onto the bark of trees didn’t really work, so instead, Ellis and his team started attaching netting to give the juvenile hornworts, liverworts, and lichens a scaffolding to work with.

The hope is to encourage massive and dense propagation to give the forests in Trossachs the tangled emerald mess that makes them so majestic and fantastical.

Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park – CC 4.0. Alexey Komarov

In this image of a forest trail, what appears to be a rich and healthy forest is actually unbalanced, with the bare oaks on the left, and the invasive rhododendron flowers invading the picture on the right.

MORE MYSTICAL FORESTS: One of Britain’s Oldest and Greatest Oak Trees Gets $7,000 Hug from Community

“When you enter into an intact rainforest, it has a sense of ancientness: you have these craggy old oaks, and they’re absolutely dripping in epiphytes,” Ellis said, explaining what they hope to achieve. “They’ve got a sort of fairytale feel.”

South of Hadrian’s Wall, the English government is also working to restore so-called Celtic rainforests to their lands—one on the Isle of Man, and another in the Welsh county of Gwynedd.

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World’s First ‘Tooth Regrowth’ Medicine Moves Toward Clinical Trials in Japan

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Andy Corbley
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A drug showing promise in animal trials could provide the world’s first method to regrow human teeth, or create normal tooth development in children with congenital anodontia.

The breakthrough came from the identification of a gene-protein interaction in mice that resulted in the growth of fewer teeth. An antibody medicine that inhibited the protein’s ability to function caused teeth to grow in both mice and ferrets who were born with improper tooth formation.

The breakthrough was made by Katsu Takahashi, who studied advanced dentistry at Kyoto University as part of his post-graduate studies, and more besides in the United States.

“The idea of growing new teeth is every dentist’s dream. I’ve been working on this since I was a graduate student. I was confident I’d be able to make it happen,” Mr. Takahashi said.

Anodontia is a congenital condition present in about 1% of the population that impedes the development of teeth. About 10% of those patients have oligodontia, in which they lack 6 or more natural teeth.

Around 2005, and upon Takahashi’s return to Japan, literature began being published that pinpointed certain genes in mice that when deleted caused them to grow fewer or more teeth.

In mice deficient in USAG-1, an antagonist of BMP, the trace deciduous incisors survive and erupt as excess teeth (Kyoto University Katsu Takahashi)

Investigating the latter, Takahashi found that this gene synthesized its own protein called USAG-1, and that when he targeted it with a neutralizing antibody, the mouse’s teeth proceeded to grow like normal.

MORE DENTAL SCIENCE: These Micro-robots Can Clean Teeth By Shapeshifting into Toothbrush or Floss Forms

“Ferrets are diphyodont animals with similar dental patterns to humans. Our next plan is to test the antibodies on other animals such as pigs and dogs,” Takahashi told Kyoto University press.

Published in 2021, he is now leading the way to get the drug ready for use in humans. Our species, unlike many others on Earth, can’t regrow teeth constantly, and the regrowth of a third tooth at the loss of our adult teeth would revolutionize dentistry.

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“Life ought to be a struggle of desire toward adventures whose nobility will fertilize the soul.” – Rebecca West

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Quote of the Day: “Life ought to be a struggle of desire toward adventures whose nobility will fertilize the soul.” – Rebecca West

Photo by: Luca Bravo

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?

Indian Man Quits Tech Job and Becomes Environmentalist–And Turns Infamous Dump into Green Oasis

By
Andy Corbley
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Jeeth Milan Roche (right) instructing his team on the planting of trees - credit Mr. Roche
Jeeth Milan Roche (right) instructing his team on the planting of trees – credit Mr. Roche

After leaving his IT job, a man from Mangaluru started greening city parks, growing food forests, and saving trees destined for the chop.

Describing his former office life as depressing, Mr. Jeeth Milan Roche was so energized by the tree planting that he took on the task of greening an infamous landfill where the stench was so bad it was driving people from their homes.

Every year around the time of the climate change panel meeting, news headlines become saturated with talk of environmental action on a global scale. But most people aren’t hardwired to think globally.

Yet, we can create impact locally that ripples throughout the environment—as Jeeth did when he started planting saplings in a park near his old IT job.

“I simply started to get out of my depression, and to date, I haven’t stopped,” the 48-year-old told The Better India. “I plant trees everywhere! If you ask me the strangest place, I would say the cemetery. I visit cemeteries of all religions and have planted trees in over 23 of them. I plant 12,000 trees in Mangaluru every year.”

He founded the Mangaluru Green Brigade in 2020 to pursue all kinds of tree-planting projects.

Jeeth lives in the city of Mangaluru (formerly Mangalore) in the Indian state of Karnataka located in the southwest tip of the subcontinent. One of the richest Indian states, economically and culturally, Karnataka is also the home of one of India’s notorious dumping grounds called Pachanady.

At 42 acres, Pachanady had grown so fetid with trash that it was poisoning the environment; it simply wasn’t a livable neighborhood anymore.

After planting trees in cemeteries, parks, and other places, Jeeth figured that a bit of greenery could turn the situation in Pachanady around, so he got to work planting the most fragrant trees he could find wherever it was possible to grow them.

He planted 3,074 saplings of teakwood, rosewood, banyan, fig, and peepal trees (more famously known as the Bodhi tree) with the help of his son and friends,

“Pacchanady was the most challenging site for us. We have not planted saplings of any commercial species,” he told Times of India. “Instead, we have chosen only medicinal plants and fruit-bearing trees that will help people and birds.”

MORE TREE PLANTING NEWS: India’s Mass Tree Planting Success: Forest Cover Grows by Half-Million Acres in Two Years

He was able to create a buffer zone about 8 trees deep around 25% of the border with the dump, and is aiming, with the help of the forest department and Mangaluru Smart City Limited, to increase that perimeter in the future.

Jeeth’s team moving the tree out of the way of a development site – credit Mr. Roche

But this isn’t all Jeeth and Green Brigade invest their time and energy into. Another constant undertaking is the complete uprooting of large trees standing in the way of construction. Large machinery is rented to dig up the roots and move the tree to another location that needs it.

He’s also using the famous Akira Miyawaki method of growing forests full of food to encourage animal life. He uses around 170 species of trees, shrubs, and herbs to saturate an area of ground with far more than it can hold.

MORE NEWS LIKE THIS: ‘Nest Man’ of India Has Built 250,000 Homes for Sparrows–And Trains Students to Build More (LOOK)

The Miyawaki method involves leaving this crowded area to have a competition to see who grows tallest the fastest. It’s a method perfect for creating a forest in a place where there hasn’t been one in decades, such as Jeeth’s project sites at Nanthoor, Gurupura, the Karnataka Polytechnic College, and Nandigudda.

One man can definitely change the world, but if there were a Jeeth Milan Roche for every community, the world wouldn’t even need changing.

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Robotic Glove that ‘Feels’ Lends a ‘Hand’ to Those Relearning to Play Piano After a Stroke

By
Andy Corbley
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The robotic piano playing glove - credit Alex Dolce. Released
The robotic piano playing glove – credit Alex Dolce. Released

For those who have suffered a debilitating stroke, simple actions like tying shoes or brushing teeth can become a major challenge.

If, however, the person derived a significant amount of joy from life because they could play the piano, such injuries can become all the more significant to recover from.

But hope springs anew with a robotic glove specifically designed for playing the piano. Given life at Florida Atlantic University, the device uses AI to help pianists feel some of what they need to feel in order to play their instrument.

“Combining flexible tactile sensors, soft actuators, and AI, this robotic glove is the first to “feel” the difference between correct and incorrect versions of the same song and to combine these features into a single hand exoskeleton,” writes the university press in an announcement article.

Unlike other prosthetics, this is more like a robotic article of clothing rather than a robotic limb or organ. It uses polysynthetic fibers and hydrogel to encase five actuators that fit together onto a person’s hand.

Using AI to help coordinate the fingers, they programmed the glove to detect twelve different kinds of errors that can occur when striking a piano key, such as when a note is struck too hard, or held too long.

“Playing the piano requires complex and highly skilled movements, and relearning tasks involves the restoration and retraining of specific movements or skills,” said Erik Engeberg, Ph.D., senior author, a professor in FAU’s Department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering.

MORE NEWS LIKE THIS: Disabled Student Can Pursue Her Dreams of Being a Cellist After Teens Build Her a Specialized Prosthetic

“Importantly, although this study’s application was for playing a song, the approach could be applied to myriad tasks of daily life and the device could facilitate intricate rehabilitation programs customized for each patient.”

The results of a study to coordinate the three different deep-learning algorithms found that with the human subject present, the glove could perform Mary Had a Little Lamb with 97% accuracy, and even without the human manipulation, could do so at 94%.

MORE INVENTIVE PROSTHETICS: This Cheap, Amphibious, 3D-Printed Prosthetic Means That Amputees Can Now Enjoy the Water Without Stress

Clinicians, the engineers suggest, could use the data from the mistakes and successes to pinpoint patient weaknesses in a particular song, of which the glove is theoretically capable of much greater complexity than nursery rhymes.

WATCH the glove do its stuff… 

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Plant Brought to the Office 14 Years Ago Has Grown into 600-Foot Monster

By
Andy Corbley
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Steve Chatterly - SWNS
Steve Chatterly – SWNS

For those without green thumbs, it’s often a mystery why some plants thrive and others shrivel away.

For Des and Allie Brennan of Protective Solutions Ltd in England, it’s become a very, very big mystery.

Bringing in a small potted pothos cutting in 2009, they merely wanted to brighten up the workspace. Now, more than 14 years later, the ivy has grown to almost 600 feet long—sprouting new shoots that require pinning up across the office walls and ceiling nearly every day.

It hangs from computer monitors—and even has its own sponsorship deal.

“It started off as a bit of a laugh but we wouldn’t be without it now. We’d have to get another one if it ever went,” Allie explains.

The ivy grows at an impressive rate of six inches per month and covers almost the entire office of the Brennans Gloucester-based packaging company Des founded in 2006.

“We try to keep it off the desks so it doesn’t get in the way but it hangs down and is joined onto the monitors,” said Allie. “It makes a massive difference to the office. We can’t envision the place without it—it would be dire.”

The open-concept office plan only measures 50 by 25 square feet, meaning that the monstrous ivy has to crisscross the ceiling back over itself a few times.

Steve Chatterly – SWNS

“It’s a big talking point when customers come in as well. People ask if it’s real but I’m not sure where we’d get a fake one this size.”

OTHER CLEVER PLANT USES: Genius UK Business Uses Christmas Trees to Protect the Region From Flooding

Allie added at the plant is very low-maintenance, requiring some feed and some water only once a week.

The plant has even received a sponsorship deal from a gardening company called Gardening Naturally, which provides seaweed extract food to the office.

Although Allie suspects if the plant continues to grow they’ll have to “bring machetes to the office” to hack through the growth—she says staff love the greenery.

MORE INDOOR PLANT STORIES: 3 Easy Houseplants Can Instantly Reduce Air Pollutant by Up to 20%

“It changes daily. Sometimes it’s a bit creepy coming in and seeing it changing again,” said Allie. “The most time it takes up is taking the time to pin up the new shoots. Over lockdown the office was manned the whole time, according to guidelines. It was still looked after and the office air was probably purified for it.”

“Staff love it. If it was gone we’d all notice it and we’d just have to get another.”

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10,000 Bricks With Built-in Bird Homes Installed in UK Homes to Give Nest Holes to Swifts

By
Andy Corbley
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A Manthrope swift brick - Manthrope building products - a swift by sylvester alphonso from Pixabay
A Manthorpe swift brick – Manthorpe Building Products; a swift by Sylvester Alphonso from Pixabay

Tiny birds in the UK are being given free tenements from real estate development companies by installing “swift bricks” in new buildings around the country.

Over 30,000 swift bricks—essentially a normal building brick with a hollow inside—have been sold in the country, and more than 10,000 homes have been built with swift bricks incorporated into the design.

It’s bizarre the impact humanity can have on animal life. It wasn’t the sprawling British civilization that caused a 58% decline in the small migratory birds called swifts, but rather the renovation of old buildings.

In improving the energy efficiency of buildings to slow energy consumption and therefore climate change, British construction ended up sealing up all the small holes in the walls which these swifts used as nesting sites.

Now though, companies are making swift bricks which are bricks with a hole in the middle for the birds to nest in. One doesn’t need to put more than 3-4 in every wall to transform their housing project into a swift-friendly estate.

Nevertheless, some companies, like Manthorpe Building Products’ factory in Derbyshire, have already produced 20,000 swift bricks. Ibstock, another firm, has sold 7,000.

The bricks came about through brainstorming from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

MORE NEWS LIKE THIS: Bus Stops in Scotland Go Green – With Roofs Covered in Plants as a Gift For Honeybees

“The great advantage of swift bricks and boxes is that they can work just as well in inner city areas with very little green space as anywhere else,” Dr. Guy Anderson, the RSPB’s migratory birds program manager, told The Guardian. “Swifts can travel pretty long distances to find their insect food – all they need is a nest site.”

Swifts are amazing animals that spend 10 months of the year airborne. They do everything on the wing. To drink, they skim over rivers and lakes with their mouths open. They prey only on flying insects. To sleep, they close one eye and turn off one half of their brain. They fly all the way down to Africa before returning to the UK to nest.

MORE ROOM FOR NATURE: Bee Bricks That Help Thousands of Solitary Bees Are Now a Requirement for New Buildings in Brighton

At the moment there is a petition in the UK Parliament to make swift bricks mandatory for all UK buildings, something which the government feels by default is the kind of thing that should be left up to local government councils; however it did garner 104,000 signatures.

The swift bricks are similar to the “bee bricks” which were another idea of how British housing could make room for nature, and which were ruled as mandatory by Brighton and Hove council.

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“Summer is when laziness finds respectability.” – Sam Keen

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “Summer is when laziness finds respectability.” – Sam Keen

Photo by: Etienne Girardet

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Kava Plant Used for Centuries in Traditional Medicine Now Studied for PTSD Treatment

By
Andy Corbley
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Kava ceremony on Samoa - University of California Digital Libraries
Kava ceremony on Samoa – University of California Digital Libraries

In New Zealand, Pacific Island scientists have just been given a large grant to run a study trial on the use of the traditional kava preparation and kava ceremony for treating PTSD.

Believing it could help treat PTSD and other trauma in soldiers and veterans, police officers, and corrections facility staff, the two scientists want to revise the reputation of kava, which was damaged by a pharmaceutical rush into the product some years ago.

Dr. Apo Aporosa of Fijian descent on his mother’s side, and Dr. Sione Vaka from Tonga, have received $1 million from the Health Research Council to combine kava drink with the traditional ceremony of conversation.

“I’m so stoked that Health Research Council has faith in us as a team to do this critically important work,” Dr. Aporosa told the NZ Herald. “It’s likely we’re going to spend a million dollars to prove what traditional Pacific knowledge has been trying to tell Europeans for the last 200 years.”

Kava comes in many traditional names, all relating to the root of the Piper methysticum plant. Across the islands of the Pacific, the root was stirred in water and drank for its subtle euphoric, but also sedative properties. Accompanying the drink was a Talanoa or what Dr. Aporosa is referring to as “talk therapy,” but what was essentially a heart-to-heart conversation.

Their study will take two groups of people and give them both the whole kava drink plus the talanoa, referred to as “the full package” while another group will receive just the talanoa, and another group just the kavalactones—the active ingredient in the plant.

In 2009, the Cochrane Institute confirmed that kava was probably more effective than placebo for treating anxiety. At the time, pharmaceutical and supplement companies had quickly isolated kavalactones and sold them as a natural relaxant.

The irony is that in this extracted form, it was mildly toxic to the liver, whereas when consumed traditionally in the ‘Ava Ceremony’ (to use the Samoan language) or the Faikava, in Fijian, that toxicity is not present.

An informal Faikava

Like most indigenous populations, New Zealand’s Māori population suffers from higher rates of stress, trauma, and anxiety than the national average, and the Health Research Council believes that the Kava ceremony is the most sensible way to fulfill this unmet need.

MORE PLANT MEDICINES: Trying to Stop the Epidemic of Veteran Suicides, Plant Medicine Company Builds Mental Wellness Value Chain

“We do know that… talk therapy works for some PTSD cases,” Dr. Aporosa said, adding that talanoa is basically talk therapy, done while sitting on the floor rather than in chairs.

“We know that kava has relaxant properties, that kava is a natural anti-anxiety medication, so we combine those two elements in a culturally influenced space, and we’ve got something here that’s unique.”

Aporosa understands the situation better than most. Not only is he from Pacific stock, but he was a police officer who had to leave the force due to PTSD from the line of duty.

MORE INDIGENOUS NEWS: Brazil’s President Makes Good on Campaign Promise to Evict Miners from Indigenous Reserves in the Amazon

His experience traveling the world speaking with former military and police got him the Fulbright Scholarship to study the kava ceremony in Hawai’i, another island culture that uses the plant.

His hope is to show that it works significantly in the trial, and then release a free e-book about how to perform the ceremony and intervention, in order to ensure the largest number of people can access the knowledge of this traditional Pacific medicine.

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Teen Girl’s Secret Message Left in a Wall 48 Years Ago is Found: ‘I was Absolutely Shocked!’

By
Andy Corbley
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Images by Dakota Mohn (left) and Stephanie Poit (right)
Images by Dakota Mohn (left) and Stephanie Poit (right)

A 150-year-old house was being restored in a small town outside of Peoria when a construction worker found a message left in a bottle between the walls of the kitchen.

Written by a 14-year-old girl in 1975, a video of the note went viral on TikTok and created a mini interest-storm around the life of the woman, now 61.

In the town of Green Valley, a carpenter named Dakota Mohn was working in a house damaged by a fire. When he was pulling off the walls in the front living room he saw writing that said, “Note 9/29/1975” with arrows pointing to a small notch in the wood.

Inside was a message in a bottle—lost, but not at sea.

Signed by Stephanie Herron, this young woman, one of railroad lineman Earnest Herron’s five daughters, would move on to New York City where she took the name of her husband Poit, had five children of her own, and taught inner city kids.

MORE TIME CAPSULE TALES: A Sorceress’ Toolkit Has Been Discovered in the Ashes of Pompeii

“I was shocked, absolutely shocked, when I heard about the note,” Stephanie Poit told the PJ Star.

“Honestly, I forgot all about it. Life goes on, years go by… I can’t believe how much this has struck people. I’ve gotten notes from people who remember me as a kid growing up in Green Valley. It was a good place to grow up.”

It went like this: To whoever finds this:

Today is Sept. 29, 1975. My name is Stephanie Herron. I live here with my mother, father (Earnest), Becky and Valerie.

Gerald Ford is president. Mrs. Lay is our neighbor. Mom is pregnant and the baby is due any day now. As far as we know, this house was made in 1872. We are remodeling the house.

The Illinois Central Railroad is on the west side of the house. We have lived here for 8 years.

My dad works the Chicago Northwestern Railroad. Green Valley has about 650 people. I am 14, Val is 16 and Becky is 12.

I hope you have lots of happiness in this house.

Steph

PS: My mother’s name is Rose Herron. She is a registered nurse. She works at Hopedale Nursing home. She was born in Nebraska.

She is a very good mother.

Talking with the Star, Poit explains that time capsules were all the rage in 1975. She and her family moved into the house, built in 1872, which at the time sat next to a frequented railroad.

OTHER NEWS LIKE THIS: Family is Reunited by Message in Bottle Written By Their Late Son Decades Ago

Already 100 years old when they moved in, the family was constantly making additions, including enclosing a porch into a kitchen/living room where Dakota pulled the time capsule from.

Mohn, who on his Facebook wall described the note as the coolest thing he’s found, is working with the house’s new owner to build a shadow box into the wall where the note was found, and that he and the owner would leave notes of their own for another carpenter to find 40 years from now.

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Dock Worker Brings Stranded Ferry Passengers Home: ‘You’re All Staying at My House Tonight’

By
Andy Corbley
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- credit Enjoy Port Townsend
– credit Enjoy Port Townsend

When vacationers were trapped in a historic Washington town after ferries were canceled due to weather concerns, they feared they might have to sleep on the streets.

That’s when ferry terminal worker William Patterson invited all ten of them to stay at his house for the night.

It was in the early evening that 79-year-old Kip Goodwin and his wife from Hawaii had finished calling every hotel and Airbnb in the Olympic Peninsula’s Port Townsend—they were all fully booked for the summer holiday season.

Neither had they luck at the YMCA or Red Cross—even the campgrounds were unavailable. Fearfully looking at each other amid the sound of howling wind, Patterson interrupted their worrying to tell them they would all be staying with him and his wife Arianna.

Nestled among the pines on the Admiralty Inlet, Port Townsend is serviced by the United States’ largest ferry network, but the Port Townsend-to-Coupeville route, which Goodwin and the others were hoping to take after a day trip to Port Townsend and Whidbey Island, was canceled after winds picked up and the ferries had to remain tied to their moorings.

All three round trips were canceled, starting at 6:45 pm and on to 9:00 pm.

Arianna Patterson joked with the Seattle Times that her husband always threatened he’d bring a “straggler” home one day. William called and asked if they could make space for the Goodwins.

“I said, ‘We have enough space for two, no big deal,’” Arianna said. “Then he called back and said, ‘We have eight or nine other people.’ I said, oh.”

MORE BAD WEATHER TALES: Man Jumps in During Freak Storm to Rescue 4 People From Sinking Florida Houseboat

Like the Goodwins, most of the passengers were over 60 years of age, so the Pattersons were just happy they could get the visitors out of the weather. At the home, there was space on the couch and an extra bed, but pretty quickly people were on the floor, borrowing blankets that their hosts had from their time welcoming foster kids.

Early the next morning, William went out to the cafe he runs along with his work at the ferry terminal to make pastries and coffee for them all.

MORE SHELTER STORIES: McDonald’s Workers Open Their Restaurant as a 24-hour Storm Shelter During Blizzard in North East

“It was unbelievable,” said Fred Dente, 79, who lives in Langley and was visiting with his wife and their two friends from Hawaii. “It was the way humans should treat humans. In this day and age, it was exceptional.”

That morning was crisp and clear, and at 7:00 am the ferries set sail.

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McDonald’s Cashier Pays for Man After His Card Declined: ‘Never Lose Your Giving Heart’

By
Andy Corbley
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Jason Mosier / Facebook
Jason Mosier / Facebook

“I want to brag on this young man named Hayden working at McDonald’s at exit 8 on 25E near i81,” Jason Mosier wrote on Facebook last month.

Mosier had has mind set on bragging after experiencing what Hayden was prepared to do to help him out of even the most innocuous of jams.

Mosier had just tried to pay with a card, but the charge of $8,00 was declined. Before the customer even knew what was happening, Hayden had whipped out his own debit card to pay the bill, saying “I got you, don’t worry about it.”

“I said no no, just void it, please,” Mosier recounted on his Facebook page. “[Hayden] said, ‘No sir, I got it.’ The only cash I had was 4 one dollar bills, I made him take the 4 bucks and told him I would be back.”

Well, Hayden wasn’t backing down. He wanted to pay something forward, and ended up having the final word when he left a surprise for Mosier in his meal bag.

Another McDonald’s worker paying it forward was recorded at a store in Tile Hill, in the UK, where a drive-through worker named Enya who was making around $9.24 per hour paid for the meal of a customer after she heard him call his mom to ask if she wanted anything.

MORE PAYING IT FORWARD: After $9 Was Stolen From Girl’s Lemonade Stand, Community Gives Her $350 to Pay It Forward

Josh Henry was having a “depressing day” when he arrived at the McDonald’s, and said Enya’s random act of kindness cheered him up.

“I’m at a high risk of redundancy, [but] I will pay this kind act forward tomorrow for sure.”

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“The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers.” – Matsuo Basho

By
Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers.” – Matsuo Basho

Photo by: Nate Foong

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?

Farmers Markets Thriving Since Pandemic as Shoppers and Venders Form Unbreakable Ritual

By
Andy Corbley
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- Natalie Maynor
– Natalie Maynor

The number of farmers markets in the US is increasing—as are the numbers of customers and the number of states choosing to celebrate them with an official ‘Farmers Market Week’.

The cheeriest place to buy your groceries not only survived the pandemic, they are thriving—despite lockdown policies in many states labeling them as “non-essential”, forcing a shut-down, while indoor supermarkets were kept open.

Thirty years ago, there were fewer than 2,000 open farmers markets in the U.S. Today, there are more than 8,600 markets currently registered in the USDA Farmers Market Directory, per the Farmers Market Coalition.

This nonprofit advocacy organization fought on behalf of farmers during the pandemic, presenting a spirited defense using scientific and common sense arguments to keep them going when state or local governments wanted to shut them down.

In lockdown-heavy cities like Chicago, the Green City Market on Saturdays has grown from 5,000-10,000 shoppers pre-pandemic to 8,000-15,000 today.

Part of the reason, Green City Market’s organizer Taylor Choy tells the AP, is that supply chain issues which during COVID-19 increased the prices at supermarkets didn’t affect farmers markets that instead rely on local producers.

“The benefit to shopping at a farmers market is that it’s directly from the farm and so they’re not going to see the same type of supply chain issues (grocery stores have),” Choy told AP. “In fact, I’ve seen the cost of eggs at a grocery store increase, but then the price of our eggs at our market stayed the same.”

MORE GOOD FARMING NEWS: New AI-Powered Farming Robot Trundles About Inspecting 50 Acres of Crops per Day for Pests and Disease

In Colorado, the Larimer County farmers market saw a 25% increase in the number of vendors in the summer of 2020.

“Even in a global pandemic farmers market operators have worked tirelessly to innovate and come up with solutions to continue to serve their communities,” said Farmers Market Coalition’s Executive Director, Ben Feldman, that year.

FIND YOUR FARM HERE: The Nation’s Largest Farmers Market: FarmMatch Allows You to Shop Online at Local Farms in Your Area

“While farmers markets are among the safest places to buy food, the increased costs and time required to stay operational are major challenges for all markets nationwide. It is more important than ever to support our local farmers markets during this crisis.”

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New Tallest Tree in Asia–a 335-Foot Cypress Shows There’s Plenty Left in the World to Discover

By
Andy Corbley
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Peking University
Peking University

China is a big country with big buildings, big cities, big rivers, and a big population. But the nation’s penchant for big isn’t just an artificial one, nature plays along too.

If you look up “the tallest tree in Asia” on the internet, it may mention Menara, a yellow meranti tree Shorea faguetiana with a height of 330.7 feet (100.8 meters) found in Malaysia. The record, however, has now been broken.

Researchers at Peking University working in Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon Nature Reserve have recorded a Himalayan cypress Cupressus torulosa that has grown to 335 feet (102.3 meters). See the whole tree below, but it will take a few seconds to scroll all the way down.

This isn’t just the tallest tree in Asia, but the second tallest in the world behind America’s Hyperion—a coastal redwood that reaches 381 feet into the sky.

The researchers used a LiDAR drone survey to scrub away the leaves and measure the tree trunks of whole acres of forest quickly. This is how they were able to locate the giant cypress.

credit Peking University

The cluster was first found by Li Cheng from the Xizijiang Conservation Center. Then a research group led by Guo Qinghua from Peking University carried a drone and backpack LiDAR to the deep forest, according to the university.

The scientists note that there were over 20 trees nearby that were over 295 feet tall (90 meters) and even more that were at or around 278 feet (85 meters).

MORE NATURAL WONDERS: Genetic Lineage of Thousand-Year-Old Oak Trees Seed an Experimental ‘Super Forest’

They also noted how important giant trees are to forest ecosystems, because within their long-lived genetics is contained knowledge that can be passed onto offspring about how to survive pests, droughts, and storms. They also provide numerous microclimates for fungi, birds, insects, and burrowing mammals.

A stand of giant Himalayan Cypress trees – credit Peking University

The Yarlung Zangbo in Tibet isn’t called the “Grand Canyon” because China is famous for ignoring the intellectual property rights of American companies. It’s the deepest canyon found on land on Earth—measuring down 19,714 feet deep in some places.

The scientists are planning to establish a close and meticulous monitoring program to ensure the protection and long-term health of these wonderful trees.

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Beautiful Homeless Shelters Get Radical Redesign to Impact Residents

By
Andy Corbley
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Path Home Family Village - credit Aaron Leitz for Path Home
Path Home Family Village – credit Aaron Leitz for Path Home

Attempting to get a grip on the homeless epidemic, homeless shelters are making conscious choices to employ trauma-informed designs to make those who are sheltering feel calm, more autonomous, and safe.

For example, at Path Home Family Village in Portland, Oregon, natural bamboo wood roofs sit above a naturally lit area pained in seafoam green, turquoise, and grey. Windows open out onto a garden with flowers and vegetables, and there are privacy walls between beds with soft personal reading lamps.

This is all part of the trauma-informed design; one that uses science and close relations with the homeless to establish a set of best practices for shelter construction.

Path Home used to be three homeless shelters in one—founded in an abandoned warehouse and church basements.

$250,000 of pro-bono work was donated to Family Village from the influential non-profit  Design Resources for Homelessness, founded by Jill Pable, a professor at Florida State University.

Pable has consulted for other trauma-informed shelters before—in Georgia for example, and her work shows that aspects like acoustics, color, and furniture arrangement, or rooms specifically constructed for family visits can reinforce the mental states that trauma often clashes with—community, privacy, and a sense of welcome.

Other aspects, such as installing glass doors, ensuring there are enough windows to allow residents to see outside, and open spaces to ensure they don’t feel they can be snuck up on, are important for a sense of security as well.

MORE HOMELESS SHELTER INNOVATION: Tiny Home Village for Salt Lake City‘s Homeless Gets Green Light for 430 Units

“You can come home [to the shelter], you can do what you want, you don’t feel like anyone is looking at you. There’s a sense of relief, privacy, and wholeness,” Pable told The Guardian.

Last year, the shelter hosted 524 families. The average length of stay is 85 days. Recently, a previous resident asked Brandi Tuck, the executive director, if he and his partner could get married there.

That’s as good an indication as any that the principles Path Home was founded upon are working.

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