Quote of the Day: “The day, water, sun, moon, and night: I do not have to purchase these things with money.” – Plautus
Photo by: Elizabeth Nelson
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
Happy 53rd Birthday to Oscar De La Hoya, nicknamed the “Golden Boy of Boxing,” and winner of many world titles at lightweight, super lightweight, welterweight, and middleweight. De La Hoya had won 17 title bouts, either for claiming belts or retaining them, before he tasted the first defeat of his career, a reign of dominance that stretched from 1994 to 1999. READ more about the “Golden Boy’s” career… (1972)
CRISPR has been used to create a genetic therapy option for a child born in Pennsylvania with a rare metabolic disorder.
Unable to convert ammonia to urea, newborn KJ was in serious risk of brain or liver damage, and had to be kept on medications and an extremely restrictive diet to avoid protein metabolism.
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) doctors believed they could use CRISPR to develop a treatment to correct a faulty gene in KJ’s genome that would essentially cure him.
KJ’s parents, Nicole and Kyle Muldoon, decided to place their son’s wellbeing in the hands of two pioneering genetic therapists, Dr. Rebecca Ahrens-Nicklas and Dr. Kiran Musunru, who crafted a bespoke treatment that has successfully corrected the genetic defect.
“Years and years of progress in gene editing and collaboration between researchers and clinicians made this moment possible, and while KJ is just one patient, we hope he is the first of many to benefit from a methodology that can be scaled to fit an individual patient’s needs,” said Rebecca Ahrens-Nicklas, MD, PhD, director of the Gene Therapy for Inherited Metabolic Disorders Frontier Program (GTIMD) at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
She, along with Dr. Musunru, are members of the NIH-funded Somatic Cell Genome Editing Consortium, and have spent years developing the science of using CRISPR to create individual treatment doses for the rarest of diseases.
So far, the only FDA-approved and standardized CRISPR therapies target two diseases found in tens of thousands of patients. CRISPR is an incredibly complex tool and expensive to wield, leaving its magic beyond the reach of millions of children and adults worldwide who collectively suffer from extremely rare genetic disorders.
One such disorder is called severe carbamoyl phosphate synthetase 1 (CPS1) deficiency, and it creates the inability to properly convert ammonia into urea to be excreted through urine. Ammonia is created in the body through protein metabolism. CPS1 is created in the liver to turn it into urea so as to avoid the toxic effects of the former.
KJ’s body cannot, so excess protein metabolism creates a buildup of ammonia in his liver that could be fatal. Nitrogen scavenging medication and a protein-deficient diet can keep a patient going until a liver transplant can be found, but at just months old, KJ’s body isn’t capable of enduring the procedure.
MORE RARE DISEASE RECOVERIES: UPDATE Long-Term Follow-up in Babies Born with ‘Bubble Boy Disease’ Still Seem Cured
A news release from CHOP reports that Ahrens-Nicklas and Musunuru targeted KJ’s specific variant of CPS1 after years of work with similar disease-causing variants. Within 6 months, their team designed and manufactured a base editing therapy delivered via lipid nanoparticles to the liver in order to correct KJ’s faulty enzyme.
In late February, 2025, KJ received his first infusion of this experimental therapy, and since then has received follow-up doses in March and April 2025, the release details. In the newly published New England Journal of Medicine paper, the researchers, along with their academic and industry collaborators, describe the customized CRISPR gene editing therapy that was rigorously yet speedily developed for administration to KJ.
WHISPER ABOUT CRISPR: Always Fatal Huntington’s Disease is Successfully Treated for First Time With Gene Therapy
KJ has received 3 doses, and suffered no side effects. He’s been able to halt medication and work some protein back into his diet, though he will need careful monitoring the rest of his life.
“We thought it was our responsibility to help our child, so when the doctors came to us with their idea, we put our trust in them in the hopes that it could help not just KJ but other families in our position,” his mother, Nicole, told CHOP.
SHARE This Incredible Recovery Story For A Baby In Serious Danger…
A 13-year-old boy has been hailed as a hero after swimming 4 hours through rough seas to rescue his family.
A family of 4 was enjoying a holiday in Australia’s southwest coast near Quindalup when strong winds blew their inflatable paddleboards out to sea. The boy was separated from his mom and 2 siblings before his canoe began to take on water.
Wearing a life-jacket, he began to swim against the wind towards the shore, knowing every second counted in the race to get help to save his family.
Commander Paul Bresland with the volunteer organization Cape Naturaliste Marine Rescue told ABC News that the boy swam for 2 hours with his life jacket on.
“And the brave fella thought he’s not going to make it with a life jacket on, so he ditched it, and he swam the next 2 hours without a life jacket,” said Bresland. “I thought, ‘Mate, that is incredible.'”
Once ashore he successfully raised the alarm and a multi-agency search and rescue operation was mobilized, including Western Australia state Water Police and its rescue helicopter. The teen provided detailed descriptions of the paddleboards, and within the hour, his family was rescued by boat, having drifted 7 miles out into the Indian Ocean.
When rescuers arrived, the 47-year-old mother was struggling to keep a daughter, 8, and an eldest son, 14, firmly affixed to the paddleboard in the choppy waters.
“Physically, she just said, ‘I’m struggling, I can’t,’ but she just said they’re looking her in the eye, and she just kept going and kept them together,” Mr. Bresland said, adding she deserved enormous praise for her perseverance.
MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: Seizures Bar Him from Swimming–So He Saves a Drowning Girl with His Drone
ABC reported that the family were assessed at a local hospital and quickly discharged, before taking the time to visit the rescue organization to thank them in person.
South West Police Inspector James Bradley said the story highlights some important ocean safety aspects: all members of the family were wearing life jackets—a key positive. Wind speeds near shore should always be carefully monitored as well.
SHARE This Brave Fella’s Incredible Determination To Save His Family…
By instantaneously heating electronics to 3,000°C via an electrical current, scientists have found a way to extract decent grades of precious metals without creating hazardous waste.
According to their analysis, relying on e-waste for a precious metals supply could be 13-times cheaper than mining them from the ground. However, previous methods have involved throwing this or that broken gizmo into a furnace powered by copious amounts of energy while also releasing toxic substances into air.
By contrast, “flash joule heating,” a way of using electrical currents to vaporizing the valuable metals from the materials that hold electronics together is between 80 and 500-times more energy efficient.
One 2008 study calculated that one ton of mobile phones without batteries contains about 130kg of copper, 3.5kg of silver, 340 grams of gold, and 140 grams of palladium.
Those totals, if assayed as part of a drilling survey at a mine, would be considered world class results in the 99th percentile of grades.
Most open pit mining operations will run at a rate of between 0.5 and 1.8 grams per-ton gold and 100 to 180 grams per-ton silver. Some 40 million tons of e-waste is produced annually, so some simple mathematics reveals the potential economy to be found in harvesting e-waste for metals—a process termed “urban mining” by scientists.
Scientists at Rice University shredded a printed circuit board for their experiments, and mixed it with carbon black as a conductive additive. Once in the flash joule chamber, the current applied is so high that the precious metals, like rhodium, copper, and gold, turn briefly to vapor, while the carbon-based components like the plastic, are carbonized. This same process has been used to turn plastic into diamonds.
ON THE SUBJECT OF METALS:
Mining companies for base and precious metals use a variety of patented recovery processes to separate gold, zinc, or nickel from the ore body.
Just like in mining, additives enhanced the recovery percentage of the metals from their vaporized form, including halides or fluorine-based substances. These brought the recovery of rhodium up to greater than 80%, and palladium to 70%. Bleach and other chlorine-based compounds brought the silver recovery rate up to greater than 80% as well.
With the prices of these metals skyrocketing of late, new and cheaper supplies will be crucial to ensure important industries remain intact and competitive.
SHARE This Clever Concept Of Urban Mining With Your Friends…
Over last weekend, a Kentucky farming family welcomed a new calf into a frigid world of single digit temperatures, and quickly realized it wasn’t going to last the night.
So being a mother as well as a farmer, Macey Sorrell decided to bring the calf into their home where she was certain it would be okay. Falling asleep on the couch next to her two children, Sorrell snapped a photo that has the internet fawning.
On the last Saturday in January, Sorrell and her husband Tanner went to check on their pregnant cow as dusk gathered around their property in Mount Sterling. To their surprise, she had already given birth.
“She was just frozen. Her umbilical cord looked like a popsicle,” Sorrell said. “It was just frozen.”
They decided, having lost a calf last year to frostbite, to take precautionary measures.
“When we brought her in, she had ice on her. The afterbirth was still on her, I had to wipe all that off,” Sorrell said. “I took out the blow dryer and warmed her up, and got her all fluffed out.”
It was somehow sort of a surprise and not a surprise that their son, 3-year-old Gregory, went to cuddle with the calf who had been placed on the couch—as if it were “just the most normal thing.”
KIDS AND THEIR FRIENDS:
Sorrell said she and her family are used to bringing the occasional farm animal into their house, and it’s clearly rubbed off on their children.
Gregory named the calf Sally, who after her harrowing night, rejoined her mother in the paddock after sunrise, healthy and ready to explore her new world.
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Quote of the Day: “All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.” – Galileo Galilei
Photo by: SWNS news agency
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
40 years ago today, a group of computer animators started Pixar Animation Studios out of a corporate spin-off from Lucasfilm. Pixar would go on to make their first film Toy Story, 9 years later, and over the following 20 years become the most critically admired animation studio in the world. After being turned down 45 times by 36 venture capitalists, George Lucas eventually found the financial backing for Pixar in one Steve Jobs, who had recently been edged out of Apple. With films like Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Monsters Inc., and Up, Pixar ruled the early 2000s animation space and has picked up 23 Academy Awards. WATCH their 35 years of animation in a special video… (1986)
8 years, 4 months, and 29 days—that’s how long it’s been since the last nuclear weapon was detonated on Earth—and it’s also the longest such timespan since the nuclear age began.
Since that fateful day in the sands of America’s southwest in 1945, it’s actually rather mind-boggling how many nuclear weapons have been donated.
Dylan Spaulding, a senior member at the Union of Concerned Scientists who saw fit to mark this long, inter-detonation period with a blog post, explained that since the Trinity test, 2,000 nuclear weapons have been detonated by 8 nations.
Being that the 21st century has been largely explosion-less, that means that some of those early Cold War Years would have seen over a hundred nuclear test explosions in a single year; two did, in fact.
Yet January 14th marked the longest period humankind has gone without one or another part of the whole exploding one of these deadly weapons, stretching back to the last North Korean test in September, 2017. All other nuclear armed states conducted their last nuclear tests between 1990 and 1998 when Pakistan ceased its nuclear testing.
“In 1996, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) opened for signatures and has since been signed by 187 nations and ratified by 178—an overwhelming global majority,” reports Spauling, describing the result of the CTBT as creating one of the strongest “taboos” in modern statecraft.
An actor (North Korea being the only such example) who violates the test ban treaty is labeled a rogue state and excluded from the vast majority of world affairs. Though the United States has signed, but never ratified the treaty, it nevertheless has maintained the ban on supercritical testing of any kind.
Any potential benefits from posturing or technical expertise gained from a nuclear test is certain to be outweighed by the detriment to national reputation and future diplomatic leverage against developing or aspiring actors.
When discussing nuclear weapons policy, it’s important to keep a long frame of mind. Today, despite this long period without a detonation, there are many reasons to be fearful of nuclear exchanges between armed states. That has always been the fear because then, as now, there were plenty of reasons to be thusly fearful.
There was more than one occasion, if the mind permits the thought, when nuclear war between the USSR/China and NATO was a reality that stood just minutes away, or was separated by the mere click of a single button, by a chance malfunction, or by the split second decision-making of a stressed-out commanding officer.
EFFORTS TO IMPROVE THE WORLD:
The world is never that far from those days, but substantial progress has been made, and more still could be made if—just as back in the day—cooler heads prevail.
As for nuclear testing and the documented, deleterious health effects that accompany it, every day that goes by can be celebrated as a new record, and a new reason to continue to hope that cooler heads can, will, and someday—perhaps ultimately—prevail.
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The discovery of stylized handprints dating back at least 67,800 years in a limestone cave in Indonesia has broken the country’s own record for the world’s oldest-known example of rock art.
It provides direct evidence that humans have been crossing the sea intentionally for nearly 70,000 years, as Man traveled from the Asian continent across Australasia to the land Down Under and beyond.
Adhi Agus Oktaviana, a researcher at the BRIN Research Center for Archaeometry, revealed that the minimum age of the rock art is 16,600 years older than the previously discovered rock art from Muna Island, which GNN reported on in 2024.
This rock art is also 1,100 years older than the handprints from Spain that were previously associated with Neanderthals and had long been considered the oldest cave art in the world, and 22,200 years older than the depiction of the Sulawesi warty pig, discovered on the same island as the other two, in 2021.
In other words, in the last five years, 3 of the 4 oldest cave artworks ever found on Earth were identified on the same small island off Sulawesi, Indonesia.
Oktaviana explained that to determine the age of this rock art, the research team applied the laser-ablation uranium-series (LA-U-series) dating technique to the microscopic calcite layer covering the cave paintings and produced a date that would be the earliest possible production time of the handprints.
As news releases that regarded the previous two discoveries stated, the artworks elevate Indonesia to one of the most important centers in the early history of symbolic art and modern human sea exploration in the world.
This discovery confirms that Wallacea, a sunken landmass that exists above sea level today as the Indo-Pacific, was not only a route to Australia, but also a major habitat for early modern humans. It also reinforces the long chronological model, which states that humans reached the Sahul landmass (Australia–Papua) at least 65,000 years ago.
“It is very likely that the creators of these paintings were part of a population that later spread further east and eventually reached Australia,” said Oktaviana. “This research provides the oldest direct evidence of modern humans on the northern migration route to Sahul, which involved sea exploration between Kalimantan (Borneo) and Papua—an area that remains relatively unexplored archaeologically.”
AWESOME ROCK ART:
Meanwhile, Professor Adam Brumm from the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution (ARCHE), Griffith University, said that the handprints found in the rock art on Muna Island also have globally unique characteristics, with modifications that narrow the shape of the fingers to resemble claws, reflecting a mature symbolic expression. According to him, the symbolic meaning of this narrowing of the finger shape is still speculative.
“However, this art could symbolize the idea that humans and animals have a very close relationship. This is already evident in the earliest paintings in Sulawesi, including at least one scene that we interpret as a representation of a half-human, half-animal creature,” he explained.
With the discovery of Pleistocene rock art sites in the karst region of Sulawesi, this brings a great responsibility in preserving irreplaceable cultural heritage. Therefore, researchers are calling for the protection of karst areas containing ancient rock art sites to be an integral part of spatial planning and natural resource management policies.
WATCH Professor Brumm explain…
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If a physician needs to see what’s gone wrong inside a human body, it’s easy enough to order an ultrasound scan. But if the structural engineer wants to do the same in a block of concrete, his options are of limited effectiveness.
The range of materials that concrete contains, such as stone, clay, chalk, slate, iron ore, and sand, scatters normal sound waves, making clear images difficult to obtain.
Now, Japanese and American scientists have teamed up to develop a system that can identify interior defects in concrete buildings and bridges without destroying their structure.
Team members explain in a news release that their method sends sound waves into the material and captures the waves that echo back to create images of what’s inside, just like an ultrasound.
“In our approach, the ultrasonic wave is broadband, using a wide range of ultrasonic frequencies rather than operating around a single, fixed frequency,” said Professor Yoshikazu Ohara from Tohoku University in Japan.
“The receiver is capable of accepting an even broader range of frequencies. By automatically adapting the frequency to the material, our system improves the contrast between defects and background material in concrete.”
Tohoku and his colleagues joined the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, and Texas A&M University to create the system.
A chief challenge is that it’s hard to know which frequencies of sound waves will survive traveling through concrete, as different material therein may interfere with different wavelengths.
To accommodate the uncertainty, the team used two devices: one to generate a wide range of frequencies to send into the material and another, called a vibrometer, to capture the outcoming waves.
MORE PHYSICS: Spider-Inspired Design Makes Metal Tubes ‘Unsinkable’–A Breakthrough in Maritime Engineering
The system, described in the journal Applied Physics Letters, can handle a wide range of frequencies, which means that even if ultrasonic waves are scattered by materials in the concrete, those that do make it through are still detected, regardless of what frequency they are.
“As the concrete filters out certain frequencies, the laser Doppler vibrometer simply captures whatever frequencies remain,” said Professor Ohara. “Unlike conventional systems, we don’t have to swap transducers or adjust the frequency beforehand. The system adapts automatically.”
CONCRETE STORIES: Cement Supercapacitors Could Turn the Concrete Around Us into Massive Energy Storage Systems
The result is a high-resolution 3D image of the defect and its location in the concrete.
For a repair planner or field technician, this provides ‘concrete’ information: how deep the defect is from the surface, how large it is, and how it extends in three dimensions, making it possible to plan repairs more efficiently.
SAHRE This Advancement In Materials Sciences On Social Media…
It’s being called the most significant archaeological discovery in a decade: a tomb dating back 1,400 years decorated with murals and carvings of exquisite preservation.
Belonging to one of Mexico’s non-Mayan native cultures, the Zapotecs, its most striking feature is a frieze of an enormous owl head, with a man’s face trapped in its beak.
The Zapotecs are a pre-Colombian people who inhabited areas making up the modern Mexican state of Oaxaca as far back as the 6th century BCE, around the time this tomb dates to.
The earliest Spanish chronicles speak of the Zapotecs existing in a state of war with the Aztecs, and today, their descendants make up a recognized racial group in the modern Mexican state numbering in the hundreds of thousands, speaking a language of the same name.
Located in San Pablo Huitzo, the tomb is decorated with murals in green, white, blue, and red pigments that show scenes associated with funerary traditions, a statement from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) explains.
“It’s the most significant archaeological discovery of the last decade in Mexico due to the level of preservation and the information it provides,” said President Claudia Sheinbaum in a press briefing in the days following the discovery’s announcement.
The standout detail by far is the owl sculpture. In Zapotec myth, owls were symbols of both the night and death, and the beak of the bird contains a stone head—perhaps representing the one belonging to the man buried in the tomb, INAH said.
At the threshold to the burial chamber there are carvings of two human figures holding various artifacts in their hands, who may have been the guardians of the tomb, according to the INAH.
GNN recently reported on a LiDAR study that identified a collection of structures on the hills near the modern town of Santo Domingo Tehuantepec was actually a Zapotec fortress, complete with ball courts.
Pedro Guillermo Ramón Celis, organizer of a LiDAR survey, plans to return to conduct more research there, telling the press team at McGill University that as a point of reference and pride for the Zapotec people, the fortress could provide key insights into their ancestors’ ways of living, as well as an example of a civilization that resisted the Aztec’s conquering push southward.
MORE CENTRAL AMERICAN HERITAGE: Latin American States Protect Second-Largest American Rainforest as the ‘Great Mayan Reserve’
Regarding the owl-fronted tomb, Mexico’s culture secretary, Claudia Curiel de Icaza said something similar, noting how the Zapotecs alive today will be eager to hear what the tomb and its murals and carvings will tell of their ancestors’ social organization, funerial rituals and belief system.
For now, critical conservation work will be undertaken first, as the tomb and its artworks are at risk of insects, tree roots, and deleterious effects from exposure to the local climate.
SHARE This Discovery Of The Century With Your Friends On Social Media..
Quote of the Day: “There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, that can hinder the firm resolve of a determined soul.” – Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Photo by: Aidamarie Photography (public domain)
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
150 years ago today, the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs was formed. The older of the two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the US and Canada, it is the oldest professional team sports league still in existence in the world. The American League was founded 25 years later and after much consternation, they agreed to recognize each other as major leagues. They drafted rules and each established a team in New York City, and they decided to compete against each other (beginning in the Fall of 1903) in a championship tournament—the first “World Series”. READ the league charter clubs… (1876)
The ocean dreams took hold of Taryn Smith when she was living in landlocked Nebraska, craving open-water adventures as a young adult in Omaha.
Smith, who’s now 25, read an article about an all-female rowing team that set a world record in the Great Pacific Race in 2022, rowing from Monterrey, California to Hawaii in just 34 days—and something stirred deeply within Smith.
“I just remember thinking it sounded like the most amazing thing in the entire world,” Taryn told PEOPLE, recapturing her thoughts about the rowing team’s record. “I wanted to do something big in my 20s. I wanted to spend the rest of my life knowing that I was capable of something like this.”
Smith started researching opportunities that might present an equally daunting challenge and soon discovered the World’s Toughest Row—a 3,000-mile rowing race from the Canary Islands on the western edge of Africa to Antigua in the Caribbean Sea.
Taryn was going to do it alone.
Her grandparents both had sailing experience, but she had a lot to learn. She quit her job in human resources and trained for three years, spending time in the United Kingdom, and living exclusively on her rowboat for several weeks at a time.
She needed to become one with the water because that would soon be her only company.
“Taryn seems to know no fear,” Shelly Smith, Taryn’s mother, told Nebraska Public Media. “She has always been a kid that thrives on adventure. She just really likes that challenge.”
And so, on December 14, Taryn faced 42 other teams from 20 different countries at the starting line of a race across the Atlantic. The journey was expected to take about two months, with Taryn rowing 10 to 12 hours by herself each day.
Obstacles arose every day—but Day 27 pushed her to the brink. She developed hives from sun exposure and hadn’t slept soundly for two straight nights. She spent the morning sobbing, fighting the fatigue and exhaustion, as her boat bounced up and down on waves that kept growing bigger from an impending storm. (Watch a video at the bottom…)
“Absolutely, huge waves,” she said in an Instagram video from Day 27. “A wave would come just gushing over the deck and would literally knock me out of my shoes. It was scary. It was really, really, scary. I think this is the first day I felt properly terrified since being out here.”
And to make matters worse, a menacing marlin stalked her boat and oars for miles. Nevertheless, she persisted. By day’s end, she had overcome every last challenge the Atlantic could muster, while still making considerable progress.
“It’s been a really hard day, but I am really proud of the effort that I put in today because it’s been a fast day and I’ve covered a lot of ground and I kept rowing and now it’s more comfortable to row than it is to try to sleep,” she said on Instagram at the end of the day.
“I’m listening to Harry Potter (in my headphones). So all in all, life is good…”
She partnered with Girls on the Run throughout her journey, raising money for the nonprofit that empowers girls in grades 3-8 through running, physical activity, and confidence-building programs.
With each row, Taryn was unleashing a powerful example of what those girls can do with a goal in front of them and the grit to chase it.
AN AMAZING SAILOR: Frenchman Battling Cancer Named Sailor of the Year After Winning Treacherous Around-the-World Race
She arrived in Antigua on January 29th, becoming the first female to finish the World’s Toughest Row alone. She even beat her own expectations in the process, finishing the race in 46 days, three hours, and 37 minutes, a few days before her own optimistic predictions.
Taryn pulled into the harbor with a flare in her hand as an American flag billowed behind her on the boat. (Watch the video below…)
The girl from the landlocked plains of the midwest had just completed a bold 3,000-mile crossing of the Atlantic—and her ocean dreams that began with a magazine article had become a reality, and a powerful reminder of the untapped potential that lies inside us all.
“Everything is more within reach than we think,” Taryn told PEOPLE. “I hope people understand that you should take on your biggest challenges, even if it means being alone. Even if it’s scary. You can do it—and you probably won’t be alone for very long.”
SEND TARYN’S STORY SAILING ACROSS THE WORLD By Sharing It To Your Social Media Feed…
While millions of Americans hunkered down in their homes after ice storms encrusted the mid-Atlantic, two young teens got busy building community spirit—by building an igloo.
They constructed their igloo in front of a house that was destroyed by a house fire a few months ago.
Adeline Sutich and her friend Maeve Ritchotte carved dozens of ice bricks with a flat shovel, and used a sled to move them to the symbolic spot on Helena Drive.
“We built an igloo to create unity in the community and bring people together,” Adeline told GNN by phone.
“It brought joy to all the neighbors when the snow was frustrating and very difficult to cope with.”
“I feel like this igloo is a good representation of hope—and how things can be rebuilt.”
Her whole family got involved when the sun began to set Thursday in the Sligo Woods neighborhood in Silver Spring, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C.
Her dad, Stefan, outfitted the group with headlamps to work in the dark—and her mom shot videos and photos—until the roof was finally laid.
They built chairs and a table out of ice, so people could hang-out inside the snow cave.
“We even made a guest book for people to write in and their messages were so heartwarming,” said Adeline.
“I did this as a kid, too,” one guest name Melinda wrote.
“My three kids love it!” Jen wrote.
Adeline said it was “so nice” to see people smiling at the girls when they passed by.
“Many neighbors have come up and talked with us about the igloo and how much they’ve enjoyed it.”
“We’ve had more visitors sign the book today!” she added on Friday.
MORE SNOW STORIES:
• Watch Giddy Florida Man Experiencing Snow for the First Time–And Making a Snow Angel
• Woman Defrosts Frozen Kitten Nursing it Back to Health Using a Hairdryer (Watch Video)
One of the neighbors enjoyed watching the construction from her window as the girls spent hours building the cozy community hub, but she finally ventured out on Friday under blue skies to leave a message.
“It brought back so many childhood memories”.
SEND THE INSPIRING PHOTOS to Snow Fort Buddies on Social Media…
A math teacher recently became the top female Scrabble champion in the UK—scoring 1,000 points more than her opponents.
Natalie Zolty outsmarted scrabble grandmaster Gary Oliver to claim the top spot by playing the word ‘zendiks’, which means heretics or unbelievers.
The 61-year-old won the top division during the UK Open competition held January 9th in Reading, England, after she was triumphant in 12 out of 15 games.
Despite admitting she doesn’t know what many of her winning words mean, Natalie spends hours a day learning thousands of words from the dictionary and practicing 500 anagrams while watching TV.
Now she has revealed her top tips for budding players wanting to take the next step towards becoming a master player—and it all starts with simple two letter words.
There are 107 acceptable 2-letter words listed in the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, 6th Edition. (See the top 10 below…)
“It’s not too difficult to learn all of them,” said the teacher from Solihull, West Midlands.
“Some of them sound weird and wonderful. Things like Xi and Za, so learn those two-letter words and you’ll be surprised at how you can rack up points.”
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Natalie took up the hobby on Facebook around 17 years ago and now she’s hoping more women start competing after noticing a clear male dominance in recent competitions.
“I just really got into it. There’s a lot of word learning and studying,” the mother-of-one told SWNS news agency. “You learn basically the entire dictionary, but you learn it in what is most valuable in a game—what words create the best points.
“Always hold on to some one-point letters because you can go for a bonus, where you use all seven tiles which gives you an extra 50 points.
“Scrabble players who play at a high level are looking to try and do that maybe two or three times a game. I average around two and a half bonuses a game.
“There is also an option every turn where you can exchange letters and forfeit a turn. This frightens a lot of players and they will try to keep going, but don’t be scared to change some tiles if you really are in trouble with your letters.
“Sometimes even if you still play a word you will be left with terrible letters on your rack and you won’t score anything. There’s no point going on with dreadful letters, it will only get worse.”
“Also, keep on your rack one point letters. People think they are not worth much, but they go together to make bonus words. We call them stems.
“Another thing to be aware of is what we call hooks. A hook is a letter that will go on to the end or the beginning of a word to make another word.
“Like an s at the end to make a plural, that’s pretty straightforward. You could put s on the end of princes to make princess or h on the front of airline to make hairline. But sometimes they can be a little less obvious to spot.
“When someone plays a word, have a think about what could go on to the front or end of it and you might be able to take them by surprise.
ZA (11)
QI (11)
AX (9)
XU (9)
XI (9)
JO (9)
EX (9)
OX (9)
TREASURE FROM OLD GAMES: Boxes of Pokémon Cards Were Almost Thrown Away But Have Since Raised $50,000 for Family
“It’s only men that have won the world championships. I think women are a bit less competitive than men. Maybe they have a lot less free time.
“But I do wish more women would take it up—even just to try and play it. It’s great for your brain and keeping you thinking.”
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The largest wildlife rescue organization in India has started using acupuncture to help elephants recover from chronic pain, nerve damage, and mobility issues after their years of captivity or hard labor.
Their veterinary team sought training in alternative medicine so the techniques could be used alongside conventional veterinary medicine and found they boosted recovery rates when the usual treatments proved inadequate.
Founded 30 years ago, Wildlife SOS now runs 12 rescue and rehabilitation centers across the country, including the Elephant Conservation and Care Centre in Mathura, where veterinarians were first introduced to the potential of acupuncture while searching for ways to help Bani (pictured above), an orphaned calf who was left paralyzed after a tragic accident.
Determined to restore her ability to walk, the team began exploring alternative healing methods—from ayurvedic oil massages to hydrotherapy. Their search eventually led them to Thailand and the ancient art of acupuncture.
There, they connected Dr. Porrakote Rungsri, a Veterinary Acupuncture Specialist at Chiang Mai University and Dr. Huisheng Xie, Founder of the Chi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in the USA.
Under their guidance, Bani’s veterinarians learned the fundamentals of acupuncture and how this ancient practice could be adapted to treat various conditions in our resident elephants.
With roots tracing back 2,000 years, acupuncture tries to unblock the flow of energy through the body’s meridians, or energy channels. While the concept of invisible energy may sound abstract to many, its application of needles inserted along the meridians has shown practical benefits in veterinary—and human—medicine. By stimulating specific points along the body, acupuncture can help improve circulation, reduce pain, restore nerve function, and promote natural healing.
When the body is injured, damaged cells release chemicals such as prostaglandins, bradykinin, and substance P, which alert the nervous system. These chemicals activate nociceptors, special nerve sensors that convert the chemical signal into electrical signals. The pain signal is then carried by nerve fibers, and once the signal reaches the spinal cord, neurotransmitters in the brain interprets the signal, making pain both a physical and emotional experience.
“Many elephants rescued by Wildlife SOS have pain pathways overstimulated by years of abuse, poor nutrition, and untreated injuries, making chronic pain a major challenge to treat,” says the organization’s Natasha Ashok.
“Once our team gained expertise in acupuncture principles, we began applying it at our Elephant Hospital Campus, yielding remarkable improvements in several elephants.”
She says it has proven effective in alleviating pain, improving digestive issues (such as colic and constipation), and reducing inflammation in their elephants.
Many elephants rescued from exploitation, especially those used in the begging trade, suffer from severe joint and foot disorders such as osteoarthritis and stiff joints. These conditions are often the result of forced standing on hard surfaces or walking long distances on unnatural terrain.
Two such pachyderms, Holly and Zara, experience chronic arthritis and severe hindlimb pain that makes walking difficult. To ease their discomfort, our team applied electro-acupuncture (pictured above) and dry needling.
For Holly, whose knee (stifle joint) was injured in a fall, veterinarians also used a method called ‘circle the dragon’, where needles are placed in a circular pattern around the joint. This technique improves blood flow, reduces inflammation, and encourages healing.
Raju and Taj were rescued from captivity, suffering from long-term digestive problems. Poor diets, unnatural feeding practices, and limited movement can result in conditions like colic and constipation that persist even after rehabilitation.
Raju struggled with recurrent colic, while Taj frequently experienced constipation. To support their recovery, veterinarians inserted fine acupuncture needles into acu-points related to digestion for about 20 minutes.
They also used ‘moxibustion’ with burnt mugwort to warm meridian pathways near the skin at specific points. The integrative approach stimulated circulation and promoted bowel movement and gut health, which helped improve their digestive function.
Another arrival at the Wildlife SOS center, Vayu, had ventral edema (an abnormal collection of fluid under the skin) in the perineal and abdominal regions, and the team treated points along his belly and chest with moxibustion acupuncture to improve circulation, helping reduce the edema.
“Acupuncture has become a valuable therapy that works well alongside modern veterinary medicine in ways previously thought impossible,” the group wrote. “Its integration has brought significant improvements.”
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A year ago, Wildlife SOS held an elephant acupuncture workshop in their Mathura Care Center to get more people involved.
From baby Bani’s improving movement after paralysis to Holly, Zara, Raju, Taj, and Vayu gaining relief from debilitating conditions, these success stories affirm the power of combining holistic approaches appropriately with science-based treatments.
If you’d like to donate to care for these rescued elephants, visit their website.
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125 years ago, the African-American writer, poet, and playwright Langston Hughes was born on what would become the first day of Black History Month. Hughes became a prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance, writing often for The Crisis, the official magazine of the NAACP, as well as a weekly column in a primarily black newspaper called the Chicago Defender. He was also one of the earliest pioneers of what would become jazz poetry. Rather than simply taking an anti-segregation stance in his work he focused often on the divisions and prejudices within the black community itself, as well as many other cultural and societal aspects of America between the 1920s and the 1960s. READ more about Hughes and catch one of his poems… (1901)
