Quote of the Day: “If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.” – Thomas Aquinas (a quote about hand-wringing)
Photo by: Joakim Honkasalo (cropped) – Helsinki, Finland
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Celebrate the Chinese New Year—or Lunar New Year—this Sunday, as we say farewell to the celestial sign of the Tiger and enter the year of the Rabbit (tù (兔).
In the Chinese zodiac, rabbits are born every twelve years—in 2011, 1999, 1987, 1975, 1963, 1951, and so on.
Rabbit is a zodiac sign associated with the element of wood, although 2023 is the year of the water Rabbit.
For the uninitiated, there are 10 heavenly stems, represented by the five elements and the yin/yang dichotomy (5 x 2 = 10) which make up traditional Chinese astrology of a 60 year cycle.
Water years of yin will end in 3, i.e. 2023, while water years of yang will end in 2, i.e. 2022. Therefore this is the earthly-branch sign Rabbit, in the heavenly stem of water, in the year of yin. The last year of the water Rabbit was 1963.
With that out of the way, what will a yin-water Rabbit expect this year?
The horoscopes published in anticipation of the Year of the Rabbit suggest a year that’s anything but dull for. This is partially because, when averaged across a variety of horoscope websites—there’s almost no overlap—they all say completely different things.
Expect either incredible challenge, incredible reward, or anything in between. It’s a good year to have a baby, it’s also a bad year to have a baby. It’s a good year to start a new business, it’s also a bad year to start a new business. Rabbits will be healthy, but they also shouldn’t eat too much if they live in a temperate climate, but they also need to spend a lot of money to prevent aging, and they should have a lot of check ups, but they will also experience a lot of physical training breakthroughs… one gets the point.
FUN QUIZ: Baboon, Bear, or Bison: Find Out Which Animal Personality Best Matches Yours in a Free Fun Quiz
The reason the Rabbit is the fourth Chinese zodiac sign sounds a lot like the old tale of the Tortoise and the Hare.
When the Jade Emperor called all the animals to his palace, the Rabbit who was mighty proud of his speed, arrived first only to see no other animal was there. Taking a nap aside the road, he woke up to discover that Tiger, Ox, and Mouse had all arrived before him.
The most famous water Rabbit of modern times is Michael Jordan—the greatest basketball player to ever live. Although the horoscope for the water Rabbit, and the rabbit in general is of a quiet, super-polite (masculine trait) scholar that is gentle, weak-willed and quick to learn, and no one who ever met Michael Jordan described him as any of these things.
Famous Rabbits in general include Albert Einstein (Earth), Angelina Jolee and former spouse Brad Pitt, David Beckham (Wood), and Lionel Messi (Fire).
One thing the horoscopes agree on is that Rabbits, especially in this year of the water Rabbit, since water is the weakest point of matter, either when it is already dead or decaying, should stay away from Roosters—the least compatible sign for Rabbits.
Lucky numbers are 3, 6, and 9, and the auspicious direction is southwest. Unlucky colors are brown, white, and yellow; lucky colors are essentially everyone else.
RELATED: Seeing a Glass As Half-Full May Say More About Someone’s Personality Than Just Being Optimistic
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Scientists working in techno-agriculture have found that by covering crops with canopies of translucent solar panels, they can separate the light which generates energy from the light that leads to photosynthesis in plants.
This not only means a farmer could generate solar energy and crops at the same time, but better crops, and more energy than could be achieved with the two operations separately.
Different-colored light from our sun impacts biology on Earth in different ways. The blue spectrum of sunlight for example is what life uses to detect daytime, and is a trigger for major hormonal shifts in animals and plants from active to inactive behaviors.
Red light on the other end is preferentially what plants use to turn carbon dioxide into sugars. Red light isn’t as hot as blue light, and plants exposed to growing conditions with red light spectra show less heat stress than those exposed to blue light. Blue light on the other hand is what is needed to generate solar power in any meaningful way.
With this in mind, associate professor Majdi Abou Najm from the Univ. of California, Davis, tested organic solar panels made from translucent material that absorb the blue light to generate electricity, but allow the red light with its longer wavelengths to pass through to the crops below.
At the UC Davis Agricultural Experiment Station, Abou Najm and his team planted three different plots of processing tomatoes, a common central valley California crop, under a canopy of selective red light, another of selective blue, and a third uncovered plot.
MORE AGRICULTURE NEWS: California Begins Covering Canals with Solar Panels to Fight Drought
While the filtered light crops resulted in one-third less yield from the reduced sunlight, they produced half as many heat stressed, or “bad” tomatoes as the uncovered plot.
When the electricity and water savings are added in, the resulting picture becomes very profitable.
GNN has reported before on the recent phenomenon of “agrivoltaics,” a practice of growing shade tolerant crops under solar panel arrays. The shade protects the crops from heat stress, while the plants’ transpiration humidifies the air beneath the panels, cooling them down and increasing their electricity output.
MORE SOLAR NEWS: Solar Company Gets Bright Idea to Cover Storage Facilities in Solar Panels—Brings Power to 1,400 Homes
Abou Najm sees his translucent solar canopies as the inevitable next step in this practice as one doesn’t need to alternate rows of panels, nor deprive plants of the sun’s feeding rays.
Another benefit of these panels is that like plants’ leaves, they absorb light from the sun indirectly, unlike the large metal panels typical of arrays and rooftops that need direct sunlight to function.
SHINE A LIGHT On Your Friends’ Social Media Pages With This Hot Story…
2022 saw major advances, and even victories in the efforts to combat several diseases, from industrialized to tropical ones.
Starting at home, a study last year found that US cancer deaths had declined by 33% since 1991. This is equivalent to around 3.8 million people alive thanks to various efforts to combat the disease family.
The report was authored by the American Cancer Society, and published in the journal CA. American Cancer Society CEO Karen Knudsen called the drop “truly formidable,” while the report attributed the fall to the development of better treatments, the reduction in smoking habits, and earlier detection methods.
Just between 2019 and 2020, cancer death rates dropped 1.5%, while the deployment of the HPV vaccine was correlated with a 65% drop in cervical cancer rates from 2012 through 2019 among women in their 30s.
The report also found that not only are death rates falling, but 5-year survival rates for detected cancers have increased 68% among all diagnoses made between 2012 and 2018.
Cancer research often involves cutting edge medical research, but across West Africa and India where cutting edge medicine is not widely available, human determination has succeeded in nearly eradicating Guinea Worm disease.
There are records of this truly unpleasant parasite affecting human health going back thousands of years, and in 1989, there were nearly 1 million cases globally.
But in 2022, this unwelcome waterborne guest created just 15 cases worldwide—a decline of 99.998%, and almost all 15 of those cases occurred in Chad.
MORE MEDICINE NEWS: Nigerian Mom Designs Solar-Powered Cribs That Put an End to Baby Jaundice Disease
This monumental turnaround was not the result of some experimental vaccine, but simple education, teaching people how to avoid drinking contaminated water, when and where this mostly seasonal parasite is likely to be found, and how to treat water to purify it of the Guinea worm.
Other than Chad, Guinea Worm disease was also found in Uganda, which produced another medical milestone with the successful eradication of a recent Ebola outbreak.
The outbreak began in September, driven on by the incurable Sudan strain of the virus. It was the worst outbreak in 20 years, but even though there is no vaccine for the Sudan strain, the health authorities managed to contain it to just two administrative districts, and 142 confirmed cases.
READ ALSO: The Humble Potato Could Hold the Key to Beating Hospital Superbugs as Well as Crop Diseases
“The magic bullet has been our communities who understood the importance of doing what was needed to end the outbreak, and took action,” said health minister Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng Ocero last Wednesday.
Vaccine trials involving Oxford University are currently underway for the Sudan strain, but until that time, health authorities received congratulations for their swift actions, and were thanked for the “lessons learned.”
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A man from Luck, Wisconsin, population 1,191, just won the highest Megabucks lottery jackpot in 8 years after picking up $15.1 million.
Mark Cunningham bought the big winning ticket at Wayne’s Food Plus on 151 Butternut Ave. Luck.
Cunningham came to the Wisconsin Lottery office in Madison on Monday to claim his winning ticket, saying in a release that “Dreams really do come true,” while adding “I actually won $15.1 million and two dollars, [because] I also had a $2 winning ticket for the same drawing.”
The day was almost as crazy for the manager of Wayne’s Food Plus, who said he got “lots of phone calls.”
“I was told by the Lottery people that, now you’re going to be that Mecca,” Manager Paul Wondra said in a release from the state lottery company. “You sold a big ticket. You’re going to be the place to go. So far, it’s holding true.”
The village of Luck is about 2.5 square miles, and was founded by Danish immigrants in the late 1800s on the shores of Big Butternut Lake. Another town called West Denmark was founded by the same people to the northwest, on the shores of Little Butternut Lake.
The two settlements knew it was impractical to remain separate entities, but disagreed about which would be the center of town.
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The humor is reminiscent of GNN’s recent report that the town of “Dull” in Scotland decided in 2012 to twin itself with “Boring,” Oregon in the hopes it would make both more exciting.
In 2017, the mayor of a town called “Bland” in New South Wales, Australia, decided they wanted to get in on the act, and suggesting that together the towns could promote a tourist circuit known as the ‘Trinity of Tedium.’
Other US towns like Dreary and Ordinary have also been touted as potential partners.
MAKE Your Friends Laugh With This Incredible Turn Of Luck…
Quote of the Day: “Put your heart, mind, and soul into even your smallest acts. This is the secret of success.” – Swami Sivananda
Photo by: copyright GWC
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
A study looking to find the bare minimum of physical activity required to prevent the well documented ill effects of continuous sitting determined that 5 minutes of walking every half hour was enough.
By looking at blood sugar levels and blood pressure, two important metrics of heart disease, the scientists were able to determine how much daily movement was required to get back to equilibrium from the negative effects of sitting.
Picture if you will, an office worker. Waking in the morning in time for coffee and perhaps breakfast with perhaps a spouse or perhaps children, the day begins with at least some sitting. Then climbing into one’s car, the office worker drives in a seated position to the office. There, between lunch and desk work, the worker spends 8-9 hours sitting before returning home, sitting in their car. Once home, they likely sit down for dinner, and perhaps a bit of television or reading; both done from the seated position.
Sitting time for adults in industrialized nations has been climbing for decades, and it increases the risk for all the diseases typical of those nations, i.e. type-2 diabetes, cancer, heart disease, stroke, fatty liver disease, etc.
In a new study published in Medicine Science in Sports and Exercise, Keith Diaz et al. asked 11 healthy middle-aged individuals to complete an experiment in which they sat in a lab for 8 hours a day for 5 days to represent a normal workweek.
On some days they sat for the whole 8 hours, only rising for bathroom breaks. On others they were engaged in short bouts of walking with differing regularities to find the lowest amount of movement required to reduce their blood sugar and blood pressure.
CHECK OUT: Exercise Can Help Older Adults Retain Memories
“We found that a 5-minute light walk every half-hour was the only strategy that reduced blood sugar levels substantially compared with sitting all day,” Diaz wrote in The Conversation.
“In particular, 5-minute walks every half-hour reduced the blood sugar spike after eating by almost 60%, [and] that strategy also reduced blood pressure by four to five points compared with sitting all day.”
Defining exercise, and time spent in exercise has become a focus of physiologists of late, as recent evidence points out that time spent in movement for work purposes doesn’t confer the protections from the diseases mentioned above the same way exercise does. Where the dividing line between movement for work and movement for exercise sits is not well understood.
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Furthermore, multi-day bouts of prolonged sitting creates an “exercise resistance” that can render even something like a 60-minute moderate intensity run meaningless in terms of its improvement for cardio-metabolic health.
This new research offers a concrete guideline for desk workers or office managers to employ, one that doesn’t rely on general guidelines from government agencies like the Dept. of Health and Human Services that simply state “move more, sit less,” or which recommend 150 minutes of moderate to intense physical activity per week, and which don’t address potential solutions for the workplace.
READ MORE: There’s ‘No Link’ Between Exercise and Developing Arthritis in the Knee
Exercise targets should be set if at all possible at levels to maintain robust muscle mass and cardiovascular strength, since there’s much more to life than just avoiding early death by common disease.
Exercise can protect against several forms of dementia, and of course maintaining muscle mass protects joints from age-related wear and tear or impacts—as goes the saying, “break your hip, die of pneumonia.”
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For the first time in 400 years, beavers are back in the wilds of Hampshire, southern England.
Once hunted to extinction, this toothy engineer is now in high demand, and it’s hoped their building of dams will restore much of the local fresh water features that have suffered in their absence.
Given the names ‘Hazel’ and ‘Chompy’ through a naming competition by local schoolchildren, the Eurasian beavers have never met each other, but it’s hoped they will breed.
Hazel and Chompy were released onto the 925-acre (370-hectare) Ewhurst Estate near Basingstoke, Hampshire, owned by a Malaysian-born model and actress Mandy Lieu who was “thrilled” to have them, and who sees them as key to restoring ponds, streams, and wetlands on the estate.
Throughout Europe and America, beavers were hunted in many places to extinction for their furs, but they’re now in high demand for their incredible natural abilities as engineers. By building their dams they create and enrich ponds and streams, which for Eurocrat lawmakers means more carbon dioxide absorption in the soil.
The dams slow the passage of water through landscapes which has a variety of effects, including reducing flood risks downstream by expanding adjacent wetlands, and increasing the habitat for aquatic and semi-aquatic animals in the ecosystem.
To do the same thing with humans would undoubtedly cost millions in labor and administration, with on-site safety procedures, zoning and council planning, regulation, the renting of earth-moving equipment, accompanied scientific observational studies, reports to higher-ups, etc.
MORE REWILDING: Irish Metalhead Turns His Ancestral Estate into Model of Rewilding: It Naturally Grew Into Biodiverse Eden
“[B]eavers do this all for free!” said the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, who helped organize the reintroduction at Ewhurst after a similar program on the Isle of Wight.
“…Beavers offer a nature-based solution to improving the health and function of river catchments. The beaver-created wetlands can act as sponges which can capture organic sediments, and reduce the effects of agricultural runoff and harmful chemicals such as pesticides, which in turn helps to improve water quality downstream.”
Ms. Lieu helped with their release as part of her designs to rewild the Ewhurst Estate into an edible landscape that restores nature while providing wild foods. She said she was thrilled to see and help them settle into their environment.
WATCH the release here from the BBC.
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A man who may have saved the lives of 24 people by breaking into a school in Cheektowaga, upstate NY during the ‘worst storm in a generation’ has been given Super Bowl Tickets by his hometown team.
Jay Withey, the 27-year-old mechanic and hero, received the reward for his live-saving actions from the Buffalo Bills in collaboration with Blue Cross Blue Shield.
Legendary former Bills running back Thurman Thomas personally delivered the surprise to Withey on Friday, reports CNN.
“We love you. We know what you did on Christmas Eve was very heroic, and you’re our hero,” Thurman told Withey in a video released by the team.
“I can’t believe how far [the news of his deed] got. I got thank you letters from Australia, it’s wild,” says Withney.
He rescued 24 people from their cars during the Buffalo blizzard and sheltered them in a nearby school.@ThurmanThomas, @PThomas3434, and @BCBSWNY thanked Jay Withey for his acts of heroism with two tickets to Super Bowl LVII! ❤️💙 pic.twitter.com/ftHmXcRkzZ
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) January 13, 2023
Jay broke a window of Edge Academy on Christmas Eve in order to get 2 dozen people, including several seniors and two dogs, out of hurricane-force winds, snow, and deathly cold temperatures. He borrowed the academy’s snowblower to get people unstuck from the roads and into the school.
MORE LIKE THIS: McDonald’s Workers Open Their Restaurant as a 24-hour Storm Shelter During Blizzard in North East
Once inside, he found granola bars, water, and blankets in the nurses’ office, and gathered apples, juice, and cereal from the kitchen. The group sat out the storm, and before leaving cleaned up every trace of their presence.
One of the group, Mario Johnson, went back to the school to replace their stock of granola bars and inquire about the cost of the window.
The school declined to press any charges, nor accept any of Mario’s repeated attempts to pay for the window. “They’re just happy that we were safe and warm,” Mario said.
READ THE ORIGINAL STORY: Local Hero Broke into School to Save 24 People During a New York Blizzard
“The selflessness that people showed to help others during the storm is what Western NY is really made of,” a Police spokesperson said about the incident on Facebook.
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Poised to become one of the largest libraries in China, the new Wuhan Central Library takes inspiration from its geographical positioning at the confluence of two rivers.
Just as the waters at the confluence of the Yangtze and Han rivers are pulled into a central channel, visitors are swept into the library as if into a monumental canyon, with sedimentary layers replaced by shelves of books.
The 140,000-square-meter project connects to its surroundings via three large openings that will act as visual displays of life inside the building, sparking curiosity and intrigue. This distinctive, three-faced flowing shape celebrates the position of the “city of 100 lakes” at the confluence of two rivers, and will become a new recognisable landmark for Wuhan.
Managed by Dutch architects MVRDV, the library celebrates the sculptural force of rivers, and is set to be the focus of a “city versus nature” exterior scene, with tall vertical windows looking out over Wuhan’s central business district, and a long horizontal windowed wall looking out on a large park coming as part of the project.
“The topography of Wuhan was an important source of inspiration: we have this idea of a horizontal view towards the lakes and on the other hand, we have this more vertical view towards the city with the high rises,” says Jacob van Rijs, founding partner of MVRDV on their website.
MORE ARCHITECTURE NEWS: ‘Best New Skyscraper’ Mimics Nature: Looks Like 2 Mountains With a Valley, Water, and Greenery Between – LOOK
“This is nature versus the city, and the building is somehow focusing on this. I think this makes it an exciting place to gather.”
Large native trees will shade exposed areas of the interior from Wuhan’s hot climate. The advantage of using native vegetation is that little maintenance is needed to support their growth.
Sets of angled slats fixed at regular intervals called “louvres” will coat the roof of the building to reduce heat absorption.
“Openable elements for natural ventilation, combined with the use of smart devices and an efficient lighting system further reduce the building’s energy demands, while solar panels incorporated into the library’s flowing roof shapes provide the building with renewable energy,” the architects’ website explains.
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Quote of the Day: “You can’t help getting older, but you don’t have to get old.” – George Burns
Photo by: Jaddy Liu
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A device that can harvest water from the air and provide hydrogen fuel—entirely powered by solar energy—has been a long-held dream of scientists, but it’s now close to fulfillment.
Chemical engineer Kevin Sivula and his team have made a significant step towards bringing this vision closer to reality by developing an ingenious yet simple system.
It combines semiconductor-based technology with novel electrodes that have two key characteristics: they are porous, to maximize contact with water in the air; and transparent, to maximize sunlight exposure of the semiconductor coating.
When the device is simply exposed to sunlight, it takes water from the air and produces hydrogen gas, which can then be injected into trucks, trains, or planes with hydrogen fuel cell batteries for green combustion.
In their research for renewable fossil-free fuels, engineers at the Federal Polytechnic School at Lausanne, in collaboration with Toyota Motor Europe, took inspiration from the way plants are able to convert sunlight into chemical energy using carbon dioxide from the air.
A plant essentially harvests carbon dioxide and water from its environment, and with the extra boost of energy from sunlight, can transform these molecules into sugars and starches, a process known as photosynthesis.
“Developing our prototype device was challenging since transparent gas-diffusion electrodes have not been previously demonstrated, and we had to develop new procedures for each step,” said Marina Caretti, lead author of the work.
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“However, since each step is relatively simple and scalable, I think that our approach will open new horizons for a wide range of applications starting from gas diffusion substrates for solar-driven hydrogen production.”
Coating a silicon oxide felt wafer with a transparent thin film of fluorine-doped tin oxide, resulted in a a transparent, porous, and conducting wafer, essential for maximizing contact with the water molecules in the air and letting photons through. A second transparent coating of semiconductor materials absorbs sunlight, and completes the process.
SIMILAR: New Solar-Powered Invention Creates Hydrogen Fuel from the Air
A proof of concept study in truth, the researchers nevertheless proved that hydrogen gas can be produced via sunlight and moisture in the air at a rate of 12%, compared to a 19% rate found in similar technologies for producing liquid hydrogen fuels, work which Dr. Sivula has also been a part of.
Will We Generate Hydrogen Fuel From Sunlight Someday? Share With Your Friends…
An empire which lasted 500 years was famous among writers for making a place in its society for animals, and the “bird palaces” of Istanbul are testament to that testimony.
Dating back as early as the 13th and 14th centuries, the bird palaces reflected an Ottoman Empire policy of compassion towards all living things, created as they are by god. Found on the sides of mosques, houses, fountains, libraries, baths, inns, and madrasas, these functional works of art make parts of the huge metropolis which is modern Istanbul an unlikely place for migratory birds like swallows and even storks.
“Storks and swallows can nest in birdhouses without fear of being shooed away. Dogs run loose on the streets, and people walk among them, carrying meat to feed cats and dogs,” wrote French traveler and painter Antoine-Laurent Castellan in 1812.
To wit, GNN reported just last year about how Istanbul pays for outdoor cat shelter areas for strays who become intertwined with the fabric of society due to their excellence as rat catchers and friendly companions.
“28th Ottoman Sultan Selim III ordered two birdhouses in the form of mansions be built on the walls of Selimiye Mosque,” reports Betül Tilmaç for the Daily Sabah, who came up with the idea of sharing these interesting cultural relics with the world.
It’s a far cry from city ordinances on pigeon spikes covering important buildings in the West today.
Tilmaç continues the historical quotations by referencing another French traveler Jean de Thevenot, who wrote that the Turk’s “benevolence extends to animals and birds,” and that the people who built the bird palaces “gave these houses names such as “birdhouse,” “dove hut” and “sparrow palace.”
RELATED: Istanbul Improves the Lives of Thousands of Stray Cats with Elaborate Outdoor Cat Houses
In the 19th century, the Ottomans built the Gurabahane-i Laklakan—an animal hospital in the city for migratory birds, especially the aforementioned storks.
It’s a beautiful reminder that no matter how large a city might grow, and Istanbul has 15 million inhabitants, if there’s room in a human heart for our feathered brethren, there’s room in a city.
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A woodcutter who built his own Hobbit house revealed he has never watched Lord of the Rings, but nevertheless lives in it almost off-grid despite being nearly 90.
Great-grandad Stuart Grant moved into the cottage he bought as a wreck with no roof and no doors in 1984 while he was renovating a house, but found it was so satisfying doing DIY on the quirky building which dated back 200 years, that he decided to make it his home.
He doesn’t have a mobile phone or use the internet and no longer drives due to his age, but he loves getting out and meeting people, which is good considering he has been inundated with visitors to his home in Tomich, near Inverness, after his house was posted on a French tourist board’s recommendations for north Scotland.
“I haven’t watched Lord of the Rings,” said Grant, who worked as a joiner and carpenter for decades. “it’s just a coincidence that my front door is almost the same shape and same kind of wood.”
“It was a shoemakers’ cottage and a croft. There was no roof, just four walls which are 200 years old. It is not a fancy house, it is made from other people’s leftovers.”
The old house had doorways, but no doors; window frames, but no windows, and there was no roof either. Outside there were only cows, chickens, and a donkey as neighbors. Building everything by hand, he described as working in “slow motion,” while living in a shed near to the cabin.
“I was always a glutton for scenic beauty, beautiful houses, and thatched cottages in England,” said Grant. “I cut the wood myself from fallen trees and collected stones from the river for the stonework. I put the stairs in. It took quite a few years, I never counted it. I just enjoyed doing it so much—I was getting such a buzz out of doing it.”
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As the tourists began coming—busloads—they would routinely apologize for disturbing him say they would probably feel a lot better if there were a collection box. He eventually acquiesced but insists no one has to put anything in it. Fast-forward to present day and he’s pulled over £5,000 out of it.
“You get a real buzz out of doing interesting stuff. I’ll be 90 in less than two weeks but I feel like a teenager,” he added.
TAKE a tour and meet Grant for yourself…
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After years of complex restoration work, the villa of two of Pompeii’s richest citizens has been reopened.
Buried by Vesuvius in 79 CE, the House of the Vettii “tells the story of Roman society,” with elegant frescoes flaunting the wealth accumulated in the wine business by two freed slaves.
Their names were Aulus Vettius Restitutus and Aulus Vettius Conviva, and rather than being brothers, it was more likely based on Roman naming customs that they were buddies in slavery to a master named Aulus Vettius.
Whenever they returned as freedmen, they amassed a great fortune with which they bought a house in Pompeii’s wealthy district and filled it with art. The home is protected by the god Priapus—god of fertility, displayed in a wall frieze and marble statue with a comically-large phallus.
Inside, the walls are lined with a large frieze of Cupids doing craftwork, probably representing the business the two men owned, and of other deities like Neptune (Poseidon the god of the sea).
The focal point of the dwelling is a large square garden filled with water fountains and statues.
RELATED: Piece of Ancient Graffiti Reveals New Clues About the Day Pompeii Was Destroyed
In a room beyond the kitchen it’s believed the two men ran a brothel, as the decorations became a lot raunchier. Next to Priapus at the entrance is a small inscription in Latin which refers to a Greek woman with “nice manners.”
It seems the men who had whittled away some years in slavery were not going to waste any time missing out on a chance to enrich themselves.
Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Pompeii Archaeological Park, told the Guardian that if there were one house he could visit in a time machine before the famous volcano buried the city, it would be the House of the Vettii, describing the number of treasures uncovered within as “absolutely astonishing.”
MORE ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS: Exquisite Mosaic Unearthed by Farmer Planting Olive Tree, ‘Perfectly Preserved’ From Byzantine Era
This is the house which tells the story of Roman society,” he said. “On the one hand you have the artwork, paintings and statues, and on the other you have the social story [of the freed slaves]. The house is one of the relatively few in Pompeii for which we have the names of the owners.”
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Quote of the Day: “If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Photo by: Daniel Salcius
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
The Lesson: Expressing genuine interest in learning, in a job, in what other people have to say, in showing up even when you aren’t necessarily needed, this is a behavior which boardrooms around the world will want to vacuum up, as long as one makes certain they see it.
Notable Excerpt: “One of the things I’ve learned is that every human adds value to our collective story; you have to believe that. If you’re really going to believe in making the world a better place, you have to believe that every human adds value. And if you believe that then you’re open to having meaningful conversations with everyone no matter where they are in this moment in life, so I don’t care if I’m on a bus, or a plane, or a train, or the street, or the slum, or the boardroom, I’m genuinely interested in learning from the people next to me.”
The Guest: Carrie Rich believes in making the world better through business and leadership. That is why she co-founded The Global Good Fund ten years ago to invest in high potential, overlooked social entrepreneurs. She also founded the Global Impact Fund, which is dedicated to investing in socially impactful businesses primarily led by black, brown and women founders.
Carrie’s fourth book, Impact The World: Live Your Values and Drive Changes as a Citizen Statesperson, was published by Wiley in May 2022 and is now a WSJ and Amazon Best Seller. Carrie is the recipient of the POLITICO Women Who Rule Award, Washington Business Journal 40 under 40, and many others.
The Podcast: Livin’ Good Currency explores the relationship of time to our lives. It focuses on learning how super-successful people align their purpose with their passions to do good for themselves and others daily, and features a co-host who knows better than anyone the value of time (see below). How do you want to spend your life? This hour can inspire you, along with upcoming guests, to be sure you are ‘Livin’ Good Currency’ and never get caught running out of time.
The Hosts: Good News Network fans will know Tony (Anthony) Samadani as the co-owner of GNN and its Chief of Strategic Partnerships. Co-host Tobias Tubbs was handed a double life sentence without the possibility of parole for a crime he didn’t commit. Behind bars, he used his own version of the Livin’ Good Currency formula to inspire young men in prison to turn their hours into honors. An expert in conflict resolution, spirituality, and philosophy, Tobias is a master gardener who employs ex-felons to grow their Good Currency by planting crops and feeding neighborhoods.
Episode Resources:
Carrie Rich | Twitter
Global Good Fund | Website
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Gardening could help reduce the risk of cancer, boost mental health and bring communities together, according to new research.
Scientists say it leads to eating more fibrous fruits and vegetables, exercising more and building social connections, which together can ease stress and anxiety and lower the risk of various illnesses.
“No matter where you go, people say there’s just something about gardening that makes them feel better,” said Dr. Jill Litt, a professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
In a classic case of correlation or causation, while it’s known that those who garden tend to be a healthier weight and eat more fruit and vegetables, it’s unclear whether healthier people just tend to garden more or whether gardening influences health.
To find the answer, Dr. Litt recruited 291 non-gardening adults with an average age of 41 from the Denver area.
Half were assigned to the community gardening group and the other half were put in a control group that was asked to wait one year to start gardening.
CHECK OUT GNN’s GOOD GARDENING SECTION: Good Gardening Week 7: What Are Your Best Gardening Hacks? Check Out Last Week’s Answers
The gardening group received a free community garden plot, some seeds and seedlings, and an introductory gardening course.
Both groups were surveyed about their nutritional intake and mental health. They also underwent body measurements and wore activity monitors.
The group started in spring and by autumn those in the gardening group were eating on average 1.4 grams, or 7% more fiber per day than the control group. It may seem like a small difference, but it isn’t.
“An increase of one gram of fiber can have large, positive effects on health,” said co-author James Hebert, director of the University of South Carolina’s cancer prevention and control program.
The gardening group also upped their physical activity by around 42 minutes per week, and saw their stress and anxiety levels decrease, with those who came in the most stressed and anxious seeing the biggest drop in mental health issues.
RELATED: 8 in 10 Youth Think Gardening is Cool, and Half Would Rather Visit a Garden Center Than a Nightclub
Many of the participants live in areas where access to affordable fresh fruits and vegetables is extremely limited.
Some were low-income immigrants living in gardenless apartments, and having a garden plot allowed them to grow food cheaply. Community gardening can also build social connections within communities and offer a space for people to share their culture.
“Even if you come to the garden looking to grow your food on your own in a quiet place, you start to look at your neighbor’s plot and share techniques and recipes, and over time relationships bloom,” said Dr. Litt.
“It’s not just about the fruits and vegetables. It’s also about being in a natural space outdoors together with others.”
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With the debut of a Moroccan-born test for breast cancer and leukemia, the continent has achieved its first domestic cancer test, one that could reduce cost and wait times significantly.
Most diagnostics kits are imported from Europe or North America, and as such require time and money which many hospitals in poorer countries may not have.
“The price of the kit can be double that of what it would cost to manufacture it locally. It is also a long process. It can take weeks or months for the kits to arrive,” said Hassan Sefrioui, an executive board member of the Moroccan Foundation for Advanced Science, Innovation and Research (MASciR), which developed the new tests.
Apart from the other nations of the Colorful Continent, Morocco herself will be helped greatly by the tests. Breast cancer, reports the Guardian, is the most prevalent form in the country, and a leading killer of women.
Moreover, the results of imported tests for some cancers have to be exported back to France for diagnosis. MASciR’s leukemia test has already been used on 400 people, and can instead gather results in a few hours.
MORE MEDICINE NEWS: Aggressive Breast Cancer Could Be Tamed By Ingredient Found in Cardamom Spice, Say Scientists
MASciR was one of the first firms in Africa to develop a COVID-19 test, which was sold in the Francophone nations of Tunisia, Senegal, and Ivory Coast, as well as Rwanda. The cancer tests will likely be available in these countries first.
Because of the need to import raw materials, it’s likely the tests will still be more expensive than imported European ones, at least for the first few years. Officials at the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation believe that if MASciR is well-supported the costs will come down quickly and significantly.
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Across America, cities are choosing to upcycle their felled urban trees into valuable products rather than chipping them, burning them, or dumping them into the landfill.
Along with being more generally favorable to the environment, it’s a trend that’s leading to entrepreneurial innovation, as a network of urban woodworkers has coalesced around municipalities looking to do something more productive with waste lumber.
When processed, sold, and utilized to its highest value, the U.S. could produce nearly 8 billion board-feet of urban-sourced lumber annually, or around 10% of the production that the traditional lumber industry gathers from America’s forests.
An article from Pew Charitable Trusts reports that in 2018, city leaders in Harrisonburg, Virginia, began a wood utilization effort that saw felled municipal trees go into making park benches, planter boxes, and conference room desks.
The article continues in Maryland, where the Baltimore Wood Project, a U.S. Forest Service-led effort to promote urban wood reclamation, has provided more than 65,000 board-feet for city constructions of fishing piers, pedestrian bridges, and wellness centers.
Out west, West Coast Arborists are serving this cause in 350 cities across California and Arizona, lobbying for city ordinances on shade trees and other urban tree planting programs to adopt the planting of tree species with a high end-use value for the purpose of upcycling and reclamation.
Recently, West Coast Arborists began supplying lumber from felled urban trees to Taylor Guitars, who were looking for Shamel ash and red ironbark eucalyptus trees for several of their models.
Urban Hardwoods, a Seattle-based bespoke furniture maker, runs its own sawmill for the processing of trees received through Urban Wood Network, an industry collaborator that connects municipalities, sawmills, arborists, finished goods producers, and others in a giant web of urban wood reclamation activity.
All of Urban Hardwoods’ beautiful furniture is made from trees cut down as part of the tree-surgeon work in Seattle within a 15-mile radius of the store.
Nearby, Oregon also has a program from its environmental department for the recycling of shrubs, limbs, and other wood that can’t be turned into high-end products. It instead turns them into biochar, a recently developed soil amendment that involves heating wood over fire without access to oxygen.
When placed in soil, biochar acts like a sponge to soak up minerals and water, as well as acting as something nice, nutritious and solid for a tree or shrub to wrap its roots around.
It’s not as carbon-neutral as furniture, but making biochar and other fertilizers produces less CO2 than shredding trees into chips, burning them, or loading up a landfill.
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