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Strangers Join Together to Rent 15-Passenger Van after Flight was Canceled–Take 10-hour Road Trip Instead

By
Andy Corbley
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A group of strangers banded together to rent a 15-person van after their flight was cancelled and went on a eight-hour road trip to their destination. See SWNS story SWSMvan. Alanah Story, 23, was travelling from Orlando, Florida to Knoxville, Tennessee when her flight home was cancelled. She had been visiting her family in Orlando with her mother Renee, 45, and her godmother, Robin, 50. Alanah and her family arrived at Orlando International airport for their 7 pm flight but found out that it was delayed. After waiting over an hour, their flight was eventually cancelled, leaving the group with little recourse to make their appointments on time. Alanah's mother Renee tried to get them booked on another flight but the airline Frontier was unable to give them assurances that they will be able to flight out that night. While at help desk, Renee met Carlos, a police officer also heading to Knoxville to visit the University of Tennessee with his daughter Michaela. The two agreed that they could rent a van and drive to Knoxville, located over 1,000 km (650 miles) away from Orlando. They suggested the idea to several passengers and they were able to gather a group of 13 passengers.
– SWNS

A determined mother’s positive thinking got her daughter home when her flight was canceled by helping to organize other stranded passengers to pitch in for a rental car.

Alanah Story was set for a 7:00 PM flight from Orlando to Knoxville when like so many others this year, it was delayed, then canceled.

Alanah’s mother Renee tried to book them on another flight, but Frontier Airlines was unable to give them assurances that they will be able to fly out that night.

While at help desk, Renee met Carlos, a police officer who “doesn’t argue” and was also heading to Knoxville for a 10:00 AM appointment with his daughter the next morning at a university. The two agreed that they could rent a van to drive there.

“I was off to one side because I didn’t want to be involved, my mom just turned to me and said ‘we’re headed downstairs to get a van, come on people!'” said Alanah. “Like 15 people followed her, I was just wondering what was happening.”

What was happening was that Carlos and Renee had suggested the idea to several passengers and they were able to gather a group of 13.

Among the rest of the group were Johan and Adolf, from Mexico, Michelle, who was headed to a farming convention in Knoxville as a keynote speaker, and Q, who was simply trying to get home.

ENJOY MORE HUMANITY:  Faith in Humanity Restored When Florida Teens Return Wallet and Refuse Reward

What started as a journey of convenience, ended after 650 miles, paced over 10 hours, with some brand new friendships.

“We made our 10:00 AM appointment, all because of a community that came together,” said Carlos in a video he posted to his TikTok.

Seth, another traveler, added that he “tried to nap a good bit, but I’d like to think that I was good moral support to Carlos, the driver, so I’m gonna go with that.”

SIMILAR: Southwest Airlines Workers Looked After a Passenger’s Pet Fish for 4 Months After it was Banned From Flight

“It was not a quiet ride,” Alanah said, “no one was getting any sleep on that drive, I think I slept around 20 minutes. I really couldn’t have picked a better group of people to make the trip with.”

Alanah made friends with Q, who lives in Knoxville, and the two are planning on going out for karaoke soon. Carlos’ wife Lauren and Alanah’s mother Renee have also kept in touch.

CHECK OUT: This Guy Missed Traveling and Has Recreated Airplane Meals to Get Through Lockdown

“The whole experience really confirmed my faith in humanity for a little bit, in the States right now we’re going through a period of division, so it was nice to see.”

In the end, all the passengers managed to keep their appointments, Carlos’ daughter made it to the university appointment and Michelle was able to deliver her speech as the keynote speaker.

ALANAH interviewed the whole gang, take a look!

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“Reflect upon your present blessings of which everyone has many—not on your past misfortunes, of which all people have some.” – Charles Dickens

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “Reflect upon your present blessings of which everyone has many—not on your past misfortunes, of which all people have some.” – Charles Dickens

Photo by: Lin Po-Tsen

With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?

After Her Book Launch Flops, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman and Margaret Atwood Swoop in With Support for Debut Author

By
Andy Corbley
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Chelsea Banning
Chelsea Banning

New author Chelsea Banning tweeted to being “a little embarrassed” after the first book signing of her first book was attended by no one but her two friends.

A blessing in disguise it was, as her tweet somehow attracted a large crowd of authors ranging from successful to legendary, sharing their own stories of book-signing flops.

The first to comment was bestselling crime author Linwood Barclay.

“Once sat out front of mall bookshop for a signing,” Barclay tweeted. “No one stopped, until the very end, when an old guy paused, looked at me, looked at the books, looked at me, approached and asked, ‘Do they sell flags here?’”

This was followed by even more famous names: maybe you’ve heard of them.

Some hours after Neil Gaiman and Margret Atwood helped console Banning, Stephen King arrived with his own anecdote.

Banning was optimistic upon arriving at Pretty Good Books in Ashtabula, Ohio, on the release weekend of her novel Of Crowns and Legends. She had secured 37 RSVPs for the signing, but only two friends came who she chatted to before becoming disappointed that no one else showed up.

“I have sat lonely at a signing table many times only to have someone approach … and ask me where the bathroom is,” serial author Jodi Picoult chimed in.

RELATED: High Schooler Self-Publishes Fantasy Novel Over Lockdowns as Break From Video Games-Gets Orders Worldwide

Fonzy actor Henry Winkler, who mused that it was only the beginning, and Flavor Flav of all people piled on as well, with the latter saying “Here to hype up ya next signing!”

Sales of her book on Amazon have skyrocketed, and she admitted to the Guardian to being “elated” and “definitely reassured.”

At the end of her career, there’s every chance it will be the most memorable book signing of them all.

SHARE This Heartwarming Story On Your Own Twitter…

True ‘River Monster’ of the Amazon Has Recovered Thanks to New Sustainable Fishing

By
Andy Corbley
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Photo by Verena Schäuble – CC license
Photo by Verena Schäuble – CC license

Some of the best conservation stories in history begin by properly organizing and regulating the hunting of that animal, and the “pirarucu” or arapaima, of the Amazon River Basin is a perfect example.

It used to take fishermen five days or more to land one, but sustainable fishing laws have have quadrupled their adult populations in some waterways, and increased them 10-fold in others.

The pirarucu is a prehistoric beast of a fish, with a gaping maw, red scales, and under-developed fins. They can weigh as much as 450 pounds (220 kilos) and grow 10 feet in length (3 meters).

Famous TV fisherman Jeremy Wade recorded an episode of his show River Monsters about reported pirarucu attacks on people; such is their monstrous size.

But for fishermen, who trap them with nets and wooden clubs, a single large adult inspires joy rather than dread, and can fetch $100—a major boon to their families who get by with subsistence farming outside the short fishing season.

During the 1960s, improved boat motors, ice machines, and fishing equipment led to overfishing of the pirarucu, and it wasn’t until the 90s that river-dwelling locals, indigenous communities, and Dutch missionaries banded together to petition the government for protection of the area from illegal fishermen.

In 2011 the managed fishing began, and every year since then fishermen row out to the lakes and floodplains of regions like Carauari, São Raimundo, Mamirarua, and Medio Jurua to count the pirarucu adults.

Along with being the largest fish in the Amazon Basin, they are also unique in that they need to surface for air—which like whales they sometimes do by slapping the water with their bright red tails.

The numbers are reported to environmental authorities, and 30% of that number is allowed to be caught in a three-week period of September the following year when water levels are lowest. Each one caught is tagged so buyers in Manaus—a large city three-days journey down the river, can be sure it wasn’t poached.

RELATED: Because Amazon Tribes Were Trusted, A True River Monster Was Saved

According to AP,  there were 1,335 pirarucus in the São Raimundo region in 2011. Last year, there were 4,092 specimens, according to their records.

In the Carauari region, the number of pirarucu spiked from 4,916, in 2011, to 46,839, ten years later.

“Our pirarucu is so tasty, everybody that eats it falls in love with it and wants more,” Rosilda da Cunha, a sister of Manoel who lives in Sao Raimundo, told the AP.

The money these extremely rural communities make from this fishing is allowing them to buy solar panel arrays to supplement the diesel generators they use for electricity.

SIMILAR: Incredible Discovery Beneath the Southern Amazon Reveals Urban-Agrarian Society Never Seen Before

In America, every charismatic bird and mammal seemed to have its own brush with extinction. Regulated hunting was a piece of the conservation puzzle that led to massive recoveries—some of which led to flourishing of greater numbers than were seen when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth.

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Overdose Prevention Vending Machine Has Stopped Hundreds of Deaths from Fentanyl in Cincinnati

By
Andy Corbley
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The vending machines outside Caracole.
The vending machine outside Caracole.

Wanting to see if a simple idea could help a huge problem, a Cincinnati health center filled a vending machine with overdose prevention equipment and asked a university to record its uses.

From February to November in 2021, a call center registered 637 anonymous people for the program giving them an access code to the vending machine, which then distributed 3,360 naloxone doses and 10,155 fentanyl test strips.

Located in Hamilton County, Ohio, the machine is credited for a reduction in drug overdose deaths—as well as HIV incidence—and is still operating at the Caracole HIV/AIDS treatment center.

A University of Cincinnati scientist studying its effects, Daniel Arendt, described the method as “harm reduction,” which acknowledges that some people always have used drugs, and probably always will, even if they are potentially lethal in large doses.

Harm reduction, as the Univ. of Cincinnati press release describes, is a paradigm that “does not support or enable drug use, but instead aims to empathetically meet people where they are in the course of their drug use and help empower them to take steps which minimize the potential hazards associated with its use.”

To this end, program participants were able to visit the vending machine 24/7, away from prying eyes and judgmental glances.

Naloxone is the drug that can counteract opioid overdoses, and the test strips can test drugs, like heroin, that can potentially contain fentanyl. The machine also has safer injection kits, tourniquets, and bandages.

POPULAR: 14 Years After Decriminalizing Heroin, Here’s What Portugal Looks Like

The machine was first conceived, put together, and operated by Caracole, an HIV/AIDS service organization in Cincinnati with the help of their non-profit partner Interact for Health.

“If you are interested in stopping, we’re here to help,” said Arendt. “But if not, we aren’t going to turn you away and refuse to help. We are going to work with you and help you take steps that will help keep you safe.”

RELATED: Instead of Buying New Car, Retired Paramedic Spends $40K on Overdose Prevention Kits and Already Saved 94 Lives

Some of the results are extremely encouraging. At the time the study was published, clients reported 288 overdoses were reversed with naloxone, a number which almost reached 1,000 by the time of writing. More than two-thirds of those who reenrolled after their first enrollment detected fentanyl present in the drugs they were consuming.

“You would never tell someone who has wildly uncontrolled diabetes to get their blood sugar in check before we will help them or give them insulin,” Arendt said.

“So it is critical to recognize that substance use is not a moral failing, and it’s not this thing that should be stigmatized. Instead, we can acknowledge that drug use is becoming increasingly risky, and we can use that recognition to help spur the development of new, innovative methods of providing people with the care, services and support that they need, no strings attached.”

READ ALSO: Drug to Reverse a Loved One’s Heroin Overdose Now Readily Available on Walgreens Shelves

These sorts of vending machines have some data of their use in Europe that show they do help, and Arendt’s data is the first research done in America, despite such machines being located in Las Vegas and Puerto Rico.

Editor’s note: This story has been altered to correctly reflect Caracole’s inception and leadership of the project, and that the machine is still where it was found during the study period. 

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Woman’s Name and Tiny Sketches Found in 1,300-Year-Old Medieval Text was Hidden for 12 Centuries

By
Andy Corbley
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Human beings have a well-known urge to leave marks of our passing on things we interact with, and a new state-of-the-art 3D scan of a Medieval manuscript has shown just that.

“Eadburg” was her name; an 8th century scribe translating the Acts of the Apostles during the Monastic period in England from Latin into Old English, who left her name and several stick-figure like drawings on the manuscript.

Questions abound—she used no ink, only the dry point of her quill; her full name was etched into the manuscript’s margins five times, while abbreviations appear another ten times.

The 3D imaging of the manuscript was carried out at the Bodleian Library at Oxford, under the work of the ARCHiOx Project of using a new technology to scan many of the library’s most treasured artifacts for exactly this kind of hidden information.

“It’s a hugely significant and very powerful text—the word of God, conveyed through the apostles. And I think that might be at least part of the reason why somebody chose to write Eadburg’s name into it, so that she was close to that,” said Jessica Hodgkinson, a Ph.D. student at the University of Leicester who made the discovery.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: Historians Stunned: Uzbekistan Nomads Supplied a Third of the Bronze Used Across Ancient Mediterranean

The manuscript also includes two doodles—there’s no other way to describe them—of a person with outstretched arms and a second who is turning their back on the first, with a hand raised in protest trailing behind.

Hodgkinson hopes to study the names and doodles further in the coming months, as well as perhaps try to pinpoint who Eadburg might have been.

Since those who could speak and write both Old English and Latin were among the most educated in society during the 8th century, it’s possible records of the woman scribe exist, in particular, Hodgkinson has found, an abbess from Kent with the same name.

SIMILAR: Smells Like History: Academics Recreate the Lost Smells of Europe for Museums

“We don’t know all that much about Eadburg, but now, because of this amazing technology, we’ve seen her name, we know she was there,” said Hodgkinson. “She’s here, in this book —and it speaks across the centuries.”

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“Difficulties illuminate existence, but they must be fresh and of high quality.” – Tom Robbins

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “Difficulties illuminate existence, but they must be fresh and of high quality.” – Tom Robbins

Photo by: Louis Hansel

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?

3D Printed Violins Could Deliver Music into Many More Classrooms With Cheap Price Point

By
Andy Corbley
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The Acoustical Society of America is 3D-printing violins to make the instrument more affordable for hundreds more children and adults who want to learn how to play.

Learning how to play music with a poorly built instrument can lead to poor technique, but quality violins are thousands of dollars.

The society’s AVIVA Young Artists Program is using a specially engineered plastic polymer substance that replicates the tonal qualities of a traditionally built violin. The neck and fingerboard are also printed in plastic to ensure a comfortable grip for musicians.

“There’s nothing quite like the sound of a [well-made] violin,” said program director Mary Elizabeth Brown. “Building such a quality string instrument takes time, perfect materials, and a lot of skill, and the best ones can cost millions of dollars.”

“Even mediocre violins can cost thousands, which puts them out of reach for most beginners and music classrooms.”

AVIVA has helped kids of all ages pursue music, particularly with violins, and has described the sound as darker and more mellow than a normal violin.

“Our goals were to explore the new sound world created by using new materials, to leverage the new technology being used in other disciplines, and to make music education sustainable and accessible through the printing of more durable instruments,” said Brown.

MORE MUSIC IN THE CLASSROOM: People Who Play Music While Studying More Likely to Have Higher GPA, Says New Poll

Violins aren’t the first instrument to be 3D-printed, Interesting Engineering details that guitars and saxophones have also been printed.

For anyone looking to be notified when the AVIVA Young Artists program is in their area, and printed violins are available, they can join the program’s mailing list.

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World’s First Solar Car Goes into Production – a 4 Passenger EV That Can Run on the Sun

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Good News Network
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Lightyear 0 solar panels on roof
Lightyear 0 assembly line – SWNS

The world’s first solar car has begun production—a 4-5 passenger EV that hails a new chapter in automotive history.

The Dutch company Lightyear officially commenced assembly of its first vehicle, aptly titled ‘Lightyear 0’, becoming the first automotive firm to manufacture an electric vehicle that generates a realistic amount of charge via sunlight.

Taking advantage of as much body space as possible with their 5 curved solar arrays totaling 53 square feet, the Lightyear 0 (formerly the Lightyear One; see more pics here) charges wherever there is daylight, whether parked or on the move.

Lightyear claims the model can yield up to 40 miles of free range per day from the sun alone (70 km), explaining, “with an infinite power source like that on its roof, Lightyear 0 can drive for months without charging.”

Non-solar charging can be achieved by plugging into a regular home socket, which will offer over 186 miles (300 kilometers) of of range overnight.

“After six years of developing its own technologies, Lightyear has surpassed one of the most challenging phases for new automotive companies: entering the market with novel technology,” said the company in a statement.

Lightyear 0 solar panels on roof

At the Valmet Automotive facility in Finland, the firm plans to produce one of the cars every week—priced at around $255,000 (£216,000), with plans to scale up production in the first quarter of 2023 to help wealthy city-drivers decarbonize.

SIMILAR: Battery Tech Breakthrough Paves Way for Mass Adoption of Affordable/Fast Charging Electric Cars

If in the next 10-20 years solar panels can become greater producers of energy, electric cars would finally circumvent the criticism that just because a car uses electricity and not fossil fuels, doesn’t mean its any better for the environment since most electricity is generated through fossil fuels.

“We have hit many milestones in recent years, from major funding achievements to great partnerships,” said Lex Hoefsloot, CEO and Co-Founder of Lightyear. “However, today is the most significant, and probably the most challenging, milestone we have reached so far.”

Dutch company Lightyear

RELATED: EV Charging Answer: Quantum Technology Will Cut Time it Takes to Charge Electric Cars to Just 9 Seconds

“Starting production of Lightyear 0, the first solar car, brings us a big step closer to our mission of clean mobility for everyone, everywhere. We may be the first to achieve this, but I certainly hope we aren’t the last.”

WATCH a word from the company…

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Once Devastated Pacific Reefs See Amazing Rebirth, Recovering With ‘Shocking Speed’

By
Andy Corbley
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Millennium atoll one of the Southern Line Islands - CC 2.0.
Millennium atoll one of the Southern Line Islands – CC 2.0.

As remote as they were beautiful, the coral reefs around the 5 volcano tips making up the Southern Line Islands dazzled National Geographc explorers in 2009 during a visit.

Remarking that they re-painted the image of what a pristine coral reef looks like—bursting with color and life—the team of the Pristine Seas Expedition had been crushed when a record-warming even in 2015 called El Niño caused mass coral die offs.

Then a return in 2021 revealed a remarkable scene—bright healthy corals teeming with life as far down as 100 feet off the island slopes. After record numbers of coral deaths, a team member estimated their populations averaged around 43 million to 53 million coral colonies per square mile.

The Southern Line Islands belong to the Pacific island nation of Kiribati, and Enric Sala, a marine biologist and member of Pristine Seas, detailed that it took longer to reach them by plane and boat than it took the astronauts of the Apollo missions to land on the Moon.

During the 2017 trip to Vostock, Flint, and Millennium islands, the vast swaths of cauliflower corals, pocillopora were all gone, while the species acropora was also hard hit. Some other species were less damaged however, giving the Sala, who was preoccupied at the time and didn’t get to join the 2017 trip, hope they could recover.

In fact, the expedition found promising signs the reef could do just that, since rather than being covered with seaweed, the dead corals were covered in “crustose coralline algae” a marine plant which coral larvae can latch onto to build new reefs in the same way that a brick latches onto mortar.

Sure enough, this foundation led to near-total regeneration of the reefs around the Southern Line Islands.

“The reef was covered by light-blue corals that looked like giant roses—a garden of Montipora aequituberculata stretching as far as I could see,” says Sala.

MORE CORAL NEWS: Breeding Corals for the Great Barrier Reef Achieves First Out-of-Season Spawning Event Ever

Since the Southern Line Islands are so remote, no one was keeping an eye on how the corals were able to regrow so significantly, but Sala has an idea. Since most of the montipora were the same size, it’s possible that one or two massive coral spawning events, where they reproduce and launch their eggs out into the sea before the larvae rain back down on the reef, are enough to repopulate large areas of dead corals.

Its resilience earned it the moniker of a “super reef” among the crew.

“The corals that were resistant to the phenomenal 2015-16 El Niño provided the reefs’ resilience,” wrote Sala. “The Southern Line Islands lie in one of the hottest hot spots of warming in the Pacific Ocean, so the corals apparently have adapted to heat.”

RELATED: Parts of the Great Barrier Reef Show Highest Coral Cover in 36 Years

As for the flush of the mortar-like crustose coralline aglae over the dead corals as opposed to seaweed, Sala chalks it up to the out-the-wazoo numbers of grazing fish like zebrafish, parrotfish, surgeonfish, and others that would simply devour any seaweed before it could overgrow the coral.

Kiribati’s government has ensured that these seas which have never seen large-scale commercial fishing, will never see it, and now make up the Southern Line Islands Marine Protected Area (SLIMPA)

DON’T miss this mini-doc from Nat Geo on the 2009 expedition…

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Stargazing in December: Check Out the ‘Mars Ballet’, a Meteor Shower, and The ‘Cold Moon’

By
Andy Corbley
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Meteor shower – NASA
Meteor shower – NASA

If you don’t mind the nip of the cold, this month’s celestial phenomena are ones to watch, and include a Nutcracker ballet between the Moon and Mars, and the king of the meteor showers.

Mars is at its brightest this December between the 7th and 8th, when an occultation occurs. This is the passing of the Moon directly across Mars, and will take place between late night on the 7th and early morning on the 8th, depending on your location.

The Griffith Observatory in California will be streaming the celestial event.

Mars will also partake in a pas de deux with the Sun when on the night of the 8th, the Red Planet will be perfectly framed with the light of the sun passing around the Earth. The surface details of Mars will be visible with telescopes and binoculars on this night.

Orbiting back to the Moon, it will be full on the 8th of December, and is the last full-moon of autumn.

The full moon this month is known as the Cold Moon, for obvious reasons. The Old Farmer’s Almanac has collected the traditional names for moons from the Native Americans, and they are as follows: Drift Clearing Moon (Cree) Frost Exploding Trees Moon (Cree), Moon of the Popping Trees (Oglala), Hoar Frost Moon (Cree), Snow Moon (Haida, Cherokee), Winter Maker Moon (Western Abenaki), Moon When the Deer Shed Their Antlers (Dakota), Little Spirit Moon (Anishinaabe), and Long Night Moon (Mohican).

Also in December is the Winter Solstice, the last day of autumn and the longest night of the year.

On that same night there will be a good time to see Mercury, as it rises to its highest point in the sky this year, and farthest away from sunset.

Between December 7th and the 17th, the Geminid Meteor Shower will pelt the sky with 120 multi-colored streamers per night with peak pelting occuring between the 13th and the 14th.

Between the 17th and Christmas, one can also see the Ursid Meteor Shower, which is less spectacular and more for meteor junkies and the hipster-class of celestial phenomenon viewers.

RELATED: Brightest Jupiter in 70 Years Appears in the East Two Hours After Sundown Thanks to Near-Perfect “Opposition”

Meteor showers were named once upon a time after the constellation from which they appear to originate from—the Geminids from Gemini, and the Ursids from Ursa the Bear.

Look to the east around 2:00 AM to see the Geminids at peak, and the North to see the Ursids—the New Moon on December 23rd will offer the best chance to see this sparser showing.

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“The bad news: There is no shortcut to success. The good news is, it’s doable.” – Don Santo

By
Good News Network
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Joshua Earle

Quote of the Day: “The bad news: There is no shortcut to success. The good news is, it’s doable.” – Don Santo

Photo: Joshua Earle

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?

Man Returns Library Book He Needed for Fixing an Old Mercedes 47 Years Overdue with an Apology Letter

By
Andy Corbley
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Lake Elmo Library / FB

47 years ago, a Minnesota man walked into his local library and took out a book that subsequently got lost during a move.

Now, nearly half a century later, he returned the book with an apology letter and a donation to cover the cost of a new book.

He returned it anonymously, and over the mail—”wisely” as local news WREG Memphis described it, “thereby avoiding the disapproving glare of any librarians at the front desk.”

The book was “Chilton’s Foreign Car Repair Manual” and was checked out in 1975 from Lake Elmo location of the Washington County Library, and it included the following explanation:

“In the mid-1970s, I was living in [Lake Elmo] and was working on an old Mercedes Benz. I took out this book for reference. A few months later I moved and apparently the book got packed up in the move. Forty-seven years later I found it … in a trunk with other interesting things from the ‘70s. It’s a little overdue but I thought you might want it back,” the borrower wrote.

RELATED: 8-Year-old Slips His Handwritten Book Onto a Library Shelf—And It Now Has a Years-Long Waitlist

“My apologies to anyone in Lake Elmo who was working on an old Benz in the last 47 years. I probably can’t afford the overdue charge but I will send you enough for a new book.”

The librarians contacted were just happy to have the book back, and seemed charmed enough by the gesture. They wrote on the library Facebook Page that they no longer charge daily late fees, but only flat replacement fees if the book was lost or damaged.

They intend to use the money to buy a more updated version, as the pages of the returned book were yellow as grain mustard, and the pictures sill in black and white.

SHARE This Cute Local Library Story With Your Friends… 

Male or Female, Old or Young, New Survey Show Parrots Can All Speak at the Same Level

By
Andy Corbley
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Did you know that parrots know when to use the phrases they mimic from their owners? That’s just one fascinating discovery that has come out through a large crowdsourced dataset on mimicry among parrots.

In a project entitled “What Does Polly Say?” 900 parrot owners answered a survey about the speaking habits of their birds, of which 73 species were represented. The results indicated that parrot vocal learning varies from without, but not so much from within species, suggesting that the mechanisms and functions of learning also vary.

No other species has been found to use true language, a term scientists use to distinguish between it and vocalization, in which animals use sounds to communicate. Where the line is drawn probably lies on top of decades of scientific arguments.

However parrots can command pretty astonishing mimicry skills that not only include mimicking accents, but also improvisation (e.g. rearranging words) and using what they learn in appropriate human contexts.

Despite these amazing abilities, the birds’ gregariousness varies based on unexpected grounds. Age and gender were poor predictors of mimicry: a 50-year-old parrot had the some vocal repertoire as a 5-year-old parrot on average, and whether the sex of the bird was male or female also didn’t alter the performance.

What did affect it was the species. African gray parrots are long known master mimics, which came out in the survey data. They are capable of producing repertoires of 60 words, while amazons, cockatoos, and macaws all managed 20-30 words.

As most genders in most species didn’t vary on words, there were some variations on other behaviors.

MORE PARROT NEWS: Brilliant Bruce the Disabled Parrot Uses Pebbles to Clean Himself With Broken Beak—Something Never Before Observed

Budgerigar males had larger vocal repertoires than females, and male Pacific parrotlets were the only ones that would “talk.” Among yellow-headed amazons, the females learned more sounds, but of all these differences, they were statistically insignificant.

But perhaps the coolest finding in the data was that 89% of parrots understood how to use their mimicry in exactly the right context as a human would.

RELATED: Scientists Discover Baby Seals Can Change Their Tone of Voice – And Mimic Sounds Like Parrots

Some parrots, about half, would often or on occasion rearrange the words they learned to form spontaneous utterances.

“This research highlights just how much parrots still have to teach us,” said co-author Christine Dahlin.

WATCH Christine’s parrot Yoko go on a speaking-spree…

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Two Channel Island Plants Found Nowhere Else are Off Endangered Species List and Now Flourishing

By
Good News Network
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- CC John Game
Island Bedstraw and the Santa Cruz liveforever – CC John Game

Two plants that live on California’s Channel Islands and nowhere else on earth have reached recovery thanks to Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections.

The Santa Cruz Island dudleya and island bedstraw are now recommended for delisting after the Fish and Wildlife Service restored their population to flourishing levels with the help of partners like the Nature Conservancy.

The ESA is the most successful conservation legislation of any nation, preventing 99% all species listed since 1973—around 291—from going extinct.

In 1997, the Service determined 13 plants on California’s northern Channel Islands needed ESA protections as a result of decades of habitat loss and alteration due to sheep grazing and soil loss caused by rooting of non-native feral pigs.

By 2000, sheep grazing ended, and by 2006, all non-native feral pigs were removed from the islands. In 2000, the Service worked with botanists and land managers to develop a recovery plan to guide recovery efforts for the imperiled plants.

Island bedstraw (Galium buxifolium) is a long-lived woody shrub with small flowers that lives on coastal bluffs, steep rocky slopes, sea-cliffs, and occasionally pine forests, on Santa Cruz and San Miguel islands. At the time of listing, population estimates were in the hundreds. Helicopter surveys from 2017 estimate more than 15,000 individual plants now occur on the islands.

RELATED: 50 Years of Conservation Finally Lifts This Beloved Warbler Off The Endangered Species List

The Santa Cruz Island dudleya (Dudleya nesiotica) also known as the “liveforever” is a flowering succulent perennial that lives on Santa Cruz Island. Scientists say the population has remained relatively stable over the last 25 years, with current estimates around 120,000 individuals.

“The recovery of these island plants is the result of long-term cooperation and conservation efforts by scientists and land managers,” said Paul Souza, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Pacific Southwest Region. “That’s what the ESA can bring to the table – attention, resources, and incentive for sustained conservation work that produces meaningful results.”

SIMILAR: After Facing Extinction, This Midwestern Bird is Now Soaring Off Endangered Species List

Isolation over thousands of years has gifted these five islands with unique animals and plants found nowhere else on Earth.

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“Let go of the thoughts that don’t make you strong.” – Karen Salmansohn

By
Good News Network
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Credit: Nathan Dumlao

Quote of the Day: “Let go of the thoughts that don’t make you strong.” – Karen Salmansohn

Photo: Nathan Dumlao

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?

Livin’ Good Currency Ep. 23: Miriam Nelson on Wielding the Power of Fresh Food to Help Kids

By
Andy Corbley
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The Lesson: Newman’s Own brand pizzas, pasta, lemonade, salad dressing, etc. has raised $600 million through its for-profit operations and its purpose-driven foundation, in what is now its 40th year of operations since Paul Newman first bottled up his homemade salad dressing, caused a market craze, and then gave away all the money he earned that fiscal year. Now following the actor’s death in 2008, the foundation gives away all the profits and royalties from its sales in order to support children—nutritionally and otherwise—for children that face adversity.

Notable Excerpt: “We look at food as one of the essential school supplies. It’s hard for a child to learn if they aren’t well-nourished, and when a kid grows something, I can tell you they love everything they grow; but it’s even more than that. That’s critical but it’s also changing the system and that’s really what our foundation is all about is really thinking about the ecosystem change.”

The Guest: Dr. Miriam Nelson is an international leader, scientist, author and social entrepreneur renowned for her extensive research, policy work, and civic action in public health, children’s wellness, sustainability, and food systems. In her current role as the President and CEO of the Newman’s Own Foundation, she is leading the Foundation’s new and more focused mission to nourish and transform the lives of children who face adversity.

In addition to authoring the bestselling Strong Women books, a series of ten including five New York Times bestsellers that provide evidence-based strategies to help woman live strong and healthy lives (more than one million copies in 14 languages), she has authored or co-authored more than 100 scientific studies, research papers, and policy reports, many of them introducing groundbreaking findings.

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:

Are you ready to start your health journey today? Go to viome.com/goodcurrency to get $50 off Viome’s Full Body Intelligence test or bundle, the most advanced at-home health test currently available to consumers. Use Promo Code: CURRENCY50

Join us and over 400,000 like-minded people who have already discovered the Viome difference. Get personalized and precise recommendations on how to optimize your health and help you function at peak performance.

Believe it or Not, Leprosy Offers the Potential to Regenerate Livers – Cutting Transplant Wait Times

By
Andy Corbley
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Seven banded armadillo, a natural carrier of leprosy, by Warren Garst – CC 4.0
Seven banded armadillo, a natural carrier of leprosy, by Warren Garst – CC 4.0

Leprosy has appeared in medical literature as far back as there has been medical literature, but its latest appearance doesn’t involve talk of a treatment or cure, but rather a unique ability the parasites that cause leprosy have to regenerate livers.

The findings suggest the possibility of adapting this natural process to renew aging livers and repair damaged ones to increase health span in humans and remove a significant number of those waiting on liver transplant lists.

Working with the US Department of Health and Human Services in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a team from the Univ. of Edinburgh observed that the livers of 57 armadillos, a natural carrier of the leprosy parasite, were enlarged compared to uninfected ones, but healthy and without damage.

“If we can identify how bacteria grow the liver as a functional organ without causing adverse effects in living animals, we may be able to translate that knowledge to develop safer therapeutic interventions to rejuvenate aging livers and to regenerate damaged tissues,” said Professor Anura Rambukkana, lead author from University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Regenerative Medicine.

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

Inside, the team found the infected livers demonstrated gene-expression similar to those of young livers or even fetal livers, suggesting that the “rejuvenated state” observed in the liver cells was due to their biological age being reversed.

Genes related to metabolism, growth and cell proliferation were activated and those linked with aging were down-regulated, or suppressed.

Scientists think this is because the bacteria reprogramed the liver cells, returning them to the earlier stage of progenitor cells, which in turn became new hepatocytes and grow new liver tissues.

RELATED: Manuka Honey Could Help to Clear Deadly Bacteria Which Cause Cystic Fibrosis

The team are hopeful that the discovery has the potential to help develop interventions for aging and damaged livers in humans. Liver diseases currently result in two million deaths a year worldwide.

This is not to be construed as a PSA to go find an armadillo to kiss if you have a liver disease.

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He’s Earned a CNN HERO Award for Transforming Lives on City Streets Where he Once Sold Drugs

By
Andy Corbley
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Tyrique Glasgow with kids - CNN Heroes.
Tyrique Glasgow with kids – CNN Heroes.

If you walked into Tyrique’s community center on Taney Street in South Phillidelphia, you’d see a kind man devoting his working hours everyday to supporting the children of his neighborhood.

What you wouldn’t see is the long, hard, and tragic road Tyrique Glasgow took to arrive there, through a life of drug-dealing, crime, prison, and accumulating 11 gunshot wounds.

“When you run a block, like, you are the face. You’re the one who that community of people know. You set rules and boundaries,” Glasgow, now 39, told CNN. “It’s a dangerous life, but it’s a normal life.”

“I got tired of my community following me in a negative direction and I wanted them to follow me in a positive direction,” he said. “The kids really gave me a purpose.”

Today, Glasgow is up for a CNN Hero award. He runs the community center out of a building he used to use for drug-dealing, and which now gives children a safe place to enjoy summer camps, afterschool activities, or just play and get away from the violence and despair that has become all too common in the area.

He coaches a flag football team, a girl’s dance squad, and runs the Young Chances Foundation to create safe programing for urban youths and low resource families to grow and thrive. He recently renovated a vacant lot from an eyesore and known drug stash into a community vegetable garden.

WATCH: Master Violinist Performing for Inmates Receives Unexpectedly Enthusiastic Ovation (Watch)

His approach of activities and community roundtable engagements with police officers has had a radical effect on the well-being of his neighborhood, with shooting rates dramatically falling within the 17th police district, even while increasing elsewhere in the city.

Glasgow doesn’t stop at youth however, he also helps connect people with addiction therapy, rental assistance, GED classes, and mental health counseling.

RELATED: English Footballer Marcus Rashford Donates Millions For Child Poverty, Becomes Youngest-Ever to Top ‘Giving List’

“It helps reduce poverty, stress, trauma, and when your quality of life is up, the crime goes down,” said Glasgow. “I try to bring people to the table to take them off the menu. They accept me because I don’t point the finger at them. I look at them and see me. I’m one of them.”

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‘Turning Back the Tide of Extinction’ Australian Mammals Are Coming Back: Bandicoots, Bilbies, Potoroos

By
Andy Corbley
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Gilbert's potoroo released at Two Peoples Bay – DBCA
Gilbert’s potoroo released at Two Peoples Bay – DBCA

For all those roo-ting for Australian wildlife, there are reasons to jump for joy as several endangered marsupials begin the road to recovery in their native habitats.

Starting with the world’s most-endangered marsupial, 4 male and 2 female Gilbert’s potoroos were released into the great southern region of the state of Western Australia.

After being threatened with extinction from a bushfire that reduced their numbers to 100, an insurance population was established on Bald Island, and a specially fenced-off area within Waychinicup National Park.

From these populations come the six pioneers that will hopefully lead to a rapid recovery in Two Peoples Bay, on the slopes of Mount Gardner, Western Australia.

The potoroos were fitted with GPS trackers and radio transmitters.

“We’ll be able to find out where they move, where they feed, and where they sleep,” said Potoroo researcher Tony Friend. “It’s important as we hope to learn if the potoroos can use the area that was burnt in 2015 … the vegetation is not as thick.”

MORE AUSTRALIA NEWS: A Baby Boom For Cutest Animal Not Seen in Australia for Decades: ‘Feels Like a Modern Jurassic Park’

Australia’s small marsupials can breed fast if food is plentiful and they are not over-hunted by feral cats and invasive foxes, something that conservationists in New South Wales, working with the golden banicoot are seeing.

These smaller marsupials have been locally-extirpated from the far north-west for over 100 years. Now, after being reintroduced earlier this year in May, they are breeding at exceedlingly-fast rates within Sturt National Park.

Golden bandicoot by Amareta Kelly – CC 2.0

Their gestation period is mere weeks, and their young are protected in their mother’s pouch until they’re old enough to move freely.

The reintroduction was handled by Wild Deserts, a project from the Univ. of New South Wales that reintroduced bilbies—another marsupial extinct locally for over 100 years—back to Sturt in 2020.

Indeed the AUD$40 million program has saved and expanded 7 other species beyond the golden bandicoot and bilbies, and NSW Environment Minister James Griffin said it’s not only leading Australia “but the world,” as well.

SIMILAR: Destroyed by Fire, Drought, and Dust Storms, These Australian Marshes Needed Only Two Years to Completely Recover

“We’re turning back that tide of extinction,” said Atticus Fleming, NSW Acting Coordinator General, “We’re bringing back bandicoots, bilbies, numbats…”

A recent trapping campaign to count how many golden bandicoot joeys were among the breeding females showed “absolutely flourishing popluations.”

Wild Deserts project coordinator Reece Pedler said the project has more species on the list, and are working through the approvals on what animals to reintroduce next year.

WATCH the golden bandicoot release from May…

SHARE All These Tiny Mammals’ Returns To Wild Australia On Social Media…

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