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The Galapagos Penguin, One of the World’s Rarest, Sees a Glimmer of Hope

By
Andy Corbley
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Courtesy of Galapagos Conservation Trust
Courtesy of Galapagos Conservation Trust

The Galapagos Islands are famous for their marine iguanas, their giant tortoises, and their seabirds, but they also host the world’s most northerly-dwelling penguin.

Even though their populations have suffered greatly from the influx of invasive species like feral cats, a determined conservation effort is seeing their numbers rebound.

No one quite knows why or how there are penguins on the Galapagos Islands. The working hypothesis, since they are closely related to Humboldt and Magellanic penguins from Africa, is that they caught an ocean current millions of years ago which brought them, somehow, all the way around Cape Horn and up to the Equator.

The Galapagos penguins, like their cousins from Africa, dwell in burrows under the ground, but with no soft soil or peat to dig them into, they have adapted to use the openings of extinct lava tubes from when the islands were formed.

These were also prime shelter spots for introduced predators on the islands, and so penguin expert and biologist P. Dee Boersma has been using light machinery to cut new burrows for the penguins into the black rock of the other islands where the burden of introduced predators is either less-severe or non-existent.

Boersma and her colleagues have dug a total of 120 of these sorts of nests as part of a conservation effort funded by National Geographic, the Galapagos Conservancy, and others. A population census shows they’re inhabited mostly by juveniles, which has Boersma hoping they are in fact recovering in a significant way.

“Nobody knew if Galapagos penguins were going to any of our constructed nests, but in fact they do use them,” Dr. Boersma explains in the video below, “and several of them have been used multiple times. So they’re laying eggs in them, they’re hatching them, and they’re fledging their chicks in them.”

SIMILAR: A 15 Million-Acre Protected Superhighway Near Galapagos Was Just Created to Preserve Marine Life

At the moment they are found principally on Isabela and Fernandina islands, but also on Bartolome, where it’s not uncommon for people to end up swimming with them.

“As long as they have a lot of good-quality nests, then the population should build back up,” Boersma, who has been studying these animals for a half century, told Nat Geo.

WATCH more about these birds… 

Give Viral Wings To This Wingless Birds’ Story On Social Media…

CAR T-Cell Therapy Sends Lupus into Remission for Patients, Using Specially-Armed Immune Cells

By
Andy Corbley
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A lupus-mutated B-cell – NIAID

A decade ago, CAR T-cell therapy changed the face of cancer research and treatment. It’s now been applied in a small trial to lupus patients with total success.

Four female patients and one male whose lupus had been untreatable were given an infusion of genetically-engineered immune cells called T-cells, which attacked another group of cells that do the damage in lupus patients, sending all five into remission.

Lupus is an autoimmune disease, meaning the autonomic immune system begins attacking the body. In the case of lupus, defective immune cells called B-cells produce autoantibodies which attack the patient’s own cells rather than hostile pathogens.

It can cause a large variety of symptoms as varied and mild as fatigue, and as serious as organ damage and failure.

In the trial, CAR T-cell therapy, which has been approved for a variety of cancers, was applied to instruct the genetics of the T-cells in the five lupus patients not to target cancer cells, but these defective autoantibody-producing B-cells.

RELATED: Scientists Discover Genetic Cause of Lupus, a Chronic Autoimmune Disease

The T-cells carried the field, and after a dramatic depletion in B-cell count, sent the lupus into a kind of remission. When the patients’ B-cells recovered after four months, they were no longer creating the autoantibodies, the Guardian reported.

Despite this self-destruct sequence of the B-cells, the patients’ immune systems seemed to be working normally followings tests.

MORE CAR T-CELL STORIES: Doctors Say Cancer Patients Cured a Decade After Immune Cell Therapy at University of Pennsylvania

“We are very excited about these results,” Friedrich-Alexander University rheumatologist and study lead Georg Schett told the Guardian.

“Several other autoimmune diseases which are dependent on B cells and show autoantibodies may respond to this treatment. These include rheumatoid arthritis, myositis and systemic sclerosis. But also diseases like multiple sclerosis may be very responsive to CAR T-cell treatment.”

Maybe You Know Someone With Lupus—Share This Story…

Intel Unveils Real-Time Deepfake Detector, Claims 96% Accuracy Rate

By
Andy Corbley
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Intel technology has created the world’s first real-time deepfake detection software to root out this most-sophisticated of impersonation technologies.

The software uses tiny changes in image pixelation related to the movement of blood through human veins to detect whether a recorded video is real or fake with 96% accuracy.

Called FakeCatcher, it’s the first program that can catch deepfakes in real time, as most other detection apps require uploading videos for analysis, then waiting hours for results. They tend to need large data sets for deep learning programs to pour over.

Refreshingly, Ilke Demir, senior staff research scientist in Intel Labs opted for a more organic approach; one that also increases efficiency, as it’s capable of monitoring 72 video streams at once.

“FakeCatcher is the first approach that is telling us why we are real, why we are authentic,” said Demir. “It’s like a watermark of being human.”

We live in strange times, and the deep fake is a good example of how far our technological power has, as Dr. King once said, outgrown our spiritual power.

Using databases of video camera footage or recorded speech, deepfakes use computer learning to construct audio or video recordings of real people saying and doing things they have never said or done. Politicians, radio personalities, or actors—people with long histories of recorded material, are at particularly elevated risk for deepfakes.

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Take Joe Rogan for example: he is both a now-controversial personality, and one of the most recorded voices in American history between his time as a comedian, UFC commentator, and podcaster.

If the majority of Joe Rogan Experience podcasts last 3 hours, and we say for argument’s sake he speaks half the time, then someone attempting to make a deepfake of Rogan would have around 3,000 hours of words to choose from across his almost-2,000 episodes.

The reason for this explanation is that someone already did this, and Rogan played it on his show to highlight the difficulties future societes will have in trying to determine what’s real.

The deepfakers created a fake announcement using recorded audio of Rogan, to create a fake announcement that Rogan was investing into a professional ice hockey team consisting entirely of chimpanzees. Don’t let your kids hear it though, as the deepfaker didn’t skimp on the vulgarity.

Rogan isn’t the only one; several celebrities like Elon Musk, Jordan Peterson, and Leonardo DiCaprio have all already been the subject of this digital impersonation

RELATED: Korea is Using Artificial Intelligence to Prevent Suicide Attempts on Bridges

Businesses too, are at risk for these videos. Estimates range as high as $188 billion per year for American businesses to defend themselves against all manner of security threats originating from impersonations.

“FakeCatcher is a part of a bigger research team at Intel called Trusted Media, which is working on manipulated content detection—deepfakes—responsible generation and media provenance,” she said. “In the shorter term, detection is actually the solution to deepfakes — and we are developing many different detectors based on different authenticity clues, like gaze detection.”

You can watch the program work in this presentation video here.

SHARE This Hi-Tech Story With Your Friends On Social Media… 

Efforts to Save Endangered Blue Butterfly Quadruples its Population–but Also Saves a Lupine from Extinction

By
Andy Corbley
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Female and male Fender’s blue butterflies

In the Willamette Valley of Oregon, the long study of a butterfly once thought extinct has led to a chain reaction of conservation in a long-cultivated region.

The conservation work, along with helping other species, has been so successful that the Fender’s blue butterfly is slated to be downlisted from Endangered to Threatened on the Endangered Species List—only the second time an insect has made such a recovery.

To live out its nectar-drinking existence in the upland prairie ecosystem in northwest Oregon, Fender’s blue relies on the help of other species, including humans, but also ants, and a particular species of lupine.

After Fender’s blue was rediscovered in the 1980s, 50 years after being declared extinct, scientists realized that the net had to be cast wide to ensure its continued survival; work which is now restoring these upland ecosystems to their pre-colonial state, welcoming indigenous knowledge back onto the land, and spreading the Kincaid lupine around the Willamette Valley.

First collected in 1929, Fender’s blue disappeared for decades. By the time it was rediscovered only 3,400 or so were estimated to exist, while much of the Willamette Valley that was its home had been turned over to farming on the lowland prairie, and grazing on the slopes and buttes.

Now its numbers have quadrupled, largely due to a recovery plan enacted by the Fish and Wildlife Service that targeted the revival at scale of Kincaid’s lupine, a perennial flower of equal rarity. Grown en-masse by inmates of correctional facility programs that teach green-thumb skills for when they rejoin society, these finicky flowers have also exploded in numbers.

RELATED: Wintering Monarch Butterflies Bounce Back in Mexico – Numbers Surge by 35%

The lupines needed the kind of upland prairie that’s now hard to find in the valley where they once flourished because of the native Kalapuya people’s regular cultural burning of the meadows.

While it sounds counterintuitive to burn a meadow to increase numbers of flowers and butterflies, grasses and forbs become too dense in the absence of such disturbances, while their fine soil building eventually creates ideal terrain for woody shrubs, trees, and thus the end of the grassland altogether.

Fender’s blue caterpillars produce a little bit of nectar, which nearby ants eat. This has led over evolutionary time to a co-dependent relationship, where the ants actively protect the caterpillars. High grasses and woody shrubs however prevent the ants from finding the caterpillars, who are then preyed on by other insects.

SIMILAR: California Tribe Reignites Age-Old Practice of Intermittent Burns to Prevent Wildfires

Now the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde are being welcomed back onto these prairie landscapes to apply their burning of ages past, after the FWS discovered that actively managing the grasslands by removing invasive species and keeping the grass short allowed the lupines to flourish.

By restoring the lupines with sweat and fire, the butterflies have returned. There are now more than 10,000 found on the buttes of the Willamette Valley.

FLUTTER This Story Over To Your Friends’ Social Media… 

“Knot by knot I untie myself from the past… And let it rise away from me like a balloon.” – Charles Wright

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “Knot by knot I untie myself from the past… And let it rise away from me like a balloon.” – Charles Wright

Photo by: Aaron Burden

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?

Looking for an Uplifting Holiday Gift? Bestselling Kindness Book is 40% off—Perfect for Friends, Teams, Clients, Family

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Good News Network
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We’re always looking for books that inspire us to feel optimistic and positive about the world, and we are loving this one: HumanKind: Changing the World One Small Act At a Time.

Author Brad Aronson was inspired to write HumanKind when his family went through one of the most difficult times of their lives. His wife, Mia, was in the middle of two and a half years of treatment for leukemia when a patient advocate suggested that Mia, Brad, and their five-year-old son, Jack, create projects to provide a purpose, a distraction and a focus for the hours they were spending in the hospital every week.

For Brad’s project, he wrote about the small acts of kindness by friends and strangers that carried his family through Mia’s treatment and recovery.

But when he was done, he felt compelled to keep going. What about all the other stories out there? Other stories about seemingly small acts of kindness that had an extraordinary impact, often changing thousands of lives? He decided to seek them out—and those are the golden threads that weave a heartfelt tapestry in this book.

In HumanKind you’ll meet Rita Schiavone, who decided to cook an extra portion of dinner every night to feed to someone in need. Her evening ritual led to a movement that now provides more than 500,000 meals a year. You’ll also meet Larry Stewart, who was homeless when he received a $20 gift that inspired him to become a Secret Santa when he got back on his feet. He went on to give a total of $1.5 million to strangers in need and build a team of thousands who serve their own communities as Secret Santas. Then there’s 6-year-old Gabriel, whose simple request started a global kindness movement. You’ll meet many, many more heroes like these, as well.

HumanKind will inspire you to see the good in the world—and join in. Each chapter concludes with a ‘What We Can Do’ section, containing practical opportunities for how we can all help. And the ‘Hall of Fame’ at the end of the book has a well-vetted list of nonprofits that can guide you to easily channel your energies for good.

The pages will leave you feeling warm and grateful. And in keeping with the book’s theme, all proceeds from this national bestseller go to the nonprofit Big Brothers Big Sisters. So far, the bestselling book has raised over $110,000.

HumanKind is a great gift for employees, clients and friends. A 47% discount on 5 or more copies is available at the author’s website. You can also purchase copies at Amazon and Barnes and Noble and other retailers.

Mother’s Love Has Granted 250,000 Wishes for Foster Kids–And Now She Surprised 9 With New Cars

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Good News Network
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Danielle hugs one of the winners - One Simple Wish
Danielle Gletow announcing the new car giveaway in NYC – One Simple Wish

Danielle Gletow might be the most famous foster parent of all time.

16 years ago she became a foster mom, saying, “I wanted to be a mother to all these kids who might not feel like they have one.”

Within a year she adopted one of the children, a two-year old baby girl. During the adoption, she found out she was pregnant—but instead of funneling her energy solely to her own family, she continued fueling her passion to help the kids in need.

She set up a nonprofit, One Simple Wish, to galvanize donations from others like her, who want to make an impact and bring joy to foster youth.

“I realized, early on, that a lot of these children decide it’s not worth wishing anymore, because it isn’t going to happen.”

Incredibly, over the next 15 years, One Simple Wish collected over $15 million to grant requests for over a quarter-million kids and young adults impacted by foster care. Wishes range from laptops and sports equipment to art supplies and music lessons—even travel expenses for an aspiring model to fulfill her dreams at New York Fashion Week.

Now, to mark National Adoption Month, Gletow and her team gave nine new cars to deserving adults who, in their youth, were impacted by the child welfare system.

They flew all the winners to New York City under the guise of ‘a foster care conference’ just so they could surprise each one with keys to a new car—along with a year’s worth of insurance and gas.

One Simple Wish surprise car giveaway

“We realized that transportation was a massive obstacle, and sometimes that was the only barrier between them staying in college, keeping a job, or taking care of their families,” Gletow told CBS news.

Participants gathered for dinner where the real reason for the trip was revealed. The nine were then surprised with car keys, along with a $500 gift card, and more.

After surviving abuse as a child and being placed in the foster care system, Bella received an advanced degree and has relocated to Minnesota from California to take care of two foster children who have experienced similar trauma. The car she received will replace the one that was totaled in an accident by a drunk driver.

Britney has needed $300 a month just to Uber to school and work, juggling multiple jobs to put herself through college. The car she received will improve her financial situation and allow her to prepare for her future.

LOOK: Prison Inmates Learned to Quilt and Now Make Amazing Personalized Gifts for Foster Care Children

Danielle hugs one of the winners – One Simple Wish

Since aging out of the foster system, Sando has become a single father dedicated to delivering local support through a peer group he founded and advocating for legislation. The car he received will help him juggle his professional career, finish his education, and parent his children.

“It’s our mission to spread love, hope and joy to those who have been impacted by abuse, neglect and trauma,” said Danielle. “The effects of those circumstances can be compounded when young adults ‘age out’ of the foster or child welfare system, and we are grateful that we have been able to take one major expense off their plate.”

CHECK OUT: Single Foster Dad Adopts 5 Siblings So They Won’t Have to Be Apart Like He Was in His Childhood

Are you feeling the holiday spirit? Are you interested in donating on ‘Giving Tuesday’ this week? Head over to the One Simple Wish website, where you can browse through hundreds of wishes from foster kids—ranging in all prices to make it affordable—and fulfill a request for making a dream come true.

Watch Danielle, who was named a CNN Hero in 2013, talk about her mission…

SHARE This Gift Opportunity to Inspire Generosity in Your Friends on Social Media…

25-Year-old Window Cleaner is Scrubbing Road Signs for Free to Improve Safety and Give Back to Community

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Good News Network
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Liam Wildish - SWNS photo
Liam Wildish – SWNS photo

A young man who started a window washing business has been cleaning road signs for free in his spare time to give back to his community.

Liam Wildish started scrubbing signs in Maidstone, England this year, after launching his new window service—and he’s already become a notable local figure.

“Some of the signs in Maidstone are in terrible condition so when I pass them I pull up and give them a clean up,” the 25-year-old told SWNS news.

“I like to think it makes a difference to the appearance of the area and hopefully improves road safety during these long winter nights.”

The young man from Nottinghamshire makes himself noticeable, always dressed in a red cap and his bright blue company jacket—and his Facebook posts are inundated with strangers saying they spotted him.

“People wave at me or beep their horns, or comment on my videos to say they saw me out.”

When he arrived in Maidstone this year he didn’t know anyone, so had to build a new client base from scratch. After six weeks running his new business, Clean Scene, he began tackling the road signs as a way to thank those in the community who’d helped him through word-of-mouth recommendations and positive feedback.

RELATED: Woman Hailed as Hero For Using Drone to Locate Over 200 Lost Pups For Free

Liam Wildish – SWNS

It also promotes his business. The entrepreneur shoots videos of himself and shares them on Maidstone community pages.

“It’s a bit of a win-win for everybody.”

Liam loves the quiet reflectiveness of the solitary work, but he’s also chatty and loves meeting everyone.

RELATED: Teens Show Holiday Spirit Grabbing Rakes to Help Elderly with Leaf Removal

Up next, Liam wants to look into organizing litter clean-ups with youth clubs.

“It’s very rewarding,” he concluded.

SHARE the Kindness on Social Media to Inspire Others…

“Remember that sometimes we screw up—for the better.” – Legends of Tomorrow

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “Remember that sometimes we screw up—for the better.” – Legends of Tomorrow

Photo by: Aziz Acharki

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?

Three Rare White Reindeer Calves Get Ready For Christmas, Joining the UK’s Only Herd

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Good News Network
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SWNS
SWNS

These three adorable white reindeer calves are getting ready for Christmas as the UK’s only herd.

The three babies, named Mr. Whippy, Vanilla, and 99, were born in the summer and are now ready to join the rest of the herd on a tour around the country in the run up to Christmas.

During the rest of the year, the free-ranging herd lives at the Cairngorms National Park where the snowy, arctic conditions provide the best vegetation.

The first ones were brought over from Swedish Lapland in 1952 by Mikel Utsi and his wife Dr. Ethel Lindgren as an experiment—and they have grazed the land ever since.

“We’re centrally positioned within the highlands which means we have a more continental climate,” said Tilly Smith, owner of the Cairngorm Reindeer Centre.

“The Cairngorms is ideal for the reindeer. We’re more likely to have cold, snowy, arctic-like conditions.

RELATED: ‘Like Finding a Unicorn’: Researchers Rediscover Black-Naped Pheasant-Pigeon, a Bird Lost to Science for 140 Years

SWNS

She said that although the mountains are “vast and impressive“, they’re also “gentle” which suits these less-than-nimble grazers.

“They are beautiful, calming animals,” said Mark Tate of Visit Cairngorms. “They add to the magical winter wonderland feel that really does make winter come to life in the Cairngorms National Park.”

WATCH: Incredible Birth of Endangered Baby Rhino is Captured on Zoo’s Cameras, and Galloping Within Minutes

“It’s thanks to the really special environment we have here in the Cairngorms that they’ve thrived and grown.”

SHARE the Beautiful Creatures to Lift Spirits on Social Media…

Two-Thirds Will Tell People They’re ‘Fine’ Over the Holidays Even When They’re Not: Here are 12 Better Responses

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Good News Network
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Walkers and Comic Relief campaign with Roman Kemp / SWNS / OnePoll
Walkers and Comic Relief campaign with Roman Kemp / SWNS / OnePoll

A poll of 2,000 adults found that two-thirds will tell friends and family they are ‘fine’ over the holiday period, even when they’re not.

Half of the respondents believe others don’t want to hear about their troubles because it dampens the mood, so they keep the conversation light-hearted.

But the study, commissioned by British snack food company Walkers to shine a light on the benefits of opening up and talking more, found that 87 percent confessed to just saying they’re ‘fine’ on autopilot, without even thinking about how they actually feel.

Walkers and Comic Relief teamed up with TV and radio presenter, and mental wellbeing campaigner, Roman Kemp to inspire people to open up and talk more—challenging them to give up the F*** word (Fine) to support their mental wellbeing.

“As someone who has been open about their own battle with mental health and seen first-hand the devastating consequences of people bottling up their feelings, this is a campaign very close to my heart,” said Kemp.

“So, I’m hoping that through this campaign we can help open up the conversation surrounding mental wellbeing—and get people having open and honest conversations about how they’re really feeling.

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“Let’s stop saying we’re fine because we think it’s polite, or because we think it’s what the other person wants to hear.

Kemp believes that most of the time, if a friend or family member is asking, they really do care and genuinely want to know.

Three of the top reasons why people use the autopilot ‘I’m fine’ response, instead of telling the truth, are: not wanting to bring other people down, not knowing how people are going to deal with your emotions, and being afraid of feeling uncomfortable.

Philippa Pennington, from Walkers, which has donated £2 million to Comic Relief for mental wellbeing projects, said: “The message of our Christmas campaign—that it can actually help to open up and talk about your feelings—is so important and we hope to be able to encourage people to talk a little more.”

RELATED: People Enjoy Surprisingly Deep Conversations With Strangers, And New Study Finds Benefits

The survey, carried out by OnePoll, also found that people don’t want to go into detail about how they’re feeling. However, while one-quarter of those surveyed don’t believe people genuinely want to know how you’re doing, half of the respondents claimed they DO genuinely want people to tell them how they’re feeling.

Samir Patel, CEO of Comic Relief, suggests an ice-breaker. “Humor can be a great way to help start conversations that can sometimes be difficult.

Here are 12 responses that might open-up conversations:

Can’t complain…I have tried, but no one listens.
Not bad. Could be better, though.
I have a pulse, so that’s good.
How do you think that I am doing?
I don’t feel great, but my hair looks amazing!
I am doing well…but that could be my anti-depressants speaking.
Things are fine when you’re around.
Fair to partly cloudy.
You go first. Then, we can compare.
Not quite there yet.
Do you want the short or the detailed version?
I’m under renovation.

SHARE the Options With Friends and Family on Social Media…

Guy Finds $40,000 Diamond Ring Buried on Florida Beach and Tracks Down the Owner Who Broke into Tears

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Good News Network
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Joseph Cook via SWNS
Joseph Cook via SWNS

A man was overjoyed when he discovered a diamond ring worth $40,000 on a beach in Florida last month, and soon became a metal detector angel.

Joseph Cook found the ring buried in the sand at Hammock Beach in St Augustine and immediately posted a video he shot while digging it up to his social media channels searching for people who may have lost rings.

The 37-year-old is heard exclaiming in shock: “No way, man. Whoah, look at that bad boy. Holy crap, that’s real.”

“This is the biggest diamond I ever found on the beach.”

When he went to the jewelers, they reportedly told him the precious gem set in a platinum band was worth $40,000.

“I couldn’t believe it.”

Two weeks later, Joseph began receiving calls from a number he didn’t recognize.He initially ignored them, but then realized it could be the owners of the ring.

LOOK: Exquisite Mosaic Unearthed by Farmer Planting Olive Tree, ‘Perfectly Preserved’ From Byzantine Era

Joseph Cook via SWNS

He joined a video call with the couple from Jacksonville, who had lost one that was similar.

“The wife said, ‘oh my god I can’t believe it’, and then she just started crying.”

Three weeks after finding the ring, Joseph met the owners near the same beach in St. Johns County and returned the piece.

“It felt really good,” he recalled. “I’ve returned sixty-thousand dollars of stuff this year, but nothing even close to this before.”

He said he really wasn’t disappointed that he had to return it, and is looking for owners of other rings he’s found in the past. He even wears a necklace with about 25 rings on it just so might be able to return them to their owners.

POPULAR: Teen Finds Woman’s Purse and is Rewarded With $17,000 After He Delivers it to Her Door

“Karma’s always good. Every time I return an item, I find something better, so I’m happy I could give it back.”

FIND This Story of Kindness on Your Social Media Page By Sharing the Love…

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

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Good News Network
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Our partner Rob Brezsny provides his weekly wisdom to enlighten our thinking and motivate our mood. Rob’s Free Will Astrology, is a syndicated weekly column appearing in over a hundred publications. He is also the author of Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How All of Creation Is Conspiring To Shower You with Blessings. (A free preview of the book is available here.)

Here is your weekly horoscope…

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY – Week of November 26, 2022
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
Sagittarian rapper and entrepreneur Jay-Z has stellar advice for his fellow Sagittarians to contemplate regularly: “Ain’t nothin’ wrong with the aim; just gotta change the target.” In offering Jay-Z’s advice, I don’t mean to suggest that you *always* need to change the target you’re aiming at. On many occasions, it’s exactly right. But the act of checking in to evaluate whether it is or isn’t the right target will usually be valuable. And on occasion, you may realize that you should indeed aim at a different target.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
You now have extra power to exorcise ghosts and demons that are still lingering from the old days and old ways. You are able to transform the way your history affects you. You have a sixth sense about how to graduate from lessons you have been studying for a long time. In honor of this joyfully tumultuous opportunity, draw inspiration from poet Charles Wright: “Knot by knot I untie myself from the past / And let it rise away from me like a balloon. / What a small thing it becomes. / What a bright tweak at the vanishing point, blue on blue.”

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
In accordance with current astrological rhythms, I am handing over your horoscope to essayist Anne Fadiman. She writes, “I have always felt that the action most worth watching is not at the center of things, but where edges meet. I like shorelines, weather fronts, international borders. There are interesting frictions and incongruities in these places, and often, if you stand at the point of tangency, you can see both sides better than if you were in the middle of either one.”

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
Over the course of my life, I have been fortunate to work with 13 psychotherapists. They have helped keep my mental health flourishing. One of them regularly reminded me that if I hoped to get what I wanted, I had to know precisely what I wanted. Once a year, she would give me a giant piece of thick paper and felt-tip markers. “Draw your personal vision of paradise,” she instructed me. “Outline the contours of the welcoming paradise that would make your life eminently delightful and worthwhile.” She would also ask me to finish the sentence that begins with these words: “I am mobilizing all the energy and ingenuity and connections I have at my disposal so as to accomplish the following goal.” In my astrological opinion, Pisces, now is a perfect time to do these two exercises yourself.

ARIES (March 21-April 19):
One of your callings as an Aries is to take risks. You’re inclined to take more leaps of faith than other people, and you’re also more likely to navigate them to your advantage—or at least not get burned. A key reason for your success is your keen intuition about which gambles are relatively smart and which are ill-advised. But even when your chancy ventures bring you exciting new experiences, they may still run you afoul of conventional wisdom, peer pressure, and the way things have always been done. Everything I have described here will be in maximum play for you in the coming weeks.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
Your keynote comes from teacher Caroline Myss. She writes, “Becoming adept at the process of self-inquiry and symbolic insight is a vital spiritual task that leads to the growth of faith in oneself.” Encouraging you to grow your faith in yourself will be one of my prime intentions in the next 12 months. Let’s get started! How can you become more adept at self-inquiry and symbolic insight? One idea is to ask yourself a probing new question every Sunday morning, like “What teachings and healings do I most want to attract into my life during the next seven days?” Spend the subsequent week gathering experiences and revelations that will address that query. Another idea is to remember and study your dreams, since doing so is the number one way to develop symbolic insight.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
The TV science fiction show Legends of Tomorrow features a ragtag team of imperfect but effective superheroes. They travel through time trying to fix aberrations in the timelines caused by various villains. As they experiment and improvise, sometimes resorting to wildly daring gambits, their successes outnumber their stumbles and bumbles. And on occasion, even their apparent mistakes lead to good fortune that unfolds in unexpected ways. One member of the team, Nate, observes, “Sometimes we screw up—for the better.” I foresee you Geminis as having a similar modus operandi in the coming weeks.

CANCER (June 21-July 22):
I like how Cancerian poet Stephen Dunn begins his poem, “Before We Leave.” He writes, “Just so it’s clear—no whining on the journey.” I am offering this greeting to you and me, my fellow Cancerians, as we launch the next chapter of our story. In the early stages, our efforts may feel like drudgery, and our progress could seem slow. But as long as we don’t complain excessively and don’t blame others for our own limitations, our labors will become easier and quite productive.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Leo poet Kim Addonizio writes a lot about love and sex. In her book Wild Nights, she says, “I’m thinking of dating trees next. We could just stand around all night together. I’d murmur, they’d rustle, the wind would, like, do its wind thing.” Now might be a favorable time for you, too, to experiment with evergreen romance and trysts with your favorite plants. When was the last time you hugged an oak or kissed an elm? JUST KIDDING! The coming weeks will indeed be an excellent time to try creative innovations in your approach to intimacy and adoration. But I’d rather see your experiments in togetherness unfold with humans.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
In her book Daughters of the Stone, Virgo novelist Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa tells the tale of five generations of Afro-Cuban women, her ancestors. “These are the stories of a time lost to flesh and bone,” she writes, “a time that lives only in dreams and memories. Like a primeval wave, these stories have carried me, and deposited me on the morning of today. They are the stories of how I came to be who I am, where I am.” I’d love to see you explore your own history with as much passion and focus, Virgo. In my astrological opinion, it’s a favorable time for you to commune with the influences that have made you who you are.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
In accordance with astrological omens, here’s my advice for you in the coming weeks: 1. Know what it takes to please everyone, even if you don’t always choose to please everyone. 2. Know how to be what everyone wants you to be and when they need you to be it, even if you only fulfill that wish when it has selfish value for you. 3. DO NOT give others all you have and thereby neglect to keep enough to give yourself. 4. When others are being closed-minded, help them develop more expansive finesse by sharing your own reasonable views. 5. Start thinking about how, in 2023, you will grow your roots as big and strong as your branches.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Even if some people are nervous or intimidated around you, they may be drawn to you nonetheless. When that happens, you probably enjoy the power you feel. But I wonder what would happen if you made a conscious effort to cut back just a bit on the daunting vibes you emanate. I’m not saying they’re bad. I understand they serve as a protective measure, and I appreciate the fact that they may help you get the cooperation you want. As an experiment, though, I invite you to be more reassuring and welcoming to those who might be inclined to fear you. See if it alters their behavior in ways you enjoy and benefit from.

WANT MORE? Listen to Rob’s EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES, 4-5 minute meditations on the current state of your destiny — or subscribe to his unique daily text message service at: RealAstrology.com

(Zodiac images by Numerologysign.com, CC license)

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“Without fail, life will deliver the creative energy we need to change into the new thing we must become.” – Rob Brezsny

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “Without fail, life will deliver the creative energy we need to change into the new thing we must become.” – Rob Brezsny

Photo by: William Farlow

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?

Historic Italian Town Will Pay You $30,000 to Move There – Near Turquoise Seas and Olive-Clad Hills

By
Andy Corbley
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Piazza di Presicce, Lecce, in Italy - Photo byLupiae CC license, Wikimedia
Piazza di Presicce, Lecce, in Italy – Photo byLupiae CC license, Wikimedia

Last year, GNN reported that many towns across Italy were selling houses for $1.00 in order to stem the tide of migration to the major cities.

Now in Puglia, the region of Italy’s heel, the town of Presicce is doing one better—it will pay you $30,000 to move there.

In this picturesque and near-the-sea town, historic houses can go for as little as $25,000, and the government hopes that new arrivals can perk up the town’s social side and business offerings.

“There are many empty homes in the historical center built before 1991 which we would like to see alive again with new residents,” local councilor Alfredo Palese tells CNN. “It is a pity witnessing how our old districts full of history, wonderful architecture and art are slowly emptying.”

Presicce was founded as a collection of villages that spread out around an old Saracen fortress. The city grew thanks to the wealth of a renowned olive harvest which the Presiccese turned into oil largely through a series of 23 underground chambers dug into the rock under their homes.

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In the dim light, they would employ a donkey to turn a stone mill and grind the olives into oil, a trade which created a rural aristocracy that poured money into the decorative chapels and frescoed plazas in the city.

SantAndrea-di-Presicce, Italy – By Lupiae, CC license 3.0, Wikimedia

Nearby are the rocky hills of Puglia dotted with Medieval ruins, rugged hiking paths, and Byzantine crypts, as well as underground shelters meant for hiding from pirates.

SIMILAR: These Beautiful Italian Towns Will Pay You to Move There if You Work Remotely

Recently, in order to secure more financial and governmental support for the town, it merged with nearby Acquarica to become Presicce-Acquarica, and the expanded size increased the amount of funds the municipality has to finance these sorts of restorative projects to about €1 million per year.

“We will be offering up to 30,000 euros to people willing to move here and buy one of these abandoned dwellings,” Alfredo says. “The total funding will be split in two: it will go partly into buying an old home and partly into restyling it, if needed.”

RELATED: A Town Near Rome is Selling Old Homes for $1, a Trend Across Italy in Many Beautiful Villages

As wild as it sounds that towns like Presicce, or others in the 1-Euro House Project are being abandoned, one must reason it’s the case that if you grow up in these historic towns, it loses its charm over the years.

Watch a video showing the local sites…

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Words Engraved on a Bronze Hand May Rewrite History for a Small but Special People

By
Andy Corbley
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A very peculiar decorative ornament was found in an archeological dig last year in Spain—a bronze amulet shaped like a hand that would lead researchers to a fascinating discovery.

Just recently however, the restoration of the artifact revealed strange words believed to be part of the precursor to the modern Basque Language, also called Euskara.

The Basque Language today is spoken by hundreds of thousands of people in Northern Spain and Southwest France. It is Europe’s only surviving “language isolate,” a term meaning that Basque is not related either to the Greek-Romano language of the south, or the Indo-European Celtic languages from the north and east.

The amulet, found in Pamplona, carries the word “sorioneku,” which closely resembles the Basque word zorioneku, which means “fortunate.” The current theory is that it was hung around the 60s BCE above the door to a mud brick hut.

The researchers at the Aranzadi Science Society haven’t been able to place any of the other words on the hand, which has led to the hypothesis that it could be from the precursor language of the Basque people, before a gradual borrowing of Romance words contributed about 40% of the modern Basque vocabulary.

In fact, the owners of the hand, which the researchers have called the Hand of Irulegi after where it was found, is believed to date to an Iron Age tribe called the Vascones who inhabited Spain’s Navarra region.

RELATED: Priceless Lost Jewels From Legendary Maravillas Shipwreck Are Finally Found in Bahamas

“This piece turns upside down what until now we thought about the Basques and writing,” says Joaquín Gorrochategui, a philologist at the University of the Basque Country, in a statement from the Aranzadi Science Society, which has been excavating the site since 2017.

“We were almost convinced that the Basques were illiterate in ancient times.”

The bronze hand during cleaning – Courtesy of Carmen Usua

It’s possible that Euskara was already fully developed as a language before the turn of the millennium.

The letters on the hand were written by carving out tiny dots rather than straight lines, something that has never been seen in any writing in the ancient Western World.

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Clearly the Basque have secrets yet to unveil, and it’s no wonder given the potential cultural development at even so early an age that their language and identity has lasted so long.

A mini-doc was produced on the discovery of the hand which you can watch here on YouTube with auto-generated English subtitles.

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Family Swaps Their Mortgage for Motorhome to Travel USA and Have No Regrets While Saving $1,800 a Month

By
Andy Corbley
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An American family that decided to sell their house and travel the country in a motorhome say they have no regrets, as well as a savings per year of more than $30,000.

After renovating a 300 square foot motorhome in March 2021 they hit the road, homeschooling their kids, working remotely, and exploring the country.

Jen Omohundro and her husband JR made the leap from mortgage to motorhome after hearing a podcast about a family doing the same. What started as a pleasant day dream got serious after Jen was shocked that JR was game for the big decision.

“The family was talking about how incredible it was and what the kids were then experiencing,” said Omohundro. “I thought it sounded so unique and cool, but I never thought my husband would go for it. But he surprised me and said he would be up for it.”

“We started researching how we’d go about it and a week later we’d put our house up for sale.”

That was in mid-2020. Now the family have visited 36 states, typically spending up to two weeks in each spot in order to thoroughly experience the region,

The family spent $314,000 on their motorhome, spent an average of just under $800 on fuel a month and an average of $1,450 on motorhome sites, which amounts to around $1,850 in savings per month compared to mortgage payments and utilities.

RELATED: Couple Spends Nearly $100k Turning School Bus Into Dream Home — Now They’re Raffling It Off

Except that it’s the non-monetary equations that matter most—like the opportunity to go ziplining in the foothills of Pikes Peak or kayaking in the Mangroves, all the while exposing their 14-year-old daughter Kelsey and 10-year-old son Lane to all kinds of real world experiences to match what they’re learning in school.

– SWNS

“We’ve had so many experiences as a family that we never would have had without doing this,” said Omohundra. “We’ve done mountain hikes, swam with whales, and ridden on a pedal railway.”

“Home schooling has been great for the kids as we use an online program but back it up with real experiences. My son is now a year ahead of where he would be if he was still in school,” she added.

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“We took them to an archeological site where they were digging up mammoths, it was amazing. We love this lifestyle, but we’ll always go with the flow and what is best for the family.”

They’ve since upgraded to a 400 square foot motorhome, which has given them their own rooms, but they maintain that if the lifestyle ever becomes too much or too little as the case may be, they remain open to buying a house again.

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60-yo Who Taught Herself to Play Guitar in Lockdown Launches Music Career with #1 Blues Single–LISTEN

By
Good News Network
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Kym Vincenti - SWNS.
Kym Vincenti – SWNS.

A woman has found a new career in her 60s as a chart-topping musician just 2 years after teaching herself the guitar in lockdown.

Kym Vincenti has since signed with a label and released three singles, one of which topped the blues charts on Apple Music.

Vincenti had never picked up the instrument before April 2020, but after her ex-boyfriend left a guitar lying around, she decided to give it a pluck.

The 60-year-old ghostwriter by trade split up with her boyfriend during lockdown, and started practicing using basic fingering charts to teach herself the chord positions. As it turned out, she was a natural.

“To have a career in music so late in life has been so unexpected, but I’m loving every minute of it,” says Vincenti. “Like millions of others in the country, I was at a loose end during lockdown so I decided to try my hand at music.”

As the months progressed, and she became more confident with the instrument, Vincenti began writing her own music and adding lyrics to go with it.

She uploaded clips of herself performing to social media, sharing them with friends and family—and their positive feedback inspired her to dedicate more time to making music.

“I had been playing on and off for two years, when Dutch Van Spall contacted me,” she remembers. Van Spall runs Big Help Music, a small studio in Warwickshire, England.

READ ALSO: Plumber Has Landed Record Deal After Music Mogul Heard Him Singing –While He Fitted His Bathroom

“He was an acquiantance of mine with his own record label, and when I played him some clips he invited me up to his record studio. We recorded one of my songs in the studio, and he offered me a record deal there and then; I couldn’t quite believe it.”

She has since released music across multiple platforms including Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, Soundcloud and Amazon Music.

Her songs have been streamed by thousands of users and she hopes to make a career out of it in the future when she reaches enough streams across all platforms.

Her next song Let Him Go will be out on all platforms on December 9th.

SIMILAR: Man Taught Himself to Play the Trumpet Solely So He Could Play Taps for Fallen Soldiers

“Since I released my debut single in August I’ve been releasing one song every six weeks or so,” said Vincenti. “My first song got in to the top 20 on Apple Music in the country chart, and my second in the top ten on the jazz chart.”

“The last few months have been a whirlwind of a journey, and launching a new career at this age feels strange for sure, but I’m just taking it slowly and enjoying recording songs and working on new projects,” she said.

SHARE This Radical Late-Life Turnaround With Friends And Give Kym A Listen…

“The capacity to care is the thing which gives life its deepest significance.” – Pablo Casais

By
Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “The capacity to care is the thing which gives life its deepest significance.” – Pablo Casais

Photo by: Randy Fath

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?

Free Quiz Designed by Functional Medicine Doctor Rates Your Risk of Nutritional Deficiencies

By
Andy Corbley
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Reprinted with permission from World At Large, a news website of nature, politics, science, health, and travel.

Chris Kresser, MD is one of the most influential doctors in the health field, informed by a 15-year career of diagnosing and treating nutrient deficiencies.

Co-director of the California Institute for Functional Medicine and Director of the Kresser Institute for functional medicine training, his work often focuses on the un-enviable task of sifting through the tens of thousands of studies on diet and nutrition to understand all the nuances of how our bodies turn food into everything we need to thrive.

Dr. Kresser has described nutrient deficiencies in America as a “silent epidemic”. Many of the recommended daily allowances for vitamins, amino acids, and minerals were set during leaner times like the Great Depression or World War II, and designed to prevent scurvy, rickets, or stunting.

Combined with the increased prevalence of calorie-dense hyper-processed foods in the human diet, and increases in the cost of fresh produce, these forces have created a population that is very much deficient in certain key nutrients.

It’s safe to say that Americans have higher aspirations for health than simply avoiding rickets or scurvy. That’s why Dr. Kresser created a free quiz that will calculate a rough estimate of your risk for nutrient deficiencies

RELATED: Holy Mackerel! Fish Really Is Brain Food – Even if You Only Eat a Small Amount

Currently some deficiencies are almost universal. According to the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University, almost nobody in America consumes enough potassium.

Their research estimates that 97% of Americans don’t absorb enough magnesium, which primes the immune system to fight cancer and infections, and 94% don’t get enough vitamin D. These two compounds require each other for proper absorption—and the high levels of insufficiencies are likely a result of that.

World at Large has reported that 92% don’t get enough choline, which isn’t classified as a vitamin or a mineral, and therefore isn’t required to be reported on nutrition labels. WaL also commented on the fact that, as recently as 2018, the government agency USDA recommended Americans eat chocolate cakes and McDonalds breakfast sandwiches to combat choline deficiency—revealing the depth of ignorance about that critical micronutrient.

FUN: Baboon, Bear, or Bison: Find Out Which Animal Personality Best Matches Yours in a Free Fun Quiz

Linus Pauling also found that 89% of Americans are deficient in vitamin E, while Dr. Kresser’s own research shows that most Americans are supplementing with a mildly-toxic form of vitamin E.

The quiz takes just 3 minutes, can be done here, and includes the download of a free e-book at the end.

CHECK OUT: 8 Under-Appreciated Autumn Veggies and Fruits You Should Be Eating

ASK Your Loved Ones to Take The Quiz And Find Out How To Be Healthier…

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