Quote of the Day: “Difficulties illuminate existence, but they must be fresh and of high quality.” – Tom Robbins
Photo by: Louis Hansel
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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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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.
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.”
“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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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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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.
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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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?
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.
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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 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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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?
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:
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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.
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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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.
“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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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.
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.
“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…
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Cutting edge analysis of tin isotopes has shown that tiny tribes of pastoral nomads from modern-day Uzbekistan supplied a third of all the precious tin needed to make the bronze which fueled Ancient Mediterranean commerce.
Getting the tin from Uzbekistan to the Med involved a vast multi-regional, multi-vector trade network that bears comparison with our own time—3,500 years after it was developed.
In the year 1,320 BCE, a ship left port at modern-day Haifa loaded with copper and tin—the two metals needed to make bronze—the hi tech of the era. The ship was wrecked in a storm, and when discovered in 1982, became the world’s largest Bronze Age collection of raw metals ever found, and a brilliantly-preserved, international treasure of marine archeology.
Called the “Uluburun shipwreck” the new research showed that while two-thirds of the tin onboard was mined in the Taurus Mountains within the vast empire of the Hittites, in modern day Turkey, one-third came from mines thousands of miles away in Uzbekistan, a land believed to be inhabited by monsters and tribes of barbarians called “the horde from who-knows-where.”
“To put it into perspective, this would be the trade equivalent of the entire United States sourcing its energy needs from small backyard oil rigs in central Kansas,” said Michael Frachetti, professor of archeology at Washington University St. Louis, and lead author of the study that utilized the new tin isotope data.
The terrain between Mušiston mine in Uzbekistan passes through Iran and Mesopotamia, and would have featured a mixture of rugged ground and mountains, no doubt filled with potential bandits, which would have made it extremely difficult to pass tons of heavy metal.
“It appears these local miners had access to vast international networks and, through overland trade and other forms of connectivity, were able to pass this all-important commodity all the way to the Mediterranean,” Frachetti said.
Adding to the mystique is the fact that these small-scale local communities of free laborers were able to negotiate within a vast, disparate network that relied as much on the participation of communities like them as on supposedly hegemonic institutions of large, centralized states. It relied on inter-lingual, inter-cultural, and inter-geographic exchange, and really brings ancient commerce alive with all the complexities of our modern times.
Copper was commonly found all over the Ancient Near East, but tin was much rarer, and the loss of the ship would have devastated the respective merchant(s) business. Had it not been lost to sea, that metal would have been enough to outfit a force of almost 5,000 Bronze Age soldiers with swords.
SIMILAR: Ancient 3,000 Year-old Canoe Discovered Beneath Wisconsin Lake Carved From Single Piece of Oak
Today, rare commodities and trade disruptions are common topics—from chip and natural gas shortages to disruptions in the grain supply. These are conversations that Scythian barbarians, who practiced polyamory and drank liquor from the skulls of their defeated enemies, could have just as easily had with Hittite tin brokers on the shores of the Mediterranean, as with floor-traders on Wall Street.
“With the disruptions due to COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine, we have become aware of how we are reliant on complex supply chains to maintain our economy, military and standard of living,” Wayne Powell, professor of earth and environmental sciences at Brooklyn College and a lead author on the study.
“This is true in prehistory as well. Kingdoms rose and fell, climatic conditions shifted and new peoples migrated across Eurasia, potentially disrupting or redistributing access to tin, which was essential for both weapons and agricultural tools.”
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Quote of the Day: “All possible feelings do not yet exist. There are still those that lie beyond our capacity and imagination.” – Nicole Krauss
Photo: Julian Hochgesang (cropped)
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?
Half of Americans said there’s not enough time in the holiday season to do everything they want to do, according to a new poll—but it all puts them in a good mood.
The survey asked 2,000 adults about how they spend time during the holiday season and found that 52% try to fit in as many festive activities as possible.
This may be why half of Americans wish the holiday season lasted longer than it actually does (54%). While most of these respondents said up to two more weeks would suffice (59%), four in ten wouldn’t mind if the holidays went on even longer.
Conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Dutch Bros coffee, 74% of those surveyed reported that prepping for the holiday season puts them in a good mood—with a third claiming that they are the most festive person they know.
Some respondents shared their unique holiday traditions, such as wearing costumes on Christmas morning, hiding a pickle ornament on the tree (and whoever finds it gets a special extra gift), and putting a candle in a scoop of ice cream (and whoever’s candle burns the longest opens the first present.)
One respondent said their family eats pizza on Christmas Eve. Another has a group of friends that get together to create a holiday craft that they use as a gift for someone less fortunate.
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But even with those unique traditions, the results found that Americans haven’t abandoned the classics like eating/drinking their favorite holiday treats (72%), watching classic holiday movies (65%), decorating the home (61%), or baking for loved ones (53%).
On average, people invest about 30 hours of work into holiday chores like planning or wrapping presents.
From last-minute shopping to wrapping presents, the holidays can be a lot to keep up with, leaving 40% struggling to keep themselves energized during the season.
RELATED: Ralphie’s House From ‘A Christmas Story’ is Up for Sale
Whether you love the bustle of the busy holiday season or not, let your holiday season be a time to enjoy yourself and appreciate the festive surroundings.
A twin saved her sister’s life while still in the womb, by sending out distress signals prompting doctors to deliver them early—which turned out to be critical for the other twin’s survival.
Preemie Poppy McBride’s heart rate began to waver on the monitor at 31 weeks and five days into the pregnancy, which doctors say forced them to deliver her and her twin, Winnie.
Despite being the smaller of the twins—at 1lb 11oz—Poppy was perfectly healthy, and nothing was wrong with her heart.
Doctors had never been concerned about her sister, Winnie—who weighed more than three times that of Poppy. But, at 3lbs 8oz, she emerged with underdeveloped lungs and was whisked into the intensive care unit.
The mother, Leah McBride, says she was told by doctors that Poppy saved her sister’s life and if they had waited any longer to deliver the twins, Winnie would not have made it.
She still had to have surgery at 14 days old to relieve a build-up of fluid on her brain, but has since recovered fully.
“Our doctors told us, ‘I think your tiny twin saved her sister’s life,’” said the stay-at-home mom from Lake Jackson, Texas. “Poppy’s heart rate had been all over the place, so they had to deliver, but when she was born, she was completely fine.”
“They think she was sending out distress signals because she knew her sister wouldn’t survive if they weren’t delivered then.
“Even now Poppy takes care of Winnie, though she is still much smaller,” said the 28-year-old mom.
“Doctors said she was feisty, but she was smaller than a little elf on the shelf.”
Now both twins have nothing wrong with them, and they’re the best of friends and thriving.
“They are as smart as can be,” Leah said. “Winnie is smarter than average. She can read books from memory at three.”
“I tried to move their beds apart recently and they weren’t having it. They are so close.”
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The world’s oldest pen pals have both turned 100 years old, and are celebrating 80 years of letters sent across the pond.
Geoff Banks from Devon, England, and American Celesta Byrne from New Jersey started writing to each other in 1938, when they were just 16-years-old.
They were paired by an educational project that sought to connect British and American students—and 84 years later are still corresponding.
“Somehow I ended up with this letter from an American girl, and we just kept writing ever since,” Geoff told SWNS news.
Former engineer Geoff even kept in touch during World War II, while he was serving as a mechanic on the British aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious in the Pacific.
“There were a couple of years where we struggled to keep in touch because of the war,” he explained, saying that some of his letters sent during the war were finally forwarded to her after it ended.
They began using email a while back, to give Geoff a break from putting pen to paper, which became difficult—and recently they had their first Zoom call
“In one of my early letters I sent her a copy of a British paper in 1953 which had Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation on the front of it. But we generally just chat about daily lives and our families—and put the world to rights, you know.”
“She’s a very interesting person. She’s always been there to write to, even if it was just birthday cards and Christmas cards.”
Despite having chatted for decades (6 years longer than the current Guinness World record pen pal relationship of 78 years), the centenarian pair only met for the first time in 2002—when Geoff visited New York City at 80-years-old for Christmas. They also met for a second time two years later, when Celesta invited the traveler to her New Jersey home for lunch.
RELATED: Pen Pals Finally Embrace With Tears After Writing For 38 Years (WATCH)
Despite having such a unique relationship, the pair never became romantic, even after Geoff’s wife passed eleven years ago.
Celesta confirmed the claim, saying, “No, we’re just friends, like people who live next door.”
Nowadays, Geoff relies on young people to assist him in setting up a chat with her, using “this new thing called Zoom”.
Celesta does the same from her new residence in Texas, where she moved to be close to family.
“It’s nice to hear his voice,” she said.
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A 15-year-old is being hailed as a hero after lifting a truck that had fallen on his father’s chest.
The brakes on the truck that Matthew Wilkinson uses for work needed immediate repair last Monday and, fortunately, his son had come out to the garage and agreed to help his dad.
As Mr. Wilkinson tried to take off the rotor, he found it was stuck and needed a better angle for leverage, so he slid his body underneath the truck
“The second it popped off, the truck fell,” he told KCRA news. “All I could think about was the breath coming out of me. I was just squished. I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t yell.”
Dalin Wilkinson, a freshman in high school, told the news team it was “crazy” scary.
“I heard him make a noise like his soul was leaving his body.”
Dalin tried as hard as he could to lift it just enough to get him out—and the adrenaline of the moment helped him succeed.
While the Oakdale, California dad was in the hospital being treated for a punctured lung and broken ribs, he couldn’t figure out how he was able to get free—until he later checked the surveillance camera.
The family’s home security system captured the moment Dalin had lifted the truck enough for his father to roll out.
“My son is my hero. He saved my life.”
Watch the scene in the KCRA news report below…
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