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

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Good News Network
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Dylan Brennan author of Noble Betrayed - SWNS.
Dylan Brennan author of Noble Betrayed – SWNS.

Trying to distract himself from his PlayStation during COVID lockdowns, a London high schooler self-published a fantasy novel that’s now selling as far away as Australia.

16-year-old Dylan Brennan started writing Noble: Betrayed in April 2020, after recognizing he was spending too much time playing video games.

The aspiring lawyer said he had long dreamt of publishing a book, and lockdown gave him the perfect opportunity to knock out the first full draft in 9 months, before the final copy was released in October 2022.

The book was inspired by Dylan’s favorite authors: George R. R. Martin, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Andrzej Sapkowski, who wrote The Witcher, the latter of which was turned into three award-winning role-playing video games.

“It’s amazing! It’s a dream I’ve always had,” said Dylan. “I’m so pleased with it but I can’t stop here, I’m already working on the next one. I love fantasy, it’s just my genre.”

RELATED: Once Bullied For Her Love Of Bugs, 8-Year-old Co-Authors Scientific Paper

Writing and publishing a book has never been easier, but at the same time Dylan’s decision to forfeit the easy dopamine hit of video games to do it speaks volumes about his character.

Yet at the same time Dylan’s influences were obviously heavily inspired in part by his fantasy video gaming—the right balance is key.

The tale revolves around the main character Lord Simon Pargion visiting the court of close friend King Emannar Woodgairrd before uncovering a plot to kill him.

It combines the stereotypical elements of fantasy with the sense of community and atmosphere of living in London, he said, and some of the characters are named after his teachers at St. George’s Catholic School, in Maida Vale.

SIMILAR: Teen Sends Fan Letter to Her Favorite Author; 3 Years Later, They Have Finished Co-Writing Her Debut Novel

Dylan says he has already bagged £150 in sales from Spain, Germany, the USA and Australia.

“I think 50 copies is the expected number of sales for a self-published first book,” he said. “There’s so much technology you can use to publish for yourself now which takes out a few steps, and publishers always have their own direction they want you to take.”

“I enjoyed exploring the big divide in London. Like the Royal Family who are a tight unit with lots of drama, alongside the less well off people struggling to get by.”

Dylan plans to study to become a lawyer but wants to keep writing as a side hustle, adding he’s aiming for a crime novel next.

SHARE This Inspiring Young Author’s Discipline With Your Friends…

A City in China is Planning an Offshore Wind Farm So Big It Could Power All of Norway

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Andy Corbley
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The new wind farm will likely use this Goldwind wind turbine, the largest in the world - released.
The new wind farm will likely use this Goldwind wind turbine, the largest in the world – released.

The “Classic Tourist City” of Chaozhou is going to build an offshore wind farm so large that it could power all of Norway.

Detailed in the city’s recent 5-year plan, the 43.3-gigawatt windfarm will grant significant amounts of green energy to the two-and-a-half million inhabitants.

Located in Guangdong Province, and neighbor to the largest inhabited city on Earth in Guangzhou, Chaozhou has unique offshore topography that creates gusty seas ideal for harvesting wind energy.

Capable of running the turbines around 49% of the year, it’s to be located between 47 and 115 miles (75 and 185 km) off the city’s coast.

READ ALSO: Mini Wind Turbines For Rooftops: ‘Up to 50% More Power’ and No Spinning Blades

China is big on wind power, and in 2021 the country installed more wind energy resources than all the rest of the world put together for five years running. Statistics on these large civic projects coming out of the PRC are not always reliable; their mass tree-planting operations along the Gobi Desert are notoriously murky.

China recently debuted the world’s largest turbine at the 20th Party Congress in Beijing. The diameter of the rotors are 827 feet (252 meters) and they are billed as capable of producing 63.5 million kWh per year assuming ideal conditions.

Other large wind farmers are Norway, who boast 38 gigawatts of installed turbines, and the UK, who should currently have the largest offshore wind farm on Earth provided they’ve finished installing all the turbines.

SHARE This Big Wind Energy News With Your Friends…

Russell Crowe Ensures Survival of Dragon Tales Book Shop With Surprise Donation: ‘It’s Bonkers’

By
Andy Corbley
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Owners Dan and Leanne Fridd.

A small book store is a wonderful place—that’s what Russell Crowe thought when he surprised Bookbugs and Dragon Tales Book Shop with a large donation to help its survival.

Leanne Fridd and her husband Dan “squealed” when after launching a Crowdfunding campaign to do more school literacy outreach and give the business “breathing room,” they saw a large donation from Russel Ira Crowe.

“It’s bonkers,” they said of the surprise, that had them chanting “Russell Crowe, Russell Crowe,” nearly the entirety of the following day.

Even back in 1998, when You’ve Got Mail came out, society heard more and more stories about the small neighborhood book store at risk of disappearing in the face of big corporate booksellers.

In a remarkably bad bit of luck, Bookbugs and Dragon Tales in Norfolk opened its doors in 2019—just before the pandemic. Having had to face COVID shutdowns, and now the British cost-of-living crisis, most people wouldn’t blame them for quitting—but Leanne and Dan say that donations have flooded in from unlikely places—the star of The Gladiator, not withstanding.

RELATED: As the Pandemic Got Worse, Americans Donated More Generously Than Ever – to Record Levels

“We’ve had £100 from the customer who lost her house in a fire,” said Leanne. “I know she can’t afford that.”

They’re also quite sure that it wasn’t a generous prankster masquerading as Crowe through the anonymity of the internet, since they know that a mutual friend of theirs and Crowe’s retweeted their Crowdfunding link.

“I have heard that this is what he is like – he is really supportive and just wants to make a difference,” Leanne told the BBC. “I doubt he will come into the shop, but who knows, if he is in the area in the future, he might.”

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Tiny Home Village for Salt Lake City‘s Homeless Gets Green Light for 430 Units

By
Andy Corbley
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Other Side Academy village in Utah - released.
Plan by The Other Side Academy

Taking the lead to fight the homelessness epidemic in America, the Salt Lake City council has moved forward with a plan to lease 8 acres of city land to build a village of tiny homes.

Described as “recovery housing,” the 430 units would provide an additional transition between total homelessness and total stability.

The plan was introduced in April of 2021, and has taken awhile to gain traction. On Tuesday, the city council listened to concerns from the community about the use of city resources.

Costing $13.8 million, the village was dreamt up by The Other Side Academy, which provides training and teaches pro-social, vocational, and life skills, allowing attendees to emerge with a healthy life on “the other side” of criminal detention, substance abuse, or homelessness.

But all are looking to change the direction of their lives.

RELATED: She Invited a Homeless Man For Dinner – Now Her Crowdfunding Has Secured Her New Friend a Tiny Home

The SLC council voted unanimously, 7-0, in favor of the project, which is envisioned to be funded largely by contributions and donations rather than public money.

No date has been given for a start date of construction, but the village concept art has shown a large circular village with paths extending into the various quarters, centered around a central pagoda.

The square would include retail shops, on-site healthcare offices, and gardens.

SIMILAR: Tiny Home Village in Albuquerque Helps Homeless Transition With Social Services and Opportunities

Cities around the country are grappling with the homelessness epidemic in different ways. Tiny homes are often touted as a worthwhile solution to investigate, because it’s very difficult, even with financial assistance, to acquire a bank account, housing, various medical assistance, or a job, without having a permanent address.

The plan is similar to a successful village in Austin, Texas. Elsewhere, Acres of Hope is a project of tiny homes for single moms in California.

In Seattle is changing zoning laws to allow a non-profit to build tiny homes for perspective citizens in the backyards of volunteers.

WATCH local Salt Lake City news report on the project. 

SHARE This Hopeful Story From Utah On Social Media…

“Even a single lamp dispels the deepest darkness” – Mahatma Gandhi

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “Even a single lamp dispels the deepest darkness” – Mahatma Gandhi

Photo by: Vladimir Fedotov

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?

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

By
Andy Corbley
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Credit: EC Power.
Credit: EC Power.

A breakthrough in electric vehicle fast charging battery design from Penn State has enabled a 10-minute charge time for a typical EV battery.

The record-breaking combination of a shorter charge time and more energy required for longer travel range came from heating the battery to a Goldilocks Zone which has proven difficult for engineers thus far.

Their findings are hoped to accelerate the sale of EVs, and were announced on October 12th, in the journal Nature.

“The need for smaller, faster-charging batteries is greater than ever,” said Chao-Yang Wang, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Penn State and lead author on the study.

“There are simply not enough batteries and critical raw materials, especially those produced domestically, to meet anticipated demand.”

MORE GOOD EV NEWS: Full Battery Charge in 15 Minutes: World’s Fastest Electric Car Charger is Launched

In August, California’s Air Resources Board passed an extensive plan to restrict and ultimately ban the sale of gasoline-powered cars within the state. By 2035, the largest auto market in the United States will effectively retire the internal combustion engine.

If new car sales are going to shift to battery-powered electric vehicles (EVs), Wang explained, they’ll need to overcome two major drawbacks: they are too slow to recharge and too large to be efficient and affordable. Instead of taking a few minutes at the gas pump, depending on the battery, some EVs can take all day to recharge.

“Our fast-charging technology works for most energy-dense batteries and will open a new possibility to downsize electric vehicle batteries from 150 to 50 kWh without causing drivers to feel range anxiety,” said Wang, whose lab partnered with State College-based startup EC Power to develop the technology.

“The smaller, faster-charging batteries will dramatically cut down battery cost and usage of critical raw materials such as cobalt, graphite and lithium, enabling mass adoption of affordable electric cars.”

RELATED: 5 Midwestern Governors Sign Up to Create EV Charging Network to Keep Electric Vehicles Moving

The technology relies on internal thermal modulation, an active method of temperature control to demand the best performance possible from the battery, Wang explained.

Batteries operate most efficiently when they are hot, but not too hot. Keeping batteries consistently at just the right temperature has been a major challenge for battery engineers. Historically, they have relied on external, bulky heating and cooling systems to regulate battery temperature, which respond slowly and waste a lot of energy.

Wang and his team decided to instead regulate the temperature from inside the battery. The researchers developed a new battery structure that adds an ultrathin nickel foil as the fourth component besides anode, electrolyte and cathode.

SIMIALR: Innovative ‘Sand Battery’ is Heating Small City, Storing Green Energy for Months at a Time

Acting as a stimulus, the nickel foil self-regulates the battery’s temperature and reactivity which allows for 10-minute fast charging on just about any EV battery, Wang explained.

“True fast-charging batteries would have immediate impact,” the researchers write. “Since there are not enough raw minerals for every internal combustion engine car to be replaced by a 150 kWh-equipped EV, fast charging is imperative for EVs to go mainstream.”

The study’s partner, EC Power, is working to manufacture and commercialize the fast-charging battery for an affordable and sustainable future of vehicle electrification.

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Mental Health Focus Is Bringing Suicides Down Sharply Among Air Force, Marines and Army

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Andy Corbley
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A significant drop in the rates of suicide among active military members that was observed over 2021 has continued into the first 6 months of 2022.

Driven chiefly by sharp drops among the Marine Corps and Air Force, the declines come as a result of increased attention to the issue among high ranking officers and the Dept. of Veterans Affairs.

According to the data, the number of suicides in the Air Force and Marine Corp dropped by more than 30% in 2021 compared with 2020, and the Navy saw a 10% decline. The Army saw a similar 30% decrease during the first six months of this year, compared with the same time period last year.

All the services have been struggling to combat the complex issue of suicide throughout the ranks while dealing simultaneously with the dual challenges of insufficient staffing of mental healthcare workers, and continuing stigma of seeking help professionally.

For this, PBS reports, the services have been increasingly taking advantage of military chaplains, health and fitness coaches, and other support staff to support suicide prevention and mental health care programs.

SIMILAR: Trying to Stop the Epidemic of Veteran Suicides, Plant Medicine Company Builds Mental Wellness Value Chain

“The amount of attention that we’re paying to it, I think, is hopefully—we’re cautiously optimistic — what is translating into the downward trend,” Yvette Bourcicot, the acting assistant Army secretary for manpower, told the AP on Thursday.

The Pentagon is working on filling a new force of 2,000 mental healthcare workers, but in the meanwhile some senior officers are requiring soldiers to visit a councilor every so often.

RELATED: Standup Comedy Classes For Men at Risk of Suicide Wins NHS Funding

Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, for example, mandated once-a-year-visits with councilors at his post on Fort Riley, Kansas. All but 10 of the 14,000 staff used their 60-minute session to talk.

As part of our 25th anniversary celebration, GNN is donating a case of our books (…And Now, The Good News) to the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital in Tampa, Florida, to help fight depression.

SHARE This Hopeful News With Enlisted And Non-Enlisted Friends…

This Startup Uses Volcanic Rock Dust to Capture Carbon on Farms

By
Andy Corbley
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Courtesy - Lithos Carbon
Courtesy – Lithos Carbon

An ag-tech startup is spreading basalt rock dust on farmers’ fields as both fertilizer and an ingenious way to not only capture carbon, but remove it from the global carbon cycle forever.

At its maximum output, 3 tons of rock dust can capture 1 ton of CO2, a return on investment that if done at scale has an almost unlimited ceiling of carbon removal.

The business model is based on a mutually-beneficial exchange: the farmer’s fields are enriched with iron, phosphorus, magnesium, and calcium, boosting yields compared to agricultural limestone dust by 47% in some cases. The company, Lithos Carbon, sells the dust application as carbon credits to industries looking to offset their emissions, and gives a cut to the farmers.

“My approach to this is, if you can give farmers something that they will want and love and need, then they will do that,” Lithos CEO Mary Yap told Fast Company. “And then you will scale carbon capture almost as a side effect. One of my farmers has said, ‘I can’t eat carbon credits.’ Really, the crops at the end of the day are the thing that matters.”

RELATED: UK’s Largest Carbon Capture Project Will Turn 40,000 Tons of CO2 into Baking Soda

The way the carbon is captured comes from one of the fundamental steps in the global carbon cycle. CO2 in the air is partially absorbed by rains, which deposit it into the soil and the oceans. When rains fall on a field treated with basalt rock dust from Lithos, the carbon is captured in the basalt, before the material is washed down rivers into the ocean.

READ ALSO: New Wyoming Carbon Capture Project Will Eliminate 5 Million Tons of CO2 Per Year

Once in the ocean it’s taken up by a large variety of animals, often mollusks are other animals who use it to make their shells. Once they die, their shells fall to the ocean floor where the carbon remains, under most circumstances, permanently.

Basalt rock is the most common volcanic rock available on Earth and is produced by the millions of tons per annum in the mining industry, effectively guaranteeing a supply.

The primary challenge comes from the fact that every field will be different in how much dust is used and how it’s applied. Too much can released CO2 or be toxic to breathe in. For that they’ve developed intelligent software alongside Yale University.

At the moment Lithos is managing 14 farms, the most recent of which saw 1,500 tons of rust over 140 acres that should absorb 384 tons of CO2.

SHARE This Brilliant CO2 Capture Operation With Your Friends…

Mythbusted: Goldfish Have Great Memories and Are Even Used as a Model Species of Fish Cognition

By
Andy Corbley
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Quick, what animal has a terrible memory? Goldfish of course, everybody knows that.

Sticking to the nautical theme, this is actually as big a myth as the Lost City of Atlantis, and researchers have been proving for decades that goldfish not only have good memories, but are even among the smarter fish in the ocean.

Recently, Oxford University trained a school of goldfish to measure distances. Releasing a goldfish into a long thin thank with black and white vertical stripes, the fish learned and remembered how far to swim down the tank before turning around to the start point for a treat.

The first time the fish swam down the tank, a researcher immersed their hand in the water at a certain point, a point of distance that was remembered accurately by 8 of 9 fish on the second swim down the tank.

“We’ve known about the reasonably good memories of goldfish since the ’50s and ’60s,” Culum Brown, an expert in fish cognition at Macquarie University in Australia, told Live Science last year. “Despite what everybody thinks, they’re actually really intelligent.”

He says the perception of goldfish as dullards stems from pet owners putting them in empty glass bowls with nothing to interact with, hence the appearance of a short memory.

RELATED: After Using Tools, Crows are Happier and Behave More Optimistically: ‘The pleasure of accomplishment’

“What is baffling is that it’s pretty much the same wherever you go in the world. In some places, it’s 2 seconds, and in others, it’s 10—but it’s always short.”

In reality, goldfish have such impressive memories, they’re often used as a common model for studying memory and learning in fish, Brown said.

Live Science details that goldfish can navigate mazes, escape nets, and can be prompted to complete tasks with a variety of stimuli, including non-hazards like bubbles, or music. Brown says goldfish can complete these tasks after months of not doing them.

SIMILAR: 5 Experiments Proving Invertebrates Are Much More Aware than We Think

Some pet owners report their goldfish recognizing them from other people, something that is also supported by the science of fish-on-fish interactions.

It’s time for society to change its tune. The goldfish is a pretty smart cookie, and deserves a little more respect around here.

WATCH the goldfish test here from the BBC…

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“Once you realize that you can do something, it would be difficult to live with yourself if you didn’t do it.” – James Baldwin

By
Good News Network
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Markus Spiske

Quote of the Day: “Once you realize that you can do something, it would be difficult to live with yourself if you didn’t do it.” – James Baldwin

Photo by: Markus Spiske

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?

Photo of the Pillars of Creation Shows the Lens Upgrade of Webb vs Hubble: A Heavenly View

By
Andy Corbley
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Pillars of Creation: Hubble vs James Webb / NASA
Pillars of Creation: Hubble vs James Webb / NASA

The James Webb Space Telescope has been a heck of a software update. Just look at this iconic space feature, the Pillars of Creation.

The left side image was made by the Hubble telescope, while the right-side image was taken with Webb’s near-infrared camera (NIRCam), revealing so much more celestial activity.

Newly formed stars pop out in shades of pink, red, and crimson. Still-forming stars that remain hidden deep in the dusty pillars resemble molten lava, and fully formed blue and yellow stars sprinkle the scene.

Located in the Eagle Nebula, around 6,500 light years away, the Pillars of Creation have iconized space telescope imagery. The largest pillar is so big, it would take four light years to go from tip to tail. They are mostly made of cold hydrogen despite their fiery appearance.

LOOK: Glimpse of God? The Hubble Telescope’s 12 Best Photos on the 30th Anniversary of its Launch into Orbit

Two images were made of the Pillars, the first in 1995, and the second in 2014. This new one illustrates just how big of an upgrade the infrared vision that Webb brings to bear can be when imaging dense areas of the cosmos.

The new stars lying outside of the dusty pillars are perhaps a few hundred thousand years old, and appear as bright red orbs typically with diffraction spikes. When knots with sufficient mass form within the pillars of gas and dust, they begin to collapse under their own gravity, slowly heat up, and eventually form new stars.

Although it may appear that near-infrared light has allowed Webb to “pierce through” the clouds to reveal great cosmic distances beyond the pillars, there are almost no galaxies in this view. Instead, a mix of translucent gas and dust known as the interstellar medium in the densest part of our Milky Way galaxy’s disk blocks our view to much of the deeper universe.

WATCH: Travel 2,000 Light-Years in 60 Seconds With New Video From NASA’s Webb Telescope

A closer look at the edges of some pillars reveal fiery red, wavy lines. These are ejections from stars that are still forming within the gas and dust.

Young stars periodically shoot out supersonic jets that collide with clouds of material, like these thick pillars. This sometimes also results in bow shocks, which can form wavy patterns like a boat does as it moves through water. The crimson glow comes from the energetic hydrogen molecules that result from jets and shocks.

The new image will update astronomer’s star-formation models.

WATCH a video tour of the image from the Webb-site…

SHARE This Latest Webb Imagery With Your Friends…

The Unprecedented Decline in U.S. Child Poverty—Down 59% in 26 Years

By
Andy Corbley
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The past quarter century witnessed an unprecedented decline in child poverty rates in the United States.

Today roughly 1 in 10 children live in families whose economic resources are considered below the poverty line, a 59% drop over the last 26 years.

In 1993, the beginning year of this decline, the numbers were more than one in four children, and the magnitude of this decline in child poverty is unequaled in the history of poverty measurement in the United States.

What led to this remarkable decline in child poverty? A report from a research group called Child Trends took a detailed look.

Lower unemployment rates and higher single mothers’ labor force participation can account for some of these results, but economic factors can’t account for it all.

Family configurations played a role as well, including a decrease in the amount of children in immigrant families, lower rates of teen pregnancy, and increases in the rates of children living in two-parent households.

However the highest increases were because of two social safety net programs, the Earned-Income Tax Credit, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Delightfully, the report concludes its summary that between 1993 to 2019, poverty rates declined at similar rates for nearly every subgroup of children examined.

This included children in immigrant families and those in non-immigrant families; for Asian/Hawaiian/Pacific Islander children, Black children, Hispanic children, and White children; and for children living in two-parent families and children living with no or one parent.

Child Trends’ report is a reminder that no matter how gloomy the mainstream media wants the world to seem, society keeps improving every day.

SHARE This Positive Trend With Your Friends… 

Startup is Recycling Solar Panels Turning Waste into Valuable Material

By
Andy Corbley
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- Solar Cycle
– Solar Cycle

An American firm called Solar Cycle is transforming broken solar panels from landfill waste to valuable raw materials—perfect for making more solar panels.

Copper, aluminum, silver, and silicon are all recovered from panels at the end of their lifecycle, with the company’s new recycling method reducing them to just 2% of their material weight.

A 2016 report by the International Renewable Energy Agency found that likely by the mid 2030s, millions of metric tons of solar panels will be decommissioned, and if a method wasn’t found to economically recycle them, they would probably end up in the landfill.

Some Australian scientists however found a method of electrostatically separating waste streams from solar panels fed into large machine-grade shredders. By removing the aluminum frame, and then shredding the solar cells, the process is profitable and advantageous when shredding small amounts of solar arrays.

The process can chew up 220,000 pounds (1,000 tonnes) of solar panels a year, the rough equivalent to 50,000 panels a year, says lead author Dr. Pablo Dias.

SIMILAR: Dead Solar Panels Are About to Become a Lot More Valuable – a $2.7 Billion Market by 2030

“This is something someone can pick up elsewhere, it doesn’t use any chemicals, it doesn’t emit any hazardous pollution. It produces dust from crushing the panels, but you have dust collectors there,” Dias told the Guardian.

Dias has recently gone to work to apply his technology on behalf of Solar Cycle, who have attracted investment from all over the solar market, like Sun Power, Solar City, and Closed Loop Partners.

RELATED: Solar Company Gets Bright Idea to Cover Storage Facilities in Solar Panels—Brings Power to 1,400 Homes

“For solar to truly scale to its full potential, we need to create renewable supply chains and a vibrant secondary market for used panels and recycled materials,” Solar Cycle states.

Solar Cycle is currently the only dedicated technology-based recycling company for the solar industry, and they recently closed a deal for end-of-life solar array recycling with their first utility-scale partner, Silicon Ranch, which operates 145 solar power facilities nationwide.

WATCH an interview with their co-founder and see the process in action…

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Billionaire MacKenzie Scott Donates $15m to Provide Glasses to Farmers With Blurry Vision in Developing Nations

By
Andy Corbley
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MacKenzie Scott and former husband Dan Jewett, Giving Pledge
MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett, Giving Pledge

Jeff Bezos’ former wife MacKenzie Scott has donated $15 million to provide hundreds of thousands of people with eyeglasses.

It’s believed to be the largest private donation towards assisting uncorrected blurry vision, and will help mainly low-income tea, coffee, cocoa and artisan workers in India, Bangladesh, Ghana, Kenya and Uganda.

While it might not be as glamorous as pledging 10 billion dollars to save the world from climate change, the difference a pair of eyeglasses makes is huge, personal, and immediate.

The donation was made to VisionSpring, a non-profit targeting this economic hinderance. It’s believed these workers could produce $1 billion annually in additional value for themselves and their businesses thanks to the increased productivity from being able to see well.

SIMILAR: Big Brothers Big Sisters Receives $122 Million Donation From Mackenzie Scott

“The gift from Ms. Scott is an incredible acknowledgment of the power of a simple pair of eyeglasses to unlock earning, learning, safety and wellbeing for people vulnerable to poverty,” VisionSpring’s chief executive Ella Gudwin said.

“And, with this powerful endorsement of our work, we are embarking on a multi-year journey to put Livelihoods in Focus, addressing the massive vision care gap among agricultural and artisan workers in south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.”

SIMILAR: If Children Wear This Type of Contact Lens It Can Stave Off Worsening Eyesight, Researchers Say

VisionSpring have highlighted that the benefits of a correct pair of eyeglasses are immediate, leading to reduced anxiety and depression and richer family lives from being able to see loved-ones’ faces and expressions more clearly.

Over time the better vision increases productivity and income, especially in fiddly tasks such as hand-pollinating a cocoa tree for example, or through better acquisition of knowledge at school and work.

The donation was made through Giving Pledge, an organization set up following several commitments from America’s richest to give away half their wealth to charity.

“In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott has said. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care. But I won’t wait. And I will keep at it until the safe is empty.”

SHARE This Clear-Eyed Good News With Your Friends…

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift: That’s why they call it ‘the present’.”

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift: That’s why they call it ‘the present’.” (This quote is variously attributed to ‘anonymous’, Eleanor Roosevelt, or Deepak Chopra.)

Photo by: Stefan Widua

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?

Watch Stepdad Finally Launch His Floating Suit Made of 1,100 Corks, After 3 Years of Secret Work

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Good News Network
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Haley Buntrock / SWNS
Kerry’s launch – by Haley Buntrock / SWNS

A man who spent three years building a floating suit made from 1,150 corks has finally debuted his creation.

Kerry Haulotte crafted the one-of-a-kind suit in total secrecy until it was ready for its maiden voyage where “it performed flawlessly.”

The 64-year-old said the suit was meant to be a silly gag for the family to have fun with during their boat outings, but the video of Kelly launching himself into Lake Michigan has gone viral—with 3 million views and 500,000 likes.

Friends and family were each trying on the cork suit so they could float in the water during a fun day out.

The suit was constructed by drilling 3,450 holes through hundreds of corks, and the finished product ended up weighing over 13 lbs.

The project was shrouded in secrecy due to Kerry’s anxiety about the project failing.

“Other than my wife Jamie, I kept the project a secret for the entire creation time, fearing that I may not finish the project or that it would be a massive failure,” he told SWNS news.

When it was finally revealed to family members, they were amazed by Kerry’s creation.

“This is the coolest thing I have ever seen!” exclaimed his stepdaughter Haley, who posted the video.

LOOK: Visit ‘Fortlandia’ Where Designers Have Built Odes to Childhood Fort-Building in Austin, Texas

Haley Buntrock / SWNS

Kerry said it was an ‘on-again and off-again project’ that took 120 to 130 hours to overall.

“I admit I was afraid people would think I was absolutely nuts, and while that may be true, it turns out people really loved it. It has put a smile on the face of everyone observing, and all that have floated in it.

“Incidentally, it has been signed and dated by everyone who has floated in it,” he added.

What surprised 28-year-old Haley was how ‘kind’ people have been online.

POPULAR: Watch Musicians Play Instruments Carved From Ice Inside Acoustic Igloo Concert Hall

“I was worried the online community would be rude, but everyone has been hyping up my stepdad, which I absolutely love to see. He is one of the most humble, creative, and interesting people I know.

“He deserves all the recognition, love, and support. I couldn’t have gotten a cooler stepdad.”

WATCH the maiden voyage…

Challenge Your Friends to Make a Cork Suit – By Sharing on Social Media…

Young Girls Who Met on a Ship Sailing for America 75 Years Ago are Reunited: ‘I could never forget her’

By
Good News Network
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It’s not uncommon for reunions to take place within a few years of the initial event—or maybe ten to twenty years after the first meeting. But a reunion after 75 years is truly astounding.

That’s exactly what took place recently between immigrants Lena and Yolanda, who were young girls when they first met during a 14-day ocean crossing.

In April of 1947, both the young girls were emigrating with their Italian families to the United States. They met each other aboard the Saturnia, a ship sailing toward America’s Ellis Island—and became instant friends.

In the last few years, Lena’s youngest son Steve had been researching their transatlantic voyage, and uncovered the actual ship’s manifest online.

Lena, now 85 years old, had always remembered the name of her sailing buddy, Yolanda. So, Steve diligently searched for the whereabouts of her friend, who had remained only a memory frozen in time.

Lena left her hometown of Pallagorio when she was ten years old. Nine-year-old Yolanda left her home in Belmonte—a 2.5 hour drive between them on today’s maps.

The Saturnia

Steve continued tracking down the lost friend who, if alive, would be 84.

Lo and behold, Yolanda was still thriving—and the two girls, now matured, had been living within 2.5 hours of each other their whole lives.

Steve found Yolanda’s phone number and left a message on her answering machine explaining that her childhood sailing buddy wanted to get in touch. Covid-19 and other obstacles delayed the reunion, but finally a time and date were set.

Yolanda‘s son Rich drove his mom across state lines from her home in Weirton, West Virginia, to Lena’s house in Meadville, Pennsylvania, where they greeted each other at the front door, embracing with tears of joy.

Lena and Yolanda

“They were celebrating a momentary friendship that has lasted a lifetime,” Lena’s son Tony told GNN.

As well as reminiscing about their few memories of that voyage on Saturnia—which included feelings of wonderment and trepidation of what the New World would be like—they also packed in as many stories of their unfolding lives as possible within the short afternoon lunch.

RELATED: She Finally Met Her Long Lost Dad, Who Didn’t Know She Existed, Thanks to Stranger on Facebook

“Yolanda was the face and name that was synonymous with my transition from one life to another,” Lena said.

“For that reason alone, I could never forget her. Now that we’ve been reunited, I am even more grateful to call her my friend and to have had the chance to share our stories.”

It’s almost as if they were sisters separated at birth: They both uphold their families’ Italian traditions.

WATCH: Long-Lost Brothers to Be Reunited After 77 Years and 10,000 Miles, ‘I still can’t believe it’

Ship’s manifest, courtesy of family

The 75-year reunion was so successful that they decided to meet again in a few months, hoping for more precious time together.

In these ‘silver’ ages, it’s not always easy finding a new friend—let alone an old one! Maybe the Ellis Island database at the National Archives can help you search for your ancestor’s voyage, and uncover a lost friend.

RELATED: Sisters Find Each Other After 45 Years Apart – Living in the Same City With Sons Going to the Same School

REKINDLE a Friendship, By Sharing This Inspiring Story on Social Media…

Volcanoes Were Erupting on the Moon One Billion Years More Recently Than Previously Thought

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Good News Network
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Craters on the moon
SWNS

[SWNS] – Volcanoes were erupting on the moon a billion years more recently than previously thought, according to new research from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Scientists had previously believed the moon became “geologically dead” three billion years ago. However, new lunar samples collected during China’s Chang’E-5 mission last year have revealed eruptions on its surface were still happening two billion years ago.

Since the moon is small and rocky, the heat fueling volcanic activity should have been lost far longer than two billion years ago.

Scientists previously believed that larger amounts of water or heat-producing elements inside the moon might have driven eruptions in the late stage of the moon’s life. However, the new findings throw this into doubt.

For the study, researchers led by the Institute’s Professor Chen Yi compared the new moon samples with those from the U.S. Apollo missions and the Soviet Luna missions.

The team conducted fictional crystallization and lunar melting simulations to compare the samples and found that the young Chang’E-5-source magma contained more calcium oxide and titanium dioxide than older Apollo magmas.

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These younger samples contained more titanium and calcium, which melt more easily—thus, those components could have reduced the melting temperature of the moon’s mantle, in turn triggering the eruptions.

“We discovered that the Chang’E-5 magma was produced at similar depths but 80 degrees Celsius cooler than older Apollo magmas,” said the study’s first author Dr. Su Bin from the National University of Singapore.

“This is a fascinating result, indicating a significant contribution of late-stage lunar magma ocean cumulates to the Chang’E-5 volcanic formation.”

“It means the lunar mantle experienced a sustained, slow cooling of 80 degrees Celsius from some three billion years to two billion years ago.”

RELATED: Chinese Rover Spots Weird, Large ‘Cube’ on the Moon

The team say their work, published in the journal Science Advances, is the first viable explanation for why volcanoes remained active on the moon for a billion years longer than previously believed.

SHARE the New Moon Discoveries With Space Lovers on Social Media…

“I will now live my life with the inventiveness of an engineer…(where) improvisation is the rule: No more beaten paths.” – Osman Lins

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “I will now live my life with the inventiveness of an engineer…(where) improvisation is the rule: No more beaten paths.” – Osman Lins

Photo by: David Pisnoy

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?

She Built a $15,000 Cottage in the Back Yard For a Brother With Autism: ‘The change has been incredible’

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Good News Network
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SWNS

A woman built her brother a little house in her back garden and says it’s been a “game-changer” to give him the independence he needs.

Tiffany Chou moved back to Hawaii from New York City to look after her 33-year-old brother, who has autism, after hearing that he was unhappy in his residential home.

The siblings, who are both adopted, hadn’t lived together for 15 years, so Tiffany was apprehensive about what it would be like because Chris’s behavior could be “challenging”.

To better deal with that, the 36-year-old sister and her boyfriend decided to build Chris his own cottage in their back yard after moving to Maui.

“I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into when I moved back and took in Chris,” said the accessory designer. “He can be a bit noisy and overwhelming so we decided if he had his own independent space, just seconds from us, that would be ideal.”

There was a little structure in their garden, which they tore down to begin the construction—and she and her boyfriend managed to put the cottage together for just $15,000.

Chris got to chose the colors of his house and helped out initially with the build, which was completed in three months.

SWNS

In August, he moved in and now loves his new digs.

“He absolutely loves it—and the change has been incredible,” says Tiffany.

WATCH: Groom’s Autistic Brother Has Wedding Crowd in ‘Happy Tears’ with Emotional Speech That Went Viral

“He’ll do his dishes without prompting. It’s really helped him be more independent.”

They outfitted the home especially for his quirks, too.

“Chris is the thirstiest person you have ever met so he is constantly up in the night drinking water and needing the toilet, so we made sure his bathroom and a water tank was right by his bed.”

His kitchen has an induction cooktop to make sure it’s not left on and Tiffany prepares his food ahead of time, in daily portions, which he keeps in his fridge.

LOOK: Instead of Dirty Looks, a Kind Stranger Laid on the Ground to Calm Boy With Autism Amid His Meltdown

Chris and Tiffany Chou – SWNS

The home—which was built out of reclaimed materials, and fitted with second-hand furniture to keep costs low—has given Chris a newfound independence. (See the home in the video below.) And Tiffany and her boyfriend have their own space, which is essential, especially because they welcomed their new daughter, Luna, last month.

“He loves being an uncle and is great with Luna.”

“It’s been a game-changer for all of us—I don’t have to constantly prompt him to do stuff anymore.

Depo Market / SWNS

Meanwhile, Tiffany is set to make a big difference for the wider community. She’s set up a new employment service for adults with disabilities. Depo Market provides creative and social job opportunities to help adults like Chris to live more independently.

Watch a short video showing Chris in his new pad…

SHARE These Loving Siblings On Social Media to Inspire Others…

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