A group of farmers found an epic way to keep cool—by making a DIY swimming pool using hay bales.
Jack Smith and his friends spent four days building their own pool so it was ready in time for the heatwave.
They spent two days building the project, using hay bales and hay bale wrap to create a pit which they lined with big tarps, and then two more days filling it with water.
Europe is sizzling under a record-breaking heatwave, and Britain is no exception. Many countries are experiencing wildfires and are recommending their citizens, especially young and elderly, to stay cool and don’t take risks in the heat.
The pals plan to keep the pool as long as possible for summer use on behalf of everyone who helped construct it.
“We were at the pub and it was boiling, so we thought the next day we’d build a pool as a kind of hangover cure,” said smith, a farmer from Uttoxeter, Staffordshire. “The whole project took four day, and there was about 13 of us working on it together—we couldn’t have done it without working as a team.”
“We’re really happy with the result—it’s the perfect way to cool down in the heat. We’re hoping to keep it for the rest of summer, but already the water pressure has caused some leaks in the bales,” he added. “We’ve patched them up for now though, so hopefully that does the trick!”
WATCH the farmers use all their know-how to built an awesome swimming pool
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“Change your thoughts and you change your world” – Norman Vincent Peele
Check out more inspiring thoughts every day on our homepage, where we will be adding a new quote each day juxtaposed over a beautiful photo. We are collecting and archiving them on our Quote of the Day page. So why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
Believed to be Sato's Beaked Whales - credit Hal Sato. 2009 Released
Believed to be Sato’s beaked whales – credit Hal Sato. 2009 Released
It’s a common refrain to say we know more about the surface of Mars than we do about the deepest parts of our oceans, well a recent paper has shown that maxim extends to the creatures that live there in an embarrassing way.
Humanity has a half-dozen on Mars, but it took until 2022 for Sato’s beaked whale to observed alive for the first time.
Beaked whales, the authors write, are the least-studied of their kind, owing to their low surface profile, long dives, lack of visible blow, general elusiveness, and preference of oceanic shelf or deep ocean habitat.
Sato’s beaked whale has remained elusive for perhaps centuries. The Japanese whaling industry hunts its cousin, Baird’s beaked whale, and the whalers have long been aware that there was a species abound in the same waters that was smaller and darker-skinned. For years it was called “Raven” in the Japanese language.
In 2019, Japanese researches confirmed scientifically its existence using DNA analysis from a deceased individual, but it was two years later when Russian scientists studying killer whales in the choppy waters between their nation and the island of Hokkaido that they found a pod of 14 of the elusive animals.
At 7 meters, or roughly 21 feet in length, it seems mad that they could remain unseen for so long, but of the 24 species of beaked whale theorized to exist, only 3 are reasonably well-researched.
The sighting was later confirmed by a biopsy performed via crossbow on one of the sighted individuals.
Hakai Magazine spoke with Erich Hoyt, a research fellow at Whale and Dolphin Conservation in the UK, who said it was some scars on their hide that gave the first clue as to the animal’s behavior.
Hoyt, who coauthored the paper announcing the 2021 sighting, noted the bite marks of cookie-cutter sharks that suggested the whales could be either more widely dispersed or migratory. Cookie-cutter sharks are small fish that inhabit warm tropical waters and who leave a one-of-a-kind bite mark due to their unique jaw shape.
What happens when a bunch of scientists put a study group of older people together and give them all psychedelic mushrooms? As it turns out the world’s largest study on microdosing found they get more at peace, and more dexterous to boot.
Microdosing is a term used to describe the repeat consumption of nearly-negligible amounts of psychedelics in order to (theoretically) enhance cognitive performance in a variety of ways.
It’s not so theoretical anymore however, as the findings, now peer-reviewed and published in Nature, show how psilocybin microdosing is associated with general improvements in mood and mental health.
Additionally, a finding specific to individuals over the age of 55 indicated that microdosing was associated with greater improvements in psychomotor performance relative to non-microdosers. Yet further, adults over 55 exhibited an even larger improvement in psychomotor performance when psilocybin is stacked with lion’s mane mushroom and niacin compared to psilocybin alone.
These results may help inform the design of human clinical trials involving psychedelic substances.
One of the common criticisms of observational studies of this kind is that they are uncontrolled and unable to parse apart placebo effects from those related to the true pharmacological effects of psychedelic substances. Observational research’s purpose is to observe behaviors as they occur naturally in the world, and draw conclusions without interfering with those natural practices.
Although an expectancy effect cannot be ruled out for depression, anxiety and stress, the reports on subjective benefits are complemented by improvements in the study’s psychomotor task (the Finger Tap Task), which adds robustness to the results.
The Finger Tap Task is one of the most commonly used dexterity tests to help diagnose Parkinson’s Disease, and involves a patient tapping their index finger and thumb together as many times and as fast as possible over 15 seconds.
“The tap test results are interesting. Although a placebo in this type of observational study is not appropriate, the tap test results with microdosing combining psilocybin, niacin and Lion’s Mane over baseline, and in comparison to psilocybin taken with any other combination, stands out as a strong signal of significance for psychomotor performance. We are excited to test this clinically,” says Paul Stamets, world-renowned expert in mushrooms of all kinds.
Other observational results from the trial include one that showed from baseline to Month 1, microdosers systematically report larger decreases in mental health-related symptoms than non-microdosers.
Adults over 55, who microdosed with psilocybin mushrooms in addition to Lion’s Mane and niacin showed the largest (about 40%) increases in total number of taps after about one month relative to non-microdosers and those that microdose psilocybin alone.
The study, informally called Microdose.me, has over 19,000 participants from all over the world and has been presented at numerous conferences including SXSW, Summit LA, TED and Life Itself. The study was conducted in partnership with the University of British Columbia, Maastricht University, Paul Stamets and Dr. Pamela Kryskow, among others.
“I am proud of the constant effort put into improving the study design with feedback from our participants, supporters and other scientists. Together with fellow citizens and researchers, we are developing versions of the study that will be used to generate discoveries related to psychedelic microdosing for years to come,” shares Maggie Kiraga, Director of Research Quantified Citizen, a citizen-science app that helped design the study.
TRIP On This Good News And Share With Your Over-55 Friends…
A man has spent 13 years transforming a barren backyard at his terraced city home into an incredible Japanese garden.
Martin Fitton, 54, fell in love with Japanese gardens after first visiting one on holiday in Dorset back in 2009 and immediately set about creating his own at home.
Over the past 13 years, he’s tirelessly renovated his garden by himself and now has an oasis which looks like it’s been plucked straight from some distant village on Honshu, complete with his own traditional teahouse, koi pond, little bridge, concrete lanterns, and pagodas.
“I am very proud of my garden,” said Fitton, a tanker driver by trade from Brislington, Bristol. “It’s been very rewarding. I don’t have any help with the garden, I do it all myself, so it’s nice being able to see how it’s all come together.”
– SWNS
“I like it all but I recently renewed the top part of my Zen garden so that’s probably my favorite part now,” he noted. “I like to sit on the pavilion with a cup of tea or a beer with my wife and look over the garden, it feels very peaceful.”
It wasn’t always Japanese though. When Martin initially moved into his home in Bristol in 2001, his children, Rhys and Vanessa, gave motivation to install climbing frames and summer houses for them to enjoy instead.
– SWNS
Ironically his inspiration and love of the Japanese tradition arose, not from a visit to Japan, but a Japanese garden in Compton Acres, Dorset on England’s southeast coast in 2009.
“It felt so peaceful and quiet and calm, and I was looking around at it all and thought I could definitely do that myself,” says Fritton, who’s always enjoyed working with wood. “My kids were teenagers by this point so weren’t really using the garden like they used to as children, so as soon as I get home, I started on transforming the old summer house into a tea house.”
Over the next few years, Martin transformed his backyard, adding a Zen garden, pavilion and Japanese trellis. He built everything himself except the courtyard and concrete lanterns, for which he had expert assistance.
His garden has gained him a lot of fans, including plenty from Japan who have complimented the dad-of-two’s dedication to tradition.
“I’ve had Japanese people compliment the garden which is really nice because I didn’t want to offend the Japanese by doing it wrong so I like that they have approved of it,” he noted. “The tea house is the first thing you see when you enter the garden and it was the first thing I built.”
“I really wanted to make sure that everything was Japanese and that I didn’t get it mixed up with Chinese so it was all true to the culture and not crossing over,” he said.
“I’ve made Japanese friends as a result and often send them writing that I’ve found to make sure it translates correctly and to make sure it’s Japanese, not Chinese, as the writing looks so similar.”
Despite his fascination with Japanese culture, Martin has never made it to the country but the couple plan to go for their joint 60th birthdays in four years’ time.
WATCH a video tour of Fritton’s fantastic garden…
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The mural on Louise Whapshott's living room wall. - SWNS
The mural on Louise Whapshott’s living room wall. – SWNS
An English mom has turned her entire living room wall into a photo montage to remind her family of happier times in a bid to help them cope with COVID trauma.
Louise Whapshott, 46, wanted to celebrate decades of special memories the family made together before the pandemic to remind them all better days are coming, and spent six hours covering an entire wall of her East Hampshire home with 700 black and white photos of special memories.
She and her family had a tough time during the pandemic. Her 49-year-old husband Martin ended up in the ICU from the virus back in April 2020, while his father Jim died at age 77 after catching it in his care home the same month.
Her teenage children Corbin and Eva both still suffer with long COVID and chronic fatigue since catching the virus at school in late 2020.
“I am always capturing our fun times on camera and COVID has reminded us of how short life can be and how quickly it can change,” said Whapshott, a mental healthcare worker. “I wanted to remind ourselves of all the amazing things we have done and look forward to making more memories.”
Louise and her husband Martin – SWNS
Whapshott said she had been planning the activity for months, and after getting all of the photos printed, she organized them into categories for each member of the family, plus one for Jim, one for friends and holidays, and plus another for the dogs and cats.
“We have too many good memories to be locked in a phone or computer,” she added. “It took two evenings of pasting, so around six hours. My daughter pasted and I stuck.”
“I love my photo wall and now I get to look at all these lovely, happy memories that make me chuckle. Life isn’t quite normal for us at the moment with the kids but I am loving laughing about all the random memories we have made so far.”
Help Friends Remember Better Times With This Heartwarming Story…
Using a water-born crop that grows at breakneck speed, an innovative cattle feed startup could reduce livestock emissions in a variety of ways.
By reducing methane emissions from the bovine’s digestion, growing the plants on smaller lots than traditional feed, and using the farm’s manure to cover input costs, the aquatic feed offers protection to the invaluable beef industry from zealous politicians and activists who aren’t willing to wait for innovation to improve the carbon footprint of livestock.
Called Fyto, the startup boasts of a “library” of aquatic crop varieties that offer superior nutrition compared to other feeds like alfalfa.
Relatives of a common pond vegetation called duckweed are grown in installed greenhouses on the farm. In a pool of water, which they ironically consume in far less amounts than terrestrial crops, the duckweed can double in size every three days, which is among the fastest growing speeds for any crop for any purpose, expect for some species of bamboo.
The greenhouses’ speed and efficiency is believed to be able to support large herds of beef and dairy cattle on less land than herds from Brazil, where forest is cleared for soybean plantation to feed the cattle, generally need.
Cattle ranching, like a lot of things in agriculture, is all about input costs—feed, land, antibiotics, manure management, there’s a lot that goes into it unless the cattle are pastured on public land like National Forest land. Some pilot projects using Fyto have cut certain input costs like water and manure management by half.
Further still, the plants reproduce “vegetatively,” meaning there are no seeds; the female plants simply sprout the next generations as a kind of second limb.
Best of all, explains Jason Prapas, founder and CEO of Fyto, it’s cheap.
“This won’t have any impact if it can’t be cost competitive with what people need to feed their animals,” Prapas told Fast Company.
“So that’s been key from the first notebook sketches, let alone to the first production units. I’m happy to say that this actually can compete on costs with commodity products. And that’s largely owing to the plant science team helping us get yields that are really an order of magnitude higher than other crops.”
Plus, Prapas says, the cows absolutely love to eat it.
“I’ve never known a cow could gallop until we started to do our pilot feedings last summer,” Prapas says. “And we saw them consistently running over to us when we brought the Fyto feed over.”
Fyto just recently closed a $15 million Series A financing round, including investment from Google.
It’s Monday morning. GNN has your inspiration fuel for the week.
Nora Langdon is a world champion powerlifter at 78-years-young, holding 19 world records, with personal records of 413 pounds in the squat, 381.4 pounds in the deadlift, and a 203.9 pound bench press.
If that wasn’t already enough to get you up off your bum and into your favorite workout, Langdon started when she was already 65, and too out of shape to walk up the stairs in the houses she was selling as part of a 35-year career in real estate.
Celebrating a birthday party, a friend introduced her to Art Little, a personal trainer at Royal Oak Gym, in Michigan. She came to watch a powerlifting meet, and asked Little if she could do the same eventually. Little was hesitant, but started her off with the basics.
“Langdon estimates that she has 20-25 medals in her trophy room,” reports Barbend. “She has competed in 25 sanctioned meets and won 23 of them.”
In the two outliers she failed to post totals, meaning that it wasn’t that anyone out-lifted her.
“When I squat, this is what I say, I say ‘Holy Spirit, fall on me, and I just do it—come right on up,'” she told Fox News.
“I feel strength when I powerlift,” says Langdon in Refinery 29’s doc—a voice over comment as she prepares to rip a deadlift in a pair of pristine Chuck Taylors. “Because it means I can beat the world. I want to inspire other women to take care of themselves.”
The most decorated powerlifter in her weight class, Langdon competes in powerlifting three times a year, at the State Championships, the Nationals, and the Worlds. She has set up a GoFundMe to finance her career beyond her very meager sponsorship money.
White blood cells have been made into a kind of micro-robot that could treat and prevent life threatening illnesses, according to scientists in China.
The tiny, laser-guided machines are made from white blood cells called neutrophils—and are set, the scientists think, to revolutionize medicine.
Named ‘neutrobots’, they can deliver drugs to precise locations in the body after being directed by laser beams. Other devices developed to perform similar tasks contain synthetic materials which in several instances have triggered serious immune responses and biological rejection.
“The neutrophil microcrafts can be remotely activated by light and then navigated to the target position along a designated route,” said project leader Dr. Xianchuang Zheng, of the Institute of Nanophotonics at Jinan University, China.
In experiments on the tails of zebrafish, the Chinese team used an incredibly impressive and precise laser called a scanning optical tweezers (SOTs) to perform three potential applications with the neutrobots.
SOTs point a highly focused beam to hold and move microscopic and sub-microscopic particles in a manner similar to tweezers, and were used with the help of the neutrobots for cell therapy, targeted nanomedicine, and removal of debris or organic waste that can trigger disease.
Additionally, the neutrobots could carry payloads directly to a tumor, blood clot, or infection.
“By integrating the non-invasive manipulation of optical tweezers and innate immunologic function of neutrophils, the proposed microcraft provides new insight for the construction of native medical microdevices for precision medicine,” Dr. Zheng said. “The neutrophil microcraft can be activated or recovered in a controlled manner and the migration is fully steerable—just like driving a vehicle.”
The zebrafish have high blood circulation to their tails, allowing the neutrophils to be clearly identified through fluorescence labelling.
Au natural
It’s significantly less scary than other nanobot medical applications being developed elsewhere, like these miniscule crabs theorized as agents to dispose of tumors, clear clogged arteries, or stop internal bleeding.
Ordinary neutrophils are often slow and go in the wrong direction, part of why the development of micro-robotics has steered more towards artificial solutions.
Maneuvers of the neutrobots include remote activation by SOTs at a desired time and location—precisely navigated to achieve a designed route and speed.
Not only do medical microrobots currently in development require injections or the consumption of capsules to get them inside an animal or person, but researchers have found the objects trigger immune reactions in small animals, resulting in their removal before they can perform their jobs.
The study in the journal ACS Central Science is the first time they have been guided with lasers in living animals. The light-driven microrobot could be moved up to a velocity of 1.3 microns a second—three times faster than a neutrophil naturally moves.
In one test, a neutrobot was moved through a blood vessel wall into the surrounding tissue. Another picked up and transported a plastic nanoparticle, showing its potential for carrying medicine. When one was pushed toward red blood cell debris, it engulfed the pieces.
It seems pure science fiction, but could become standard of care.
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Quote of the Day: “To write is to influence. To influence is to change. To change is to live.” – Jane Evershed
Photo by: lilartsy
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?
On Friday and Saturday, a hotel in Orlando came alive with vibrant colors and breathtaking flair after more than 400 balloon artists from around the world constructed a wonderland to benefit sick children.
The ballroom in the Hyatt hotel became a life-sized replica of Give Kids The World Village—a 90-acre, whimsical nonprofit resort in Kissimmee, Florida which provides critically ill children and their families with magical week-long vacations at no cost.
Balloon artisans from 22 countries built life-sized replicas of the Village’s seven iconic ‘neighborhoods’ using a half-million biodegradable balloons to recreate Under the Sea, Candy Land, Dinosaur Land, and more.
Sponsored by Pioneer Balloon Company, all the proceeds from the $20 tickets go towards fulfilling the wishes of critically-ill children and their families.
“We are very excited about bringing the wonder and excitement of balloon artistry to Orlando while raising funds for such an impactful nonprofit,” said a spokesperson of Pioneer Balloon Company founded in 1917.
The beautiful event (pictured in the video below) raised $52,000, all of which will be used to fulfill the wishes of critically ill children and their families.
Give Kids The World also raises millions of dollars for its charity work with an annual Christmas lights spectacular, covered by GNN each of the last two years.
Give Kids The World
The mission of Give Kids The World Village is to create happiness for wish families during all-inclusive, customized dream vacations that include visits to Disney World.
Give Kids The World
Every family is treated to transportation; accommodations; all meals; donated theme park tickets; nightly entertainment; and more. Since 1986, Give Kids The World has welcomed 177,000 families from all 50 states and 76 countries.
WATCH the video below of the event which ended Saturday…
DON’T Pop the Dream–Share This With Creative Kids and Artists on Social Media…
A 17-year-old teen in San Diego returned a purse left in a grocery store parking lot—and although he expected nothing in return, hundreds of strangers have offered him a big reward.
Adrian Rodriquez found the green handbag in Ralph’s parking lot in Chula Vista, California, two weeks ago. Instead of bringing it inside the store, he decided to deliver it himself to the woman’s front door.
Although the owner, Eliana Martin, wasn’t there, the purse was left with the roommates, and the home’s surveillance video was later used to track down the high school graduate to show him some love.
“I looked into the Ring camera, and I was like, ‘Oh my God. He’s such a young kid’,” recalls Melina Marquez. “We need to find him and just give him a little piece of gratitude.”
She and Martin posted the striking image on social media, and found the young man who returned the bag, which contained $20 and a wallet full of credit cards.
“My mom always told me since I was little to always do the right thing when nobody’s around,” Adrian told NBC News. “I didn’t expect nothing back, honestly.”
“If someone found my stuff, I’d want them to bring it back to me,” said the humble youth.
But the good news didn’t stop there. Marquez organized a GoFundMe campaign as a way for friends and new admirers to reward Adrian’s honesty.
A recent survey polled 2,000 U.S. adults to see how they’re staying active as their routines and lifestyles have undergone a drastic change over the past two years.
73% are eager to increase their physical activity and to change their habits, with 70% making more of an effort to move more, compared to when the pandemic began.
Whether due to working from home or lack of motivation, 42% said they struggle to stay physically active during the day.
Yet the survey found that people are renewing their commitment to an active lifestyle through activities like stretching at home (43%), at-home workouts (38%) and taking mental health walks (31%).
But people are also getting active in new ways, with 81 percent saying that exercising puts them in a better mood. Over half want to exercise more with their family, as well as be a good influence on their children.
Conducted by OnePoll, the survey shows that people are trying a number of tricks or “shortcuts” to sneak in movement throughout the day, such as walking around the house when on the phone (54%) and doing exercises such as crunches and squats while watching TV (42%).
Engaging in movement that brings joy—such as gardening, swimming, dancing, or bike riding—is one way to try to incorporate more exercise—but many are thinking outside of the box.
“There are tons of ways you can get creative to get up and move,” said Rishi Mulgund, Brand Director of Voltaren Arthritis Pain Gel, which sponsored the study.
MOST UNIQUE WAYS PEOPLE HAVE INCREASED THEIR PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
“I go bowling several times a week.”
“I carry my grandkids on my back.”
“I ride my bicycle to work about once a week instead of driving. About 2 miles each way.”
“I do squats while on the phone.”
“I dancercise.”
“I use a trampoline.”
“I use a hula hoop.”
“Doing exercises while watching Netflix.”
“I do steps using a step stool whenever I’m heating things in the microwave.”
“Every time I eat something, I jog around my kitchen island for 5 minutes.”
“I march while brushing my teeth.”
“I play Wii Sports Resort.”
“I play with five dogs daily multiple times a day then I do stair reps.”
“When I’m doing housework I try to do as much as physically possible.”
SHARE The Ideas With the Couch Potatoes on Social Media…
Photos by Kassandra Mayor Anastasia Chalkia / Facebook
Photos by Kassandra Mayor Anastasia Chalkia / Facebook
Strong currents swept a 30-year-old man out to sea while he was on a beach vacation—but reminiscent of the movie Castaway, he now has a soccer ball to thank for his survival.
The Macedonia man spent 18 hours holding on to the partially-deflated leather ball in the Aegean Sea before he was rescued 15 miles away.
Though a good swimmer, Ivan was growing tired when his luck changed, and the rainbow-colored ball came floating toward him, reports Serbian news site, Telegraf.
When news broke about Ivan’s real-life ‘Wilson!’ experience, a pair of Greek children reported that the colorful ball ended up in the sea 10 days earlier when they were playing football on the island of Lemnos—80 miles away.
Ivan was spotted by a Greek Air Force helicopter involved in the search team that was also looking for Ivan’s friend, who hasn’t been found, according to Global News.
Kassandra Mayor Anastasia Chalkia shared a photo posing with the ball alongside Ivan’s father outside a hospital in the northern peninsula municipality.
“I had constant information on the course of the rescue and am very happy about the smooth ending of the young man’s adventure.”
VOLLEY This Amazing Story of Luck Over to Friends on Social Media…
Quote of the Day: “You are not here merely to make a living. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.” – Woodrow Wilson
Photo by: David Cashbaugh (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?
A 90-year-old owner of multiple McDonald’s franchises has done an extraordinary good deed for his employees, who were at risk of losing their livelihoods.
When news broke that Tony Philiou was set to close, remodel, and rebuild a brand-new restaurant in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, there was obvious concern among workers.
But, the staff had nothing to worry about.
Philiou flipped his first burger as an employee at this exact location 60 years ago; now he’s the boss who chose to continue paying all 90 employees, even though they would not be able to work for him during renovations.
“I have people here that make a living here and go from week-to-week pay,” he told WKYC News. “How can I tolerate for them to not have a paycheck?”
“You’re going to sit home. You’re going to get paid,” said Philiou, recalling his words in the speech he delivered to workers.
Courtesy Tony Philiou (pictured with his wife) / McDonald’s
“Employees were floored,” the store’s General Manager Ed Kocsis told the Washington Post.
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY – Week of July 16, 2022
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
Your memory is SUBSTANTIAL. Your sensitivity is MONUMENTAL. Your urge to nurture is DEEP. Your complexity is EPIC. Your feelings are BOTTOMLESS. Your imagination is PRODIGIOUS. Because of all these aptitudes and capacities, you are TOO MUCH for some people. Not everyone can handle your intricate and sometimes puzzling BEAUTY. But there are enough folks out there who do appreciate and thrive on your gifts. In the coming weeks and months, make it your quest to focus your urge to merge on them.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
I love these lines by Leo poet Conrad Aiken: “Remember (when time comes) how chaos died to shape the shining leaf.” I hope this lyrical thought will help you understand the transformation you’re going through. The time has come for some of your chaos to expire—and in doing so, generate your personal equivalent of shining leaves. Can you imagine what the process would look and feel like? How might it unfold? Your homework is to ponder these wonders.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
A British woman named Andie Holman calls herself the Scar Queen. She says, “Tight scar tissue creates pain, impacts mobility, affects your posture, and usually looks bad.” Her specialty is to diminish the limiting effects of scars, restoring flexibility and decreasing aches. Of course, she works with actual physical wounds, not the psychological kind. I wish I could refer you to healers who would help you with the latter, Virgo. Do you know any? If not, seek one out. The good news is that you now have more personal power than usual to recover from your old traumas and diminish your scars. I urge you to make such work a priority in the coming weeks.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
Ancient Roman philosopher Seneca wrote, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” But a Spanish proverb suggests a different element may be necessary: “Good luck comes by elbowing.” (Elbowing refers to the gesture you use as you push your way through a crowd, nudging people away from the path you want to take.) A Danish proverb says that preparation and elbowing aren’t enough: “Luck will carry someone across the brook if they are not too lazy to leap.” Modern author Wendy Walker has the last word: “Fortune adores audacity.” I hope I’ve inspired you to be alert to the possibility that extra luck is now available to you. And I hope I’ve convinced you to be audacious, energetic, well-prepared, and willing to engage in elbowing. Take maximum advantage of this opportunity.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Many Scorpios imagine sex to be an unparalleled celebration of sacred earthiness. I endorse and admire this perspective. Here’s another thing I love about Scorpios: So many of you grasp the value of sublimating lust into other fun and constructive accomplishments. You’re skilled at channeling your high-powered libido into practical actions that may have no apparent erotic element. The coming weeks will be an excellent time for you to do a lot of that.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
A Sagittarius reader asked, “What are actions I could take to make my life more magical?” I’m glad she asked. The coming weeks will be a favorable time to raise your delight and enchantment levels, to bask in the blessed glories of alluring mysteries and uncanny synchronicities. Here are a few tips: 1. Learn the moon’s phases and keep track of them. 2. Acquire a new sacred treasure and keep it under your pillow or in your bed. 3. Before sleep, ask your deep mind to provide you with dreams that help generate creative answers to a specific question. 4. Go on walks at night or at dawn. 5. Compose a wild or funny prayer and shout it aloud it as you run through a field. 6. Sing a soulful song to yourself as you gaze into a mirror.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Being able to receive love doesn’t come easy for some Capricorns. You may also not be adept at making yourself fully available for gifts and blessings. But you can learn these things. You can practice. With enough mindful attention, you might eventually become skilled at the art of getting a lot of what you need and knowing what to do with it. And I believe the coming weeks will be a marvelous time to increase your mastery.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
A musician once said, “If I don’t practice one day, I know it; two days, the critics know it; three days, the public knows it.” It’s a fundamental principle for everyone who wants to get skilled at any task, not just for musicians. To become a master of what you love to do, you must work on it with extreme regularity. This is always true, of course. But according to my astrological analysis, it will be even more intensely true and desirable for you during the coming months. Life is inviting you to raise your expertise to a higher level. I hope you’ll respond!
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
In May 2021, Jessica and Ben Laws got married on their dairy farm. The ceremony unfolded smoothly, but an unforeseen event interrupted the reception party. A friend who had been monitoring their herd came to tell the happy couple that their pregnant cow had gone into labor and was experiencing difficulties. Jessica ran to the barn and plunged into active assistance, still clad in her lovely floor-length bridal gown and silver tiara. The dress got muddy and trashed, but the birth was successful. The new bride had no regrets. I propose making her your role model for now. Put practicality over idealism. Opt for raw and gritty necessities instead of neat formalities. Serve what’s soulful, even if it’s messy.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
With a fanciful flourish, Aries poet Seamus Heaney wrote, “I ate the day / Deliberately, that its tang / Might quicken me all into verb, pure verb.” I’d love for you to be a pure verb for a while, Aries. Doing so would put you in robust rapport with astrological rhythms. As a pure verb, you’ll never be static. Flowing and transformation will be your specialties. A steady stream of fresh inspiration and new meanings will come your way. You already have an abundance of raw potential for living like a verb—more than all the other signs of the zodiac. And in the coming weeks, your aptitude for that fluidic state will be even stronger than usual.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
According to Arthurian myth, the Holy Grail is a cup that confers magical powers. Among them are eternal youth, miraculous healing, the restoration of hope, the resurrection of the dead, and an unending supply of healthy and delicious food and drink. Did the Grail ever exist as a material object? Some believe so. After 34 years of research, historian David Adkins thinks he’s close to finding it. He says it’s buried beneath an old house in Burton-on-Trent, a town in central England. I propose we make this tantalizing prospect your metaphor of power during the coming weeks. Why? I suspect there’s a chance you will discover a treasure or precious source of vitality. It may be partially hidden in plain sight or barely disguised in a mundane setting.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
I’m pleased to authorize you to be extra vast and extensive in the coming weeks. Like Gemini poet Walt Whitman, you should never apologize and always be proud of the fact that you contain multitudes. Your multivalent, wide-ranging outlook will be an asset, not a liability. We should all thank you for being a grand compendium of different selves. Your versatility and elasticity will enhance the well-being of all of us whose lives you touch.
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Astronomers at MIT—and universities in Canada and the US—have detected a strange and persistent radio signal from a far-off galaxy that appears to be flashing with surprising regularity.
The signal is classified as a fast radio burst, or FRB — an intensely strong burst of radio waves of unknown astrophysical origin, that typically lasts for a few milliseconds at most. However, this new signal persists for up to three seconds, about 1,000 times longer than the average FRB. Within this window, the team detected bursts of radio waves that repeat every 0.2 seconds in a clear periodic pattern, similar to a beating heart.
The source of the signal lies in a distant galaxy, several billion light-years from Earth. Exactly what that source might be remains a mystery, though astronomers suspect the signal could emanate from either a radio pulsar or a magnetar “on steroids”. Both are types of neutron stars — extremely dense, rapidly spinning collapsed cores of giant stars.
“There are not many things in the universe that emit strictly periodic signals,” says Daniele Michilli, a postdoc in MIT’s Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. “Examples that we know of in our own galaxy are radio pulsars and magnetars, which rotate and produce a beamed emission similar to a lighthouse. And we think this new signal could be a magnetar or pulsar on steroids.”
The team hopes to detect more periodic signals from this source, which could then be used as an astrophysical clock. For instance, the frequency of the bursts, and how they change as the source moves away from Earth, could be used to measure the rate at which the universe is expanding.
The discovery was reported this week in the journal Nature, and is authored by members of the CHIME/FRB Collaboration, including MIT co-authors Calvin Leung, Juan Mena-Parra, Kaitlyn Shin, and Kiyoshi Masui, along with Michilli, who led the discovery first as a researcher at McGill University, and then as a postdoc at MIT.
The researchers have labeled the signal FRB 20191221A, and it is currently the longest-lasting FRB, with the clearest periodic pattern, detected to date.
“Boom, boom, boom”
Since the first FRB was discovered in 2007, hundreds of similar radio flashes have been detected across the universe, most recently by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment, or CHIME—an interferometric radio telescope consisting of four large parabolic reflectors located at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory in British Columbia, Canada.
CHIME continuously observes the sky as the Earth rotates, and is designed to pick up radio waves emitted by hydrogen in the very earliest stages of the universe. The telescope also happens to be sensitive to fast radio bursts, and since it began observing the sky in 2018, CHIME has detected hundreds of FRBs emanating from different parts of the sky.
The vast majority of FRBs observed to date are one-offs — ultrabright bursts of radio waves that last for a few milliseconds before blinking off. Recently, researchers discovered the first periodic FRB that appeared to emit a regular pattern of radio waves. This signal consisted of a four-day window of random bursts that then repeated every 16 days. This 16-day cycle indicated a periodic pattern of activity, though the signal of the actual radio bursts was random rather than periodic.
On Dec. 21, 2019, CHIME picked up a signal of a potential FRB, which immediately drew the attention of Michilli, who was scanning the incoming data.
“It was unusual,” he recalls. “Not only was it very long, lasting about three seconds, but there were periodic peaks that were remarkably precise, emitting every fraction of a second — boom, boom, boom — like a heartbeat. This is the first time the signal itself is periodic.”
In analyzing the pattern of FRB 20191221A’s radio bursts, Michilli and his colleagues found similarities with emissions from radio pulsars and magnetars in our own galaxy. Radio pulsars are neutron stars that emit beams of radio waves, appearing to pulse as the star rotates, while a similar emission is produced by magnetars due to their extreme magnetic fields.
The main difference between the new signal and radio emissions from our own galactic pulsars and magnetars is that FRB 20191221A appears to be more than a million times brighter. Michilli says the luminous flashes may originate from a distant radio pulsar or magnetar that is normally less bright as it rotates and for some unknown reason ejected a train of brilliant bursts, in a rare three-second window that CHIME was luckily positioned to catch.
“CHIME has now detected many FRBs with different properties,” Michilli says. “We’ve seen some that live inside clouds that are very turbulent, while others look like they’re in clean environments. From the properties of this new signal, we can say that around this source, there’s a cloud of plasma that must be extremely turbulent.”
The astronomers hope to catch additional bursts from the periodic FRB 20191221A, which can help to refine their understanding of its source, and of neutron stars in general.
“This detection raises the question of what could cause this extreme signal that we’ve never seen before, and how can we use this signal to study the universe,” says Michilli.
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An English family was left stunned when their dog escaped only to return later that day with a ribbon won at a local dog show.
Peter and Paula Closier became sick with worry when their five-year-old beagle-mix vanished on Sunday morning.
They called the police, the dog warden, and looked all over their house in West Sussex—and their neighbors also joined in the search for little Bonnie.
When Peter saw that the gate had swung open, he thought ‘oh no’.
Little did they know that John Wilmer had spotted Bonnie by the side of the road while on his way to a dog show in Surrey where he was entering his own two dogs.
Soon after, the family’s fears were eased when Paula spotted a Facebook post by John hoping to locate the pet’s owners. He was running late for the dog show and asked, ‘does anyone know this dog’?
John then decided to enter Bonnie into the competition. He thought “I might as well enter her into the ‘best rescue dog’ category”.
And she returned to her family with a third place ribbon!
When she was just one-year-old, the couple rescued Bonnie from the streets of Crete, in Greece, but they had never entered the pup into any competitions.
“We never pursued it with Bonnie, but we should now.”
Quote of the Day: “Happiness is not about gaining something… It’s all about getting rid of the darkness you accumulate.” – Carolyn Crane
Photo by: Craig ONeal, CC license
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