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

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

Here is your weekly horoscope…

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY – Week of May 28, 2022
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
“Reality is not simply there; it does not simply exist,” claimed author Paul Celan. “It must be sought out and won.” I think that is excellent advice for you right now. But what does it mean in practical terms? How can you seek out and win reality? My first suggestion is to put your personal stamp on every situation you encounter. Do something subtle or strong to make each event serve your specific interests and goals. My second suggestion is to discern the illusions that other people are projecting and avoid buying into those misunderstandings. My third suggestion is to act as if it’s always possible to make life richer, more vivid, and more meaningful. And then figure out how to do that.

CANCER (June 21-July 22):
Wilma Mankiller was the first female Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. She said, “The cow runs away from the storm, while the buffalo charges directly toward it—and gets through it quicker.” Political analyst Donna Brazile expounded on Mankiller’s strategy: “Whenever I’m confronted with a tough challenge, I do not prolong the torment. I become the buffalo.” I recommend Mankiller’s and Brazile’s approach for you and me in the coming days, my fellow Cancerian. Now please excuse me as I race in the direction of the squall I see brewing in the distance.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
The New Yorker is an influential Pulitzer Prize-winning magazine that features witty writing and impeccable fact-checking. How did the magazine get its start? It was co-founded in 1925 by Harold Ross, who had dropped out of school at age 13. He edited every issue for the next 26 years. I’m sensing the possibility of a comparable development in your life, Leo. In the coming months, you may get involved in a project that seems to be beyond the reach of your official capacities or formal credentials. I urge you to proceed as if you can and will succeed.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Virgo-born Jocko Willink is a retired naval officer and author. In his book Discipline Equals Freedom: Field Manual, he lays down his manifesto: “Become the discipline—embrace its cold and relentless power. And it will make you better and stronger and smarter and faster and healthier than anything else. And most important: It will make you free.” While I don’t expect you to embrace Willink’s rigorous ethic with the same fanatical grip, I think you will benefit from doing the best you can. The cosmic rhythms will support you if you make a fun and earnest effort to cultivate liberation through discipline.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
“Some nights you are the lighthouse, some nights the sea,” writes Libran author Ocean Vuong. According to my astrological analysis, you are better suited to be the lighthouse than the sea in the coming days. Lately, you have thoroughly embodied the sea, and that has prepared you well to provide illumination. You have learned new secrets about the tides and the waves. You are attuned to the rhythms of the undercurrents. So I hope you will now embrace your role as a beacon, Libra. I expect that people will look to your radiance to guide and inspire them.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
“Movie people are possessed by demons, but a very low form of demons,” observes author Edna O’Brien. She should know. She has hung out with many big film stars. Since you’re probably not in the movie business yourself, your demons may be much higher quality than those of celebrity actors and directors. And I’m guessing that in the coming weeks, your demons will become even finer and more interesting than ever before—even to the point that they could become helpers and advisors. For the best results, treat them with respect and be willing to listen to their ideas.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
I’m all in favor of you getting what you yearn for. I have no inhibitions or caveats as I urge you to unleash all your ingenuity and hard work in quest of your beautiful goals. And in the hope of inspiring you to upgrade your ability to fulfill these sacred prospects, I offer you a tip from Sagittarian author Martha Beck. She wrote, “To attract something that you want, become as joyful as you think that thing would make you.”

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
According to author Caroline Myss, “You should see everything about your life as a lesson.” Whoa! Really? Each trip to the grocery store should be a learning opportunity? Myss says yes! For example, let’s say you’re in the snack foods aisle and you’re tempted to put Doritos Nacho Cheese Tortilla Chips and Lay’s Barbecue Potato Chips in your cart. But your gut is screaming at you, “That stuff isn’t healthy for you!” And yet you decide to ignore your gut’s advice. You buy and eat both bags. Myss would say you have squandered a learning opportunity: “You’ve harmed yourself by blocking your intuitive voice,” she writes. Now, in accordance with astrological omens, Capricorn, here’s your homework assignment: Regard every upcoming event as a chance to learn how to trust your intuition better.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
An Aquarian poet was disturbed when a suitor told her, “I’m really very fond of you.” She responded, “I don’t like fond. It sounds like something you would tell a dog. Give me love, or nothing. Throw your fond in a pond.” I don’t advise you to adopt a similar attitude anytime soon, Aquarius. In my oracular opinion, you should wholeheartedly welcome fondness. You should honor it and celebrate it. In itself, it is a rich, complex attitude. And it may also lead, if you welcome it, to even more complex and profound interweavings.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
“I need a playlist of all the songs I used to love but forgot about,” wrote a Tumblr blogger. I think you could use such a playlist, too, Pisces. In fact, I would love to see you receive a host of memos that remind you of all the things you love and need and are interested in—but have forgotten about or neglected. The coming weeks will be an excellent time to recover what has been lost. I hope you will re-establish connections and restore past glories that deserve to accompany you into the future.

ARIES (March 21-April 19):
In defining the essential elements at play in a typical Aries person’s agenda, I’m not inclined to invoke the words “sometimes” or “maybe.” Nor do I make frequent use of the words “periodically,” “if,” or “ordinarily.” Instead, my primary identifying term for many Aries characters is “NOW!!!” with three exclamation points. In referring to your sign’s experiences, I also rely heavily on the following descriptors: pronto, presto, push, directly, why not?, engage, declare, activate, venture into, enterprising, seize, deliver, and wield. You are authorized to fully activate and deploy these qualities in the next three weeks.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
I like Joan Didion‘s definitions of self-respect. As you enter a favorable phase for deepening and enhancing your self-respect, they may be helpful. Didion said self-respect is a “sense of one’s intrinsic worth,” and added, “People who respect themselves are willing to accept the risk that the venture will go bankrupt, that the liaison may not turn out to be one in which every day is a holiday. They are willing to invest something of themselves.” And maybe the most essential thing about self-respect, according to Didion, is that it is “a discipline, a habit of mind that can never be faked but can be developed, trained, coaxed forth.”

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

(Zodiac images by Numerologysign.com, CC license)

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“Self-respect is a discipline, a habit of mind that can never be faked but can be developed, trained, coaxed forth.” – Joan Didion

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Quote of the Day: “Self-respect is a discipline, a habit of mind that can never be faked but can be developed, trained, coaxed forth.” – Joan Didion

Photo by: Dollar Gill

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?

How ‘Frozen Zoos’ Are Helping Save Vanishing Species

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Andy Corbley
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Credit: Lengai101
White rhino;  Lengai101

Over the last two decades, a secret institution has gone largely uncredited with some fairly remarkably achievements in animal conservation.

But as well as potentially offering the only chance for the northern white rhino’s survival, the “Frozen Zoo” at San Diego has already given a second chance to animals as close to and (some times over) the brink as possible.

San Diego’s Frozen Zoo is not a place to see polar bears and penguins, but rather a cyrobank of cells from endangered animals from around the world.

It was their stored genetic material that has led to the cloning of the critically endangered and undomesticated Przewalski’s horse in 2020, an Indian Guar—a species of humpbacked wild ox in 2013, a Banteng, a species of cattle found in Southeast Asia in 2003, and the black-footed ferret, also in 2020.

The Frozen Zoo has been around for 50 years. Started in ’72 by a biologist named Kurt Benirschke, above the door to his lab was a sign that prophetically read “you must collect things for reasons you don’t yet understand,” referring mostly to skin cells, stored in Frozen Zoo at -320°F.

RELATED: We Finally Rid An Island of 300,000 Rats – Now Everything is Blooming

Some scientists have determined that the biodiversity of life on Earth may fall by around 1 million species in the next century. To this end, the work of institutions like Frozen Zoo is becoming even more critical. CNN reports they are already saving eggs and sperm of animals like the cheetah—not yet recognized as endangered, but at a high risk of doing so.

San Diego Zoo Globa

In total they have 10,500 individual animals from 1,220 species, and currently among them is the only available frozen material from male northern white rhinos—12 to be exact, from which they’ve managed to create stem cells—which could be used to create sperm to fertilize an egg, which would then have to be carried by the closely related southern white rhino subspecies.

LOOK: Chinook Salmon Introduced to Mountain Streams Not Inhabited for 100 Years

GNN first reported on the Frozen Zoo with the birth of Elizabeth Ann, a black-footed ferret.

Today, all black-footed ferrets are descended from seven individuals, resulting in unique genetic challenges to recovering this species. Cloning may help address the issues of genetic diversity and disease resilience in wild populations. Without an appropriate amount of genetic diversity, a species often becomes more susceptible to diseases and genetic abnormalities, as well as limited adaptability to conditions in the wild and a decreased fertility rate.

Frozen Zoo isn’t the only organization that cryobanks endangered animals. Nature’s Safe, founded by Tullis Matson, also collects cells of the same types for the same purpose.

Cryobanking receives little of any kind of funding, and most are working on shoestrings. However Matson told CNN he sees the greater challenge, since private donations are there, to be inter-program coordination.

MORE: Watch the Moment a Lost Panther Kitten is Reunited With Mother, Thanks to Florida Wildlife Officials

“The task is enormous, nobody can do this on their own,” says Matson. “There’s a million species at risk. We need 50 different genetic samples from each, so that means 50 million samples; for each of those, we need five vials for each sample, so that’s hundreds of millions of samples that need to be stored.”

It’s no small task, but cryobanking endangered species’ cells has all the qualities of a “bigger than you, bigger than me” challenge, no doubt attracting talented individuals. If one or two more species, particularly the rhino, whose coming extinction was heralded solemnly by news stations around the world, could be revived via Frozen Zoo or Nature’s Safe, it could draw the attention the workload deserves.

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European Cities Are Turning Rooftops Into Community and Sustainability Hubs: ‘A revolution in urban planning’

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Andy Corbley
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CocoParisienne
CocoParisienne

Across Europe, intrepid artists, planners, and architects are transforming the flat, grey rooftops of the continent into lively community hubs.

From public parks to art venues to rainwater catchments and solar farms, there’s hardly a bad idea about how to utilize thousands of football fields of under-utilized space.

The European Creative Rooftop Network connects various organizations in European cities like Barcelona and Antwerp that want to ‘aim high’ with cultural hotspots and innovative living labs exploring sustainability.

Rotterdam has 150 million square feet of rooftop space, and the municipality’s program Multifunctional Rooftops is encouraging building owners to green their rooftops to improve water collection, or “yellow” their roofs by installing solar panels on them.

For example, the Luchtpark Hofbogen sits on top of a heritage train station that’s being converted into a meandering rooftop park—much like the High Line in New York City.

Next weekend, Multifunctional Rooftops is hosting the Rotterdam Rooftop Days festival that aims to educate people about various potential uses for city rooftops. The festival will be centered on a pair of exhibits—public spaces on various rooftops connected via colored bridges.

MORE: Kuwait is Transforming its Massive ‘Tire Graveyard’ into a New Green City

It’s not only Rotterdam, and nearby Amsterdam, that are looking up. There are chapters of the ERCN in Belfast, Antwerp, Nicosia, Gothenburg, Chemnitz, and Faro.

In Barcelona, a group called Coincidencies is building a network of cultural exhibition areas including concert venues and performance spaces.

Nicosia in Cyprus is also seeing a lot of success turning their roofs into attractions. The top of Stelios Ioannou Learning Center is a turf roof allowing 360-degree vision of the city. At the center, an artificial hill offers a skylight into the library below.

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

1010 Hall is a rooftop cultural space with a focus on stargazing—not because you can see many stars in Nicosia, but because there’s a very big telescope on the roof. Stargazing and astronomy talks are hosted at its small theater.

New hope

For those curious about where to visit some of these revamped rooftops, the ERCN’s “Rooftopedia” has all of them together.

For Rotterdam, the conversion of roofs is as much for keeping the city above water, as 90% of the municipality is technically below sea level, and the emphasis on water collection is strong. It started in 2008 when they became the first city to offer subsidies to building owners constructing green roofs.

CHECK OUT: Saudi Arabia Plans to Plant 50 BILLION Trees – And Reduce Carbon Emissions by 60%

A year later, the roof of a 1960s concert hall called De Doelen finished installing a roof upgrade which included hidden water tanks under stones, paving a public walkway that can collect 2,000 bathtubs of water.

Bare roofs by dark-grey concrete play a huge role in the “heat island” effect of cities, and the more stuff put up there to absorb that heat, the less energy a building will need to cool itself. One could call it the next revolution in urban planning.

(WATCH the video for this story below.)

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Adventurous Play Helps Boosts Children’s Mental Health, Research Says

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Children who spend more time playing adventurously have lower symptoms of anxiety and depression, and were happier over the first Covid-19 lockdown, according to new research.

A study led by the University of Exeter asked parents how often their children engaged in play that was “thrilling and exciting,” where they might experience some fear and uncertainty.

The study comes at a time when today’s children have fewer opportunities for adventurous play out of sight of adults, such as climbing trees, riding bikes, jumping from high surfaces or playing somewhere where they are out of adult sight. The study sought to test theories that adventurous play offers learning opportunities that help build resilience in children, thereby helping to prevent mental health problems.

With funding from a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, the research team surveyed nearly 2,500 parents of children aged 5-11 years. Parents completed questions about their child’s play, their general mental health (pre-Covid) and their mood during the first Covid-19 lockdown.

The research was carried out with two groups of parents: a group of 427 parents living in Northern Ireland and a nationally representative group of 1919 parents living in Great Britain.

MORE: The Adventure Stories in This Non-Fiction Children’s Book are the Perfect Confidence Boost for Kids

Researchers found that children who spend more time playing outside had fewer “internalizing problems,” characterized as anxiety and depression. Those children were also more positive during the first lockdown.

The effects were relatively small, as would be expected given the range of factors that affect children’s mental health. However, results were consistent even after researchers factored in a wide range of demographic variables including child sex, age, parent employment status etc, and parent mental health. The study in the Great Britain group also found that the effect was more pronounced in children from lower income families than those growing up in higher income households.

“We’re more concerned than ever about children’s mental health, and our findings highlight that we might be able to help protect children’s mental health by ensuring they have plentiful opportunities for adventurous play,” Helen Dodd, Professor of Child Psychology at the of the University of Exeter, who led the study, said. “This is really positive because play is free, instinctive and rewarding for children, available to everyone, and doesn’t require special skills. We now urgently need to invest in and protect natural spaces, well-designed parks and adventure playgrounds, to support the mental health of our children.”

RELATED: Surviving 8,000-Mile Journey, Girl Finally Finds 6-Foot Boat Launched By Students

“Every child needs and deserves opportunities to play. This important research shows that this is even more vital to help children thrive after all they have missed out on during the Covid-19 restrictions,” Dan Paskins, Director of UK Impact at Save the Children, said.
“More play means more happiness and less anxiety and depression. That’s why Save the Children is supporting the Summer of Play campaign which brings together organizations from around the country to pledge their support to enable children to have fun, spend time with friends and enjoy freedom.”

LOOK: Watch Breathtaking Alpine Ski Run Through Forest, Ice Cave, and Rooftops By Extreme Free-Skier

“This research emphasizes the importance of adventurous play. Children and young people need freedom and opportunities to encounter challenge and risk in their everyday playful adventures. It is clear from the research findings that playing, taking risks and experiencing excitement outdoors makes a positive contribution to children’s mental health and emotional well-being,” said Jacqueline O’Loughlin, Chief Executive of PlayBoard NI, wo welcomed the findings. “The rewards of allowing children to self-regulate and manage challenge in their play are widespread and far-reaching. Adventurous play helps children to build the resilience needed to cope with, and manage stress in challenging circumstances.”

Examples of adventurous activities that don’t cost anything are:

  • Going for a torch walk in the dark
  • Exploring woods alone or with a friend
  • Camping out overnight
  • Swimming or paddling in a river or lake
  • Jumping from a swing
  • Trying out new skills on a skateboard, rollerskates or cycling
  • Creating obstacle courses inside or outside

This research has been published in Child Psychiatry and Human Development.

Source: University of Exeter

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This Fruit Could Help Improve Memory and Ward Off Dementia, Study Says

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Jim Choate , CC license

Adding cranberries to your diet could help improve memory and brain function, and lower ‘bad’ cholesterol—according to new research.

A new study from the University of East Anglia highlights the neuroprotective potential of cranberries.

The research team studied the benefits of consuming the equivalent of a cup of cranberries a day among 50 to 80-year-olds.

They hope that their findings could have implications for the prevention of neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia.

“Dementia is expected to affect around 152 million people by 2050. There is no known cure, so it is crucial that we seek modifiable lifestyle interventions, such as diet, that could help lessen disease risk and burden,” lead researcher Dr David Vauzour, from UEA’s Norwich Medical School, said.

“Past studies have shown that higher dietary flavonoid intake is associated with slower rates of cognitive decline and dementia. And foods rich in anthocyanins and proanthocyanidins, which give berries their red, blue, or purple colour, have been found to improve cognition.

MORE: The Mechanism Behind Memory Loss in Aging Was Identified By Scientists at Johns Hopkins

“Cranberries are rich in these micronutrients and have been recognized for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

“We wanted to find out more about how cranberries could help reduce age-related neurodegeneration.”

A fresh study

The research team investigated the impact of eating cranberries for 12 weeks on brain function and cholesterol among 60 cognitively healthy participants.

Half of the participants consumed freeze-dried cranberry powder, equivalent to a cup or 100g of fresh cranberries, daily. The other half consumed a placebo.

The study is one of the first to examine cranberries and their long-term impact on cognition and brain health in humans.

RELATED: The Mechanism Behind Memory Loss in Aging Was Identified By Scientists at Johns Hopkins

The results showed that consuming cranberries significantly improved the participants’ memory of everyday events (visual episodic memory), neural functioning, and delivery of blood to the brain (brain perfusion).

“We found that the participants who consumed the cranberry powder showed significantly improved episodic memory performance in combination with improved circulation of essential nutrients such as oxygen and glucose to important parts of the brain that support cognition—specifically memory consolidation and retrieval,” Dr Vauzour said.

“The cranberry group also exhibited a significant decrease in LDL or ‘bad’ cholesterol levels, known to contribute to atherosclerosis, the thickening or hardening of the arteries caused by a build-up of plaque in the inner lining of an artery. This supports the idea that cranberries can improve vascular health and may in part contribute to the improvement in brain perfusion and cognition.

“Demonstrating in humans that cranberry supplementation can improve cognitive performance and identifying some of the mechanisms responsible is an important step for this research field.

“The findings of this study are very encouraging, especially considering that a relatively short 12-week cranberry intervention was able to produce significant improvements in memory and neural function,” he added.

“This establishes an important foundation for future research in the area of cranberries and neurological health.”

This study has been published in Frontiers in Nutrition.

Source: University of East Anglia

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“Love is everything it’s cracked up to be. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for.” – Erica Jong

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Quote of the Day: “Love is everything it’s cracked up to be. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for.” – Erica Jong

Photo by: Fernando Jiménez, CC license

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Ice May Be Hiding in Ancient Moon Volcanoes

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Anna Asryan

Billions of years ago, a series of volcanic eruptions broke loose on the moon, blanketing hundreds of thousands of square miles of the orb’s surface in hot lava. Over the eons, that lava created the dark blotches, or maria, that give the face of the moon its familiar appearance today.

Now, new research from CU Boulder suggests that volcanoes may have left another lasting impact on the lunar surface: sheets of ice that dot the moon’s poles and, in some places, could measure dozens or even hundreds of feet thick.

“We envision it as a frost on the moon that built up over time,” said Andrew Wilcoski, lead author of the new study and a graduate student in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences (APS) and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at CU Boulder.

The researchers drew on computer simulations, or models, to try to recreate conditions on the moon long before complex life arose on Earth. They discovered that ancient moon volcanoes spewed out huge amounts of water vapor, which then settled onto the surface— forming stores of ice that may still be hiding in lunar craters. If any humans had been alive at the time, they may even have seen a sliver of that frost near the border between day and night on the moon’s surface.

It’s a potential bounty for future moon explorers who will need water to drink and process into rocket fuel, said study co-author Paul Hayne.

MORE: X-Ray Explosion of a White Dwarf Star Captured for the First Time

“It’s possible that 5 or 10 meters below the surface, you have big sheets of ice,” said Hayne, assistant professor in APS and LASP.

Temporary atmospheres

The new study adds to a growing body of evidence that suggests that the moon may be awash in a lot more water than scientists once believed. In a 2020 study, Hayne and his colleagues estimated that nearly 6,000 square miles of the lunar surface could be capable of trapping and hanging onto ice—mostly near the moon’s north and south poles. Where all that water came from in the first place is unclear.

“There are a lot of potential sources at the moment,” Hayne said.

Volcanoes could be a big one. The planetary scientist explained that from 2 to 4 billion years ago, the moon was a chaotic place. Tens of thousands of volcanoes erupted across its surface during this period, generating huge rivers and lakes of lava, not unlike the features you might see in Hawaii today—only much more immense.

RELATED: Photo From Mars Curiosity Rover Looks Like We Found a Doorway

“They dwarf almost all of the eruptions on Earth,” Hayne said.

Recent research from scientists at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston shows that these volcanoes likely also ejected towering clouds made up of mostly carbon monoxide and water vapor. These clouds then swirled around the moon, potentially creating thin and short-lived atmospheres.

That got Hayne and Wilcoski wondering: Could that same atmosphere have left ice on the lunar surface, a bit like frost forming on the ground after a chilly fall night?

Forever ice

To find out, the duo alongside Margaret Landis, a research associate at LASP, set out to try to put themselves onto the surface of the moon billions of years ago.

The team used estimates that, at its peak, the moon experienced one eruption every 22,000 years, on average. The researchers then tracked how volcanic gases may have swirled around the moon, escaping into space over time. And, they discovered, conditions may have gotten icy. According to the group’s estimates, roughly 41% of the water from volcanoes may have condensed onto the moon as ice.

LOOK: Plants Have Been Grown in Lunar Soil For The First Time Ever

“The atmospheres escaped over about 1,000 years, so there was plenty of time for ice to form,” Wilcoski said.

There may have been so much ice on the moon, in fact, that you could, conceivably, have spotted the sheen of frost and thick, polar ice caps from Earth. The group calculated that about 18 quadrillion pounds of volcanic water could have condensed as ice during that period. That’s more water than currently sits in Lake Michigan. And the research hints that much of that lunar water may still be present today.

Those space ice cubes, however, won’t necessarily be easy to find. Most of that ice has likely accumulated near the moon’s poles and may be buried under several feet of lunar dust, or regolith.

One more reason, Hayne noted, for people or robots to head back and start digging.

“We really need to drill down and look for it,” he said.

These findings have been published in The Planetary Science Journal.

Source: University of Colorado at Boulder

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Iceland Trots Out Service That Lets Horses Reply to Work Emails While You’re On Vacation

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Good News Network
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SWNS
SWNS

Iceland has trotted out a service that lets horses reply to work emails when you’re on holiday.

The world-first ‘OutHorse Your Email’ service is designed to encourage travellers to switch off and take an uninterrupted trip to the country.

Using a large keyboard mat, the gaited horses are able to walk, trot, canter, tölt, and pace their way across the keys.

Unsurprisingly, the result is nonsense replies to corporate contacts, with examples listed as “þþnjifai=’.,,lmbmbnbbhgycdrgzw/’pfæ ndaiFVxhðut7r7r7djsmfdsm” and “þnjifai\’/.p,oii9unnbhvggyvgjhbjm,kfæ,.iklp–jpomohu o/’k;,i,mumnf.”

A recent global study by Visit Iceland found that two fifths (41%) of people globally check their work emails between one and four times a day when on holiday, while one in ten (14%) review them 5-6 times every day.

MORE: 4-Day Work Week is a Huge Success in Iceland

“When visitors travel to Iceland we want them to fully experience everything our nation has to offer, from breathtaking surroundings to endless landscapes and friendly faces,” Sigríður Dögg Guðmundsdóttir, Head of Visit Iceland said.

SWNS

“Our OutHorse Your Email service lets them do just that, taking away the pressure of feeling as if they have to be always on and instead allowing them to be present throughout their trip. With our world-first service we hope to encourage people to disconnect and take a well-deserved, uninterrupted break”.

“Our talented horses took naturally to the OutHorse Your Email service, tölting and galloping their way across the fields and creating a range of unique emails that will help holidaymakers enjoy their trip without any interruptions,” Jelena Ohm, Project Manager of Horses of Iceland said. “From curiosity, intelligence and independence, our horses are special for many reasons, and so now we can add email responders too.”

Due to the pandemic, over the last few years many workers have transitioned to remote working, finding that the lines between their work and personal lives have become blurred.

The research by Visit Iceland revealed that three-fifths (59%) of people globally now feel as if their boss, colleagues, and clients expect them to reply when on holiday, while less than half (44%) of workers actually feel rested after their trip.

A further one in ten (15%) have even canceled or postponed their holiday plans altogether due to work. That’s why Iceland is ‘outhorsing’ workers’ emails to its horses, asking them to trot out replies, so they don’t have to.

RELATED: Two Beluga Whales Are Free for the First Time Since 2011 With a New Life On The Icelandic Coast

Visit Iceland adds, “So, don’t be foal-ish, enjoy a distraction free trip to Iceland and remember, if you do receive work emails while on holiday, Iceland’s horses have you covered.”

(WATCH the video for this story below.)

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Piece of Ancient Graffiti Reveals New Clues About the Day Pompeii Was Destroyed

By
Andy Corbley
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Fresco uncovered during a recent dig - Credit: Archaeological Park of Pompeii
Fresco uncovered during a recent dig/Archaeological Park of Pompeii

Pompeii has captured the world’s attention for years, and few sites have revealed more about the life and luxuries of the Roman Empire than it has.

Recent clues—scrawled onto walls by ne’er-do-wells, and others uncovered in the ash, are changing the record about exactly when the city met its unfortunate end at the hands of the volcano.

A worker wrote a joke with charcoal onto the wall of a building one day in CE 79, more or less reading, “he ate too much.” However this everyday bit of time-killing was made with a date: October 17th, two months after the long-suspected eruption of Vesuvius.

It’s believed that Pompeii was buried on August 24th, based on a letter sent by Pliny the Younger, who, standing on the other side of the bay of Naples, witnessed the destruction from a safe distance.

This new date is thought to be pretty accurate, as the delicate charcoal which wrote the graffiti would not have lasted long in the sea air. Instead the volcanic ash preserved it.

MORE: Robotic Dog Designed in Boston Patrols the Ruins of Pompeii to Help Preserve Relics

There are other recently-uncovered reasons to believe the eruption took place later in the year, including charred fruit from autumn harvests, bodies buried in thick cold-weather clothing, outdoor braziers still filled with firewood, sealed amphorae with wine—again from the harvest, and a coin that was not minted before September.

Pliny’s account from the advancing ash is harrowing, and helps us imagine the gravity of the eruption as it spread across the region. He wrote the day after the eruption:

“From the other direction over the land, a dreadful black cloud was torn by gushing flames and great tongues of fire like much-magnified lightning. The cloud sank down soon afterwards and covered the sea, hiding Capri and Capo Misenum from sight. My mother begged me to leave her and escape as best I could, but I took her had and made her hurry along with me. Ash was already falling by now, but not very thickly. Then I turned around and saw a thick black cloud advancing over the land behind us like a flood. ‘Let us leave the road while we can still see”, I said, “or we will be knocked down and trampled by the crowd’.

MORE: Greece Opens World’s First Underwater Museum Around a 2,400-Year-old Shipwreck

We had hardly sat down to rest when the darkness spread over us. But is was not the darkness of a moonless or cloudy night, but it was just as if the lamps had been put out in a completely closed room. We could hear women shrieking, children crying and men shouting. Some were calling for their parents, their children, or their wives, and trying to recognize them by their voices. Some people were so frightened of dying that they actually prayed for death. Many begged for the help of the gods, but even more imagined that there were no gods left and that the last eternal night had fallen on the world.”

Still, just one-third of Pompeii has been excavated. Much of the last two-decades has been restoration work, part of the Great Pompeii Project. There’s likely so much more to be discovered.

UNEARTH Fascinating Finds Like This Story; Share It With Mates…

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

By
Andy Corbley
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Freddy G.

Following a massive, 125-fold increase in western monarch butterfly populations in America, a 35% increase has just been recorded in the numbers of monarchs arriving in Mexico.

As one of the great migratory species on the planet, entomologists in Mexico don’t bother counting individuals, but rather the acreage of mountaintop pine trees on which they roost.

In the pine-tree covered mountains west of Mexico City, this year seven acres were covered with butterflies compared to around 5.8 last year.

Arrivals in California on their way down to Mexico were also in much greater numbers.

Experts in Mexico, according to AP, are reporting that this is due to a mixture of an overall reduction in wintering forest loss and adaptation to what they describe as climate change, although they add plenty of non-climate related aspects under the umbrella such as pesticide use and logging.

Normally, the monarchs arrive in late October to early November, escaping the cold in North America. They typically then leave around March, moving to either side of the Rocky Mountains as far north as Canada. Last year was different, in that most of them left in February on a fortuitous flight that saw them escape an April heat wave.

RELATED: Scientists Find the Secret to ‘Unhackable’ Security Systems on the Wings of Butterflies

This year some of them left in April, which experts said was very strange, and that they will be curious to see the numbers next year to assess whether this late start was a good strategy.

A flight of hope

When it comes to this majestic species, the mainstream media often offers doom and gloom. Yet it’s normal for migratory species to fluctuate greatly in number; migration, after all, is a highly-dangerous behavior.

LOOK: Amazing Quarter-Million Monarchs in California 2021, Up From Just 2,000 the Year Before in Migration Count

The Guardian, closing the report on this year’s 35% increase in butterfly numbers, wrote “Drought, severe weather and loss of habitat – especially of the milkweed where the monarchs lay their eggs – as well as pesticide and herbicide use, and climate change, all pose threats to the species’ migration. Illegal logging and loss of tree cover due to disease, drought and storms also continues to plague the [forest] reserves.”

The English journal said much the same thing in 2021, when arriving monarchs were down 26%, and were equally pessimistic the year before when arrival numbers were up a staggering 144%.

CHECK OUT: Monarch Butterflies Employ a Sun Compass on Their Long-Distance Migration

Arrivals in 2020 saw the covered acreage the same as this year. Even in the early 2000s, when monarch populations were capable of arriving in Mexico in droves that would regularly cover up to 20 acres or more, there were even scanter years than the 2021 dip, demonstrating that many factors have always impacted this species, and that the situation is not so grim.

FLUTTER the Good News Over to Nature Lovers…

“The giving of love is an education in itself.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “The giving of love is an education in itself.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

Photo by: Nathan Anderson

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?

Good News Now Showing in 120 Schools in Partnership With Digital Signage Company

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Good News Network
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Franklin County High School in Tennessee / Rise Vision

With childhood depression and anxiety rising during the pandemic and disturbing news stories only adding to the mental health burden in our schools, it is the perfect time to be delivering some positive news headlines into hallways and classrooms across the U.S.

That’s exactly what Good News Network is now providing in a new partnership with digital signage company Rise Vision.

Launching this month in over 120 schools, Rise Vision and Good News Network (GNN) are spreading positivity with uplifting news content on video screens for grades K-12. Now, students and teachers can stop and read about kindness and scientific breakthroughs on new templates created by Rise Vision.

Founded in 1997, millions of people have turned to GNN as an antidote to the barrage of negativity experienced in the mainstream media. Because of its long history, staying power, and public trust, GNN.org is #1 on Google for good news.

“Especially this year, which is our 25th anniversary, GNN is thrilled to be helping teachers and school students and staff stay optimistic in these challenging times,” said GNN founder and CEO Geri Weis-Corbley.

“Digital signage shouldn’t be complicated—it should be positive, educational, and informational. Rise Vision’s partnership with Good News Network addresses these points, while being eye-catching and fun. It adds to the conversation of increasing social emotional learning and requires no design time from educators,” said Shea Darlison, Head of Marketing, Rise Vision.

“Even better, these new templates help create a nurturing learning environment focused on joy and positivity. As Rise Vision continues to grow we look for more partnerships to help address school and classroom communication barriers and save educators time and effort.”

What makes this partnership so great is there is no additional cost for Rise Vision customers to use these templates. If you are interested in trying out the Good News Network templates, go to the Rise vision website and start your free trial.

Rise Vision signage at Jim Thorpe Area High School in Pennsylvania

Rise Vision is the #1 digital signage software solution for schools. Rise Vision helps schools improve communication, increase student involvement, celebrate student achievements, and create a positive school culture. For more information on Good News Network digital signage, contact [email protected].

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All-Black Climbing Team Makes History Reaching Top of Everest, Inspiring Diverse Adventurers

By
Andy Corbley
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Full Circle Everest
Full Circle Everest

This month, seven members of an all-Black mountain climbing team summited Mount Everest, helped along by eight Sherpa guides.

Even though hundreds line up to climb Everest every year, only ten Black people have surmounted the highest peak on Earth before, including only one Black woman, and one Black American.

“I am deeply honored to report that seven members of the Full Circle Everest team reached the summit on May 12,” tweeted Philip Henderson, leader of the team and instructor at Nepal’s Khumbu Climbing Center (KCC), which trains some of the world’s premier mountaineers.

“While a few members, including myself, did not summit, all members of the climb and Sherpa teams have safely returned to Base Camp where we will celebrate this historic moment!”

With the ideal period for climbing Chomolungma, or Mother Goddess of the World, being in May, Full Circle Everest arrived at base camp on Khumbu Glacier—a tent city of athletic hopefuls looking for the perfect weather conditions to scurry up to the summit.

MORE: After Husband Dies 83-Year-old ‘Muddy Mildred’ Runs Her Third Tough Mudder Race to Provide Clean Water

Henderson was the leader of the expedition, which for many days meant eating, resting, gradually acclimatizing to breathing in one-third less oxygen than is found at sea level, and organizing quick jaunts up the mountain as a training regimen.

Among their team can be found people from all over the U.S., and one man from Kenya, aged 29 to 60, whose everyday lives involve being a sociology professor, a Microsoft data scientist, a chemistry teacher, a freelance photographer and filmmaker, an Iraq War II combat vet, and climbing experts.

“When children around the world see themselves reflected in this all-Black expedition, they too will experience and become part of the value set that is climbing,” Conrad Anker, founder of KCC and a colleague of Henderson’s, told National Geographic about the achievement.

RELATED: Lawyer Smashes World Record Becoming Fastest Female to Row Across the Atlantic – To Show Girls Anything is Possible

There’s a litany of things that can go wrong on Everest, and many people who reach basecamp will never get the opportunity to climb the mountain. Full Circle team member Fred Campbell, from Seattle, said this knowledge added to the pressure.

“It would be nice to just climb [Everest], but we are representing Black people,” he said. “As much as it’s an extra burden, I think it’ll have a positive impact.”

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Students Learn at Graduation the Snapchat Founder Paid Off Their College Debt With More Than $10 Million

By
Andy Corbley
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Otis College of Art and Design
Otis College of Art and Design

Graduating seniors at an LA arts school were overwhelmed with joy when, getting ready to make the walk in cap and gown, they heard they would be receiving more than just a diploma.

The 284-strong Class of 2022 from Otis College of Art and Design would have their entire student loan debt paid off by the college’s most successful alumni, Snapchat co-founder Evan Spiegel.

Totaling an undisclosed, record-breaking gift of more than $10 million, Spiegel’s donation was added to by Kora Beauty founder Miranda Kerr, Spiegel’s wife and partner in the Spiegel Family Fund.

“It changed my life and made me feel at home,” Spiegel, who took summer classes at Otis during high school, told the graduating class. “I felt pushed and challenged to grow surrounded by super talented artists and designers, and we were all in it together.”

Ever since the federal government decided to start guaranteeing student loans in 1965, and universities realized that it wasn’t an unemployed teenager paying for their education but the entire United States taxpayer base, tuition costs have far outpaced any other metric of inflation.

MORE: Zimbabwe Youth at Berkeley Creates Free Online Coding Classes to Help Others Get Similar Scholarships

Otis can cost $50,000 for a liberal arts degree, but some of the recipients of Spiegel’s generosity had wracked up $70,000 or more. With less-than-obvious career paths and the lingering employment difficulties of the pandemic, some seniors remarked it was a huge weight off their shoulders.

“Student debt weighs heavily on our diverse and talented graduates,” said Charles Hirschhorn, President of Otis College of Art and Design. “We hope this donation will provide much-deserved relief and empower them to pursue their aspirations and careers, pay this generosity forward, and become the next leaders of our community.”

RELATED: Walmart Announces Plan to Pay 100% of College Tuition Plus Books For Its Workers

“My mom was crying,” graduate Farhan Fallahifiroozi told the LA Times. “They were so worried about it for me. I had so much debt. If it’s really all gone, it puts me so much ahead.”

(WATCH the moment the students found out the news.)

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Watch Adorable Moment a Sloth Reunited With Her Baby After It Was Found Stranded and Crying On Beach

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Good News Network
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SWNS
SWNS

This is the adorable moment a three-fingered sloth was reunited with her baby, after it was found stranded and crying on a beach.

The cub was separated from its mother who had already started to climb its way back up the tree and into the canopy this month.

Fortunately, staff from Jaguar Rescue Center in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Costa Rica spotted what had happened and scooped up the tiny creature.

It was then rushed to the vet for a check up where it was found to be in good shape, before the rescuers hatched a plan to safely reunite mum and baby.

They recorded its cry and played it out to the mother to summon her down, and once she began her descent her precious tot was carefully handed back.

RELATED: Owl Immediately Adopts Two Rescue Chicks the Moment She Meets Them – After Her Own Eggs Failed

The video of their reunion on Playa Chiquita went viral on Instagram and it now has over 26,000 views.

The caption read, “We are happy to announce that we were able to reunite this mother and baby 3-fingered sloths (Bradypus variegatus).

“On May 10, one of the staff members found the baby crying on the floor near the beach.

“He spotted the mom on the tree, but she was climbing back to the canopy, so he brought the baby for a check-up with the vet, the sloth was healthy and didn’t have any injuries.

“We recorded the cry of the baby and played it near the tree to get the mom’s attention, we waited patiently until the mom came down for the baby.

MORE: Lucky Rescue for 5 Sheep Stuck on English Rooftop

“The JRC created this method a few years ago, we use it every time to be able to reunite mom and baby sloths.

“It melts our hearts every time we can witness the reunion of a mom and her baby.”

(WATCH the video for this story below.)

DON’T Go Slow on Sharing the Good News; Share It…

“A hard beginning maketh a good ending.” – John Heywood

By
Good News Network
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John Fowler

Quote of the Day: “A hard beginning maketh a good ending.” – John Heywood

Photo by: John Fowler

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?

John Fowler

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

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Good News Network
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Big Brothers Big Sisters of America
Big Brothers Big Sisters of America

The charity Big Brothers Big Sisters of America has accelerated into the fast lane toward transforming youth mentorship in the U.S. with Tuesday’s $122.6 million donation from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.

The 118-year-old nonprofit will use the record-breaking gift to further its mission to ensure every young person has access to powerful one-on-one mentoring relationships that empower them for success in school, career, and life.

Currently BBBSA operates 230 local offices serving more than 5,000 communities across all 50 states. Scott’s funding will support expanding the organization’s staff and training–and assist them in closing the gap on the estimated one in three youth who lack a positive, sustained role model.

The group says more than 13 million young Americans experience emotional, behavioral, or developmental conditions like depression—and hopes to attract families and volunteers in ‘turnkey ways’ that meet them where they are in life.

RELATED: Man Wins 200 Million on the Lottery and Donates Almost All of It to Save the Earth

“We are confident that MacKenzie’s investment will compel more people to help grow the village of mentors, volunteers, and donors needed to positively impact young people’s lives today and well into the future,” said Artis Stevens, the CEO of BBBSA.

“Mentoring is an integral part of the solution… including post-secondary readiness, social emotional learning, and a stronger sense of belonging and inclusion.”

The unprecedented investment from the former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is the largest donation from a single individual in the organization’s history.

POPULAR: Irish Woman Who Won $145M Lottery Has Given Over Half: ‘I’m Addicted to Helping People’

“We know that no one person, organization, or gift can do this work alone, but one person—no matter their background—can make an incredible difference through positive and inspired action. MacKenzie’s investment and belief in Big Brothers Big Sisters shows this on a large-scale.”

Ms. Scott has given away $8 billion in the past two years to hundreds of charities, since her divorce left her with 4% of Amazon’s shares—including, recently donating $436 million to Habitat for Humanity.

INSPIRE Your Brothers and Sisters By Sharing This Great News on Social Media…

7-Year-old With Incurable Condition Amazes Doctors: Now Walking, Talking, And Top of Her Class

By
Good News Network
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SWNS

A blind girl has amazed doctors after she regained her sight and ‘cured herself’ of a usually life-long brain condition.

Evie-Mae Geurts was registered blind at just a few months old, and when her head started to swell a few months later, her 28-year-old mom demanded answers.

Doctors discovered she had hydrocephalus, the build up of fluid in the ventricles deep within the brain, at just eight months old.

The pressure inside her head was 32 times the normal level, and doctors warned while they could help relieve the pain and build up, the damage to her brain was done. The continued pressure meant her sight was gone forever, and she’d likely never learn to walk and talk.

Against all the odds, not only did her sight return when she was a toddler; Evie-Mae Geurts also learned to walk and talk.

RELATED: 13-Year-old Boy Granted a “Make-A-Wish” and Uses It to Feed the Homeless Every Month for a Year

More than that, her hydrocephalus disappeared last year. Usually hydrocephalus is a condition which can’t be cured and forever requires shunts—hollow tubes surgically placed in the brain—to drain fluid from the area.

SWNS

Evie-Mae is now thriving as a seven year old. She lives without shunts, is top of the class, and can see perfectly without any glasses.

While she is still undergoing eye tests every six months to monitor her progress, doctors have been amazed by her journey. “They can’t believe it,” said proud mother Amy. “Evie is phenomenal. We’re so proud of her. She’s an amazing little girl, and so brave.”

SWNS

When doctors took out the shunts Evie-Mae no longer needed, they had to shave her hair back to do the procedure.

MORE: Pregnant Mom Saves Unborn Baby’s Life By Rushing to Hospital Despite Showing No Warning Signs: ‘It was Instinct’

At the hair salon afterwards, the stylists told the little girl how brave she’d been to go through so much. She answered, “Just like Eugene cuts Rapunzel’s hair to save her in Tangled, the doctors cut my hair off to save me.”

SHARE This Amazing Story of One Girl’s Medical Turnaround With Others…

IKEA Will Start Selling Solar Panels in Some U.S. Stores This Fall

By
Good News Network
-

The popularity of solar has gone through the roof—and now IKEA is making it easier to install some panels on your roof.

Launching this fall in California, members of the U.S. IKEA Family customer loyalty program will be able to purchase home solar solutions, available through SunPower, to generate and store their own renewable energy and live more sustainably.

“At IKEA, we’re passionate about helping our customers live a more sustainable life at home. We’re proud to collaborate with SunPower to bring this service to the U.S. and enable our customers to make individual choices aimed at reducing their overall climate footprint,” said Javier Quiñones, CEO & Chief Sustainability Officer, IKEA U.S.

“The launch of Home Solar with IKEA will allow more people to take greater control of their energy needs, and our goal is to offer the clean energy service at additional IKEA locations in the future.”

Home Solar with IKEA combines the strengths of IKEA retail and knowledge of life at home with the expertise of SunPower, a trusted brand with more than 35 years in the solar industry.

SunPower is known for delivering innovative solar products and making it simple for its customers to switch to renewable energy.

MORE: Buy Some Wind Power With Your Furniture? IKEA is Now Selling Renewable Energy

“We are thrilled to deliver exceptional solar products to IKEA customers through a unique and simplified buying experience,” said Peter Faricy, SunPower CEO. “Together with IKEA, we can help introduce the incredible benefits of solar to more people and deliver on our shared value of making a positive impact on the planet.”

Home Solar with IKEA is just one of the many ways IKEA is working to become circular and climate positive by 2030. In the U.S., IKEA has a robust renewable energy portfolio, including two wind farms, two solar farms, a couple of geothermal systems, seven biogas-fuel cells, and rooftop solar arrays on 90% of IKEA locations.

LOOK: These Solar Shingles on Your Roof Could Be Producing Energy With Simple Installation

IKEA U.S. also recently launched the Buy Back & Resell service nationally in 37 store locations.

The service gives IKEA Family members the opportunity to sell back their gently used IKEA furniture in exchange for IKEA store credit.

Participants will be able to give their furniture a second life through resale in the store’s As-Is section, providing an even more sustainable and affordable option for many people.

Source: SunPower Corp/IKEA 

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