The Lesson: There are many kinds of capital and currencies, but there is only one we all share. Anthony Samadani pointed out, as the Austrian-school economists do, that time is paid in addition to the cost of all things, but unlike stocks, commodities, or other currencies, it never appreciates, only depreciates. Looking at the cost in time before other currencies teaches people how to “appreciate” their time by aligning their passions (personal, professional, and spiritual) with their purpose.
Notable Excerpt: “Our actions should begin with a thoughtful intention. If you make the right intention and follow through with the proper actions, which is what people call “showing up,” you never have to worry about the result. That’s the freedom of it all, because we’re not in charge of our results. Listening or reading good news at least 3-4 minutes a day can help reduce stress! So many amazing studies have been done, including ones at Harvard.”
The Podcast:Building While Flying is a new podcast produced by Sasha Group, a new agency founded by author-entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk “dedicated to helping businesses grow faster.”
The Guest: Anthony Samadani is co-owner of Good News Network, and is launching a new podcast this month called LIVIN’ GOOD CURRENCY in partnership with GNN. He and his co-host, Tobias Tubbs, will be exploring their simple formula of ‘Good Currency’, which coaches people to spend their most important currency—time—on doing good for themselves and others.
An 800-mile, $78 journey from Kentucky to Florida brought a smiling snowman to a classroom full of kids, many of whom had never laid an eye, much less a finger, on snow.
If one has family from Florida, it’s normal to find they’ve never seen snow. This was the case for kindergarten teacher Robin Hughes, who realized almost all the kids in her Florida classroom had never laid eyes on frozen precipitation after flipping through a book about snow with them.
It was this realization, following a trip home for Thanksgiving, that drove her to ask a curious request of her sister, Amber Estes, who lived in Louisa, Kentucky. She asked if Estes could mail her some of it on the off-chance it snowed that year.
Fast forward to January 8th, and knowing Estes was due for about 10 inches of snow, Hughes requested that she build a snowman for her classroom. Thus was born “Lucky” a snowman with blueberries, carrots, and twigs for eyes, a nose, and arms respectively. Sealed in a temperature controlled package with ice, Lucky flew priority USPS to Riverview in Florida.
“’He’s here!” He’s here!’ the school’s receptionist shouted through the halls when the package was finally delivered,” wrote the Washington Post.
Despite a blueberry shifting in transit, Lucky arrived intact and unmelted in time to be revealed to the kids, who received him with utter wonderment.
Amber Estes
“I was so excited because he made it and just the pure joy [the kids] had seeing this snowman,” Hughes told The Post. “They wanted to touch him. ‘Is he coming to life?’ [they asked].”
Hughes immediately called Estes, who had formed an emotional bond with the snowman. She received the news that he had arrived safely with tears.
Kept cold and snug in the school cafeteria, Lucky is repeatedly brought out for different classes to demonstrate the majesty of snow, but when he becomes a little too shiny is closed again in the freezer.
“[I]n a time when things are not normal for kids in the classroom and for adults… this little snowman has created happiness,” Hughes told The Post.
The plan for Lucky is to be melted on Earth Day upon a newly-planted garden on the Kindergarten’s property.
The word ‘extreme’ doesn’t go as far as a thrown snowball to describe Red Bull’s latest dip into extreme sports filmmaking. Markus Eder’s The Ultimate Run is 10 minutes of the most hazard-riddled downhill skiing likely ever filmed.
Going down a mountain, across a glacier, through an ice-cave, through a forest, across village rooftops, through another forest, through a castle, and across another village, the only thing that can stop grand master free-skier Markus Eder is the end of the mountain.
The Italian rider has stood atop the podium at multiple free-skiing competitions, and won the European Skier of the Year title. He’s also extremely accomplished, as one can see below.
“I’ve always dreamt of showcasing all of my skiing in one big, flowy project,” Eder told Red Bull, who financed the project. “Typically, I contribute to multiple projects throughout the year. But this time, I wondered what I could create if I put all of that energy into one vision—where everything I’ve lived for amounts to a 10-minute segment.”
The cinematography of production company Legs of Steel is simply astonishing, capturing Eder’s incredible descent every step of the way.
Quote of the Day: “Irregularity – that is to say, the unexpected, surprise, and astonishment—is an essential part and characteristic of beauty.” – Charles Baudelaire
Photo: by Alexander Schimmeck
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Once extirpated from Florida such that it lost its status as a native species, the American Flamingo is being sighted again in the state’s rich wetlands, prompting conservationists to feel the time is right for a rose-colored renaissance of the famous bird.
Not only are wildlife tour guides and the like spotting the tall pink waders, but scientists who work with GPS collars to track the birds are finding that they are once again making their homes in places like the Everglades.
Considered for 100 years as rare migrants to Florida’s shores, flamingos are now known to visit annually, or even stay year round. A 2021 biological assessment released by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission stated that there were somewhere between 0 and 1,000 individuals in Florida.
“Florida’s small population occurs on public conservation lands and exhibits a stable or increasing population trend in recent years,” reads the Commission report. “The return of this iconic species to the Everglades, Biscayne Bay, and the Florida Keys certainly is worthy of celebration and encouragement.”
Currently, scientists and conservationists are working to build a database of the behavior, habitat, and migration patterns for the Florida population so that if the numbers grows large to enough to receive a listing as a state-threatened species, or any other kind of designation, there’s already information for officials to access.
The genetic origin of the current population is somewhat of a mystery. Were these birds from the Caribbean, where their numbers are strong, or from the Yucatan? Perhaps they came from even farther south—and the Flamingo Working Group (FWG) is trying to ascertain their lineage through testing.
The FWG is teaming up with the University of Central Florida to conduct genetic research to solve this riddle, while posting regular “Flamingo Alerts” on their Facebook page to help local birders log a particularly difficult wild sighting on their Life List, and raise awareness for the bird’s return.
Where the birds are returning from is a big question, but why they’re returning is one that’s potentially easier to answer. Recent state and federal grants to the Everglades have totaled more than $2 billion for maintenance and restoration projects, and state mandates preventing farms from creating agricultural runoff are seeing the water quality for Florida’s wetland habitats improve.
Flamingos eat tiny crustaceans that often are the first things to die in a polluted wetland. Agricultural runoff dumps nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus which causes blooms of algae, deoxygenating the water and killing most of the flamingo’s prey. In the southern Everglades, 2021 was one of the most successful nesting years for all native and migratory bird species since before the Second World War.
With conditions improving, it’s no wonder the FWG is trying to stop the state bird being updated from the flamingo to the northern mockingbird. It likely only a matter of years before the iconic wader, bedecked in pink, fully returns.
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When bears and ground squirrels hibernate in winter, they stop eating, lasting until spring simply on the fat reserves they’ve stored up in their bodies. Usually, this sort of prolonged fasting and inactivity would significantly reduce the mass and function of muscle, but hibernators don’t suffer this fate. How they avoid it, however, has been a mystery.
Now an Université de Montréal biologist has figured out why, and his findings could have implications for, of all things, the future of space travel. By studying a variety called the 13-lined ground squirrel that is common in North America, Matthew Regan has confirmed a theory known as “urea nitrogen salvage” dating back to the 1980s.
The theory posits that hibernators harness a metabolic trick of their gut microbes to recycle the nitrogen present in urea, a waste compound that is usually excreted as urine, and use it to build new tissue proteins.
How could this discovery be of use in space? Theoretically, Regan posits, by helping astronauts minimize their own muscle-loss problems caused by microgravity-induced suppression of protein synthesis and which they now try to reduce by intensively exercising.
If a way could be found to augment the astronauts’ muscle protein synthesis processes using urea nitrogen salvage, they could be able to achieve better muscle health during long voyages into deep space in spacecraft too small for the usual exercise equipment, the argument goes.
“Because we know which muscle proteins are suppressed during spaceflight, we can compare these proteins with those that are enhanced by urea nitrogen salvage during hibernation,” said Regan, who carried out this research while a postdoc at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
He is now continuing his work through a Canadian Space Agency research grant at UdeM, where he last year took up a position as assistant professor of animal physiology in the Department of Biological Sciences.
“If,” Regan continued, “there is an overlap between the proteins in spaceflight and the ones from hibernation, then it suggests this process may have benefits to muscle health during spaceflight.”
A model hibernator
In his study, Regandesigned a series of techniques and experiments to investigate the major steps in the urea salvage process and provide evidence for whether or not they occur in the 13-lined ground squirrel when it hibernates.
To do that, in their lab they injected their test squirrels’ blood with “double-labeled” urea, meaning the urea’s carbon atom was 13C instead of the usual 12C, and its nitrogen atoms were 15N instead of the usual 14N. These labels allowed them to track the urea-sourced carbon and nitrogen through the different steps of the urea nitrogen salvage process.
That process, they found, led from the initial transport of urea from the blood into the gut, to the breakdown of urea into its component parts by gut microbes, to the flow of substances—called metabolites—containing urea nitrogen back into the animal, and finally to the eventual appearance of this urea nitrogen in tissue protein.
“Essentially, seeing 13C and/or 15N in metabolites at these various steps indicated that they originated from urea, and thus, that the hibernator was using urea nitrogen salvage,” said Regan.
He did his experiments on squirrels with and without gut microbiomes at three times of the year: summer, when they were active and not hibernating; early winter, when they were one month into fasting and hibernation; and late winter, when they were four months into fasting and hibernation.
‘Clear evidence of nitrogen salvage’
What they found was definitive: at each step of the process, there was clear evidence of urea nitrogen salvage by the squirrels with intact gut microbiomes.
Importantly, the squirrels with depleted gut microbiomes displayed no evidence of urea nitrogen salvage at any step, confirming this process was wholly dependent on the gut microbes’ ability to degrade urea, something the squirrels themselves cannot do.
Regan and his team also made two other important findings:
First, the incorporation of urea nitrogen into the tissue protein of the squirrels was highest during late winter, suggesting that urea nitrogen salvage becomes more active as the hibernation season proceeds. This is unlike most physiological processes during hibernation, when tend to be significantly reduced.
Second, there was evidence the microbes themselves were using the urea nitrogen to build their own new proteins, which is useful for them because they, like the squirrel, are under conditions of fasting hibernation. Thus, both the squirrel and its microbes benefit from urea nitrogen salvage, which makes this process a true symbiosis.
What this means, Regan said, is that the squirrels emerge from hibernation in the spring in good shape. This is important because the year’s only mating season, which is a time of intense physical activity for both males and females, occurs directly after they emerge from hibernation. Tissue function—particularly muscle tissue function—is therefore highly important for a successful mating season.
“By facilitating muscle protein synthesis late in the hibernation season, urea nitrogen salvage may help optimize the emerging squirrels’ muscle function and contribute to their reproductive success during the mating season,” said Regan. “Urea nitrogen salvage may therefore enhance the animals’ overall biological fitness.”
Starving masses and the elderly
Beyond the implications for space travel and the health of astronauts, Regan’s discovery could have more immediate impacts now right here on Earth — in the starving masses of the underdeveloped world, and in the elderly.
Hundreds of millions of people globally experience muscle wasting as a consequence of various conditions—undernourishment, for instance, affects over 805 million people globally. More prevalent in Canada is sarcopenia, an age-related decline in muscle mass stemming from anabolic insensitivity that affects all humans, leading to a 30- to 50-per-cent decline in skeletal muscle mass between the ages 40 and 80.
“The mechanisms that mammals like the 13-lined ground squirrel have naturally evolved to maintain protein balance in their own nitrogen-limited situations may inform strategies for maximizing the health of other nitrogen-limited animals, including humans,” said Regan. One solution might be to develop a pre- or probiotic pill that people could take to promote a gut microbiome of the kind that hibernators like squirrels have.
“To be clear, these applications, though theoretically possible, are a long way from delivery, and a lot of additional work is needed to translate this naturally evolved mechanism safely and effectively to humans,” Regan said.
“But one thing I find encouraging is that a study from the early 1990s provided some evidence that humans are capable of recycling small amounts of urea nitrogen via this same process. This suggests that the necessary machinery is in place. It just needs to be optimized.”
nuts public domain towfiqu-barbhuiya-4N0dLUmdLAY-unsplash
Nuts are a good source of magnesium; Owfiqu Barbhuiya
A simple mineral we all learned about in high school PE class could be the active ingredient in a new method of cancer treatment and prevention. In this way, magnesium has gone from being something to help us play sports longer to something that lets us play life longer.
That’s because magnesium acts like a bridge between killer T cells, a critical immune system weapon, and cancerous cells by binding to a protein on the T cell’s exterior called LFA-1, which allows them to then hone in on cancer cells which in turn have many ways to disguise themselves ordinarily.
Cell-surface binding and receptor proteins are areas of key interactions in studying physiological effects, and the COVID-19 pandemic taught many people how important these interactions, sometimes called docking, can be to our health.
The research came from a recent paper published in Cell, which found that killer T cells were only able to eliminate cancerous or infected cells in rats if their LFA-1 proteins had bound with free available magnesium.
In light of their discoveries, the research team from Switzerland looked at past studies of cancer immunotherapies and found that low-magnesium concentrations were strongly linked to a more rapid progression of disease. In addition, they found that influenza and other viruses spread faster in mice that were fed a magnesium deficient diet.
“In light of our experimental data and the retrospective analyses we performed on two clinical trials, magnesium deficiency is very likely to be responsible for at least a proportion of the insufficient efficacy seen in cancer patients receiving immune therapy,” Dr. Christoph Hess, Ph.D., from the University of Basel told Medical News Today.
Building on this work, Dr. Hess is now seeing if magnesium-rich lipid molecules, coated in antibodies and injected into tumors, can prevent or reverse growth in the tumor microenvironment. Also they will investigate if magnesium supplementation improves outcomes of trials using other methods of immuno-therapy.
Both of these affects have been observed in mouse models.
Magnesium, which is most richly-found in nuts, is a critical macromineral, meaning that we must consume it from our diet and cannot live in a healthy state without it.
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Meet the eco-family who goes weeks without throwing a single piece of trash thanks to epic amount of recycling and savvy shopping.
41-year-old Esther Peñarrubia encourages her two kids to make crafts and drawings from old bits of packaging so that nothing ends up in landfill.
Over the past two weeks, Esther has only been forced to discard a balloon from a party, the backing from a sheet of stickers, an old T-shirt she used to clean shoes, and a broken toy.
She began minimizing her family’s wastage when she moved house and decided that she would leave all single-use items behind.
The mom-of-two, who lives in Girona in Catalonia, shunned cling film and tin foil, and decided to buy everything she needed in bulk or from second-hand shops.
She said: “There are already reusable items that we would have to buy once, so it would be a waste of time and money buying the single-use ones.
“It’s cheaper and you know that the item will continue being used instead of being set aside – so it’s just perfect!
“Each of us play a big role in taking care of the environment.
“It’s enjoyable to try to help rather than just keep complaining about the current situation.
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“Moreover, you don’t take out your rubbish quite so often, because you don’t generate it! “
Any kitchen leftovers go into the compost bin, and glass containers are washed up and repurposed for something else.
This means that the family only send a piece of rubbish to landfill every two weeks on average.
She tries not to buy any plastic at all, but when she does, like in the five-litre bottle of olive oil that lasts a few months, it gets thoroughly washed and recycled.
Her five and seven-year-old children know to draw and make crafts from scrap paper packaging, before that too is recycled.
After watching a TED talk in November 2015, Esther realised that her lifestyle was called ‘zero waste’.
For cleaning products, like washing up liquid and detergent, she walks or cycles to a bulk supplier once every two months to buy up to 4kg worth.
She buys fruits, vegetables and bread from local suppliers in bulk on a weekly basis.
The family also grow their own tomatoes, lettuce, broccoli, and herbs in the kitchen garden, and have orange and mandarin trees outdoors.
Esther has also found herself in a community of friends who trade items with each other that they need, like furniture or plates, communicating in WhatsApp group chats.
When her children were young, Esther would use reusable cloth nappies instead of disposable ones.
While this would result in her putting on a wash three times a week, she would rather that than them go to landfill.
She said, “We tried to use the minimum possible and inherited some toys and baby equipment from friends and relatives.
“If we really had to purchase anything, first we tried at the second-hand market or on free apps.”
Now, Christmas and birthday presents are wrapped in a reusable cloth rather than wrapping paper.
SWNS
Mom Esther said, “They know that if a new toy enters our home, another should go to another family’s house, so we try not to accumulate a lot of stuff.
“We avoid toys or other material made out of plastic and choose cardboard, wood or metal, instead.
“We haven’t got a TV at home, so at Christmas time they aren’t exposed to toy adverts on a daily basis.
“When they ask for a new toy, we explain to them that depending on the material we would think about it, and if it’s plastic they understand that we won’t like it.”
They also tend to organize family activities as gifts, like a cinema trip, or buy them second hand items.
To help educate her kids, Esther takes them out on nature walks to the forest where they pick up rubbish as they go.
“They use their little gloves and enjoy this activity, because they know it’s better for the environment,” she said.
They also take books out at the library on climate change and plastic that they read all together.
Esther thinks the challenging part of her life is convincing others that it is achievable, as people often assume the swapping to reusable products is expensive.
She said: “If you think and organize your buying habits, consume less things and from better quality, choose reusable alternatives, buy everything you can in bulk and from the second-hand market—then it’s not more expensive and you can save money.”
Esther, who has a PhD in agricultural engineering, finds that it is often simpler than people think.
Quote of the Day: “Everyone’s life work: to construct an identity bit by bit, to walk a path step by step, to live a life worthy of something higher, more fulfilling, and maybe even everlasting.” – Donald Van de Mark
Photo: Public domain
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Teens today are looking to forge their own success and happiness in their future careers.
A recent survey of 2,000 American high school students found that although a third of respondents have no post-graduation plans, 82% agree the most important thing to them is to do something they’re passionate about, regardless of what career they choose.
Seven in 10 (69%) said it’s important to have a job immediately after graduating, while others consider higher education more polarizing. Over half of students surveyed (55%) believe college isn’t a requirement for a successful career, compared to 45% who think it’s mandatory.
For students who haven’t considered any alternatives to higher education, half (51%) explained they didn’t know enough about other options, such as career paths in the skilled trades—hinting that students aren’t being exposed to those options in school.
Commissioned by Wolverine and conducted by OnePoll, the poll revealed two-thirds saw how important essential workers and skilled trade careers were and continue to be during the pandemic, prompting 45% of students to show more interest in pursuing essential jobs.
But getting there may be no easy feat for these students. A third of American high-schoolers want to learn how to pursue their goals (34%), money to pay for their education (33%) and how to deal with parental pressure (31%).
The results also found students feel more pressure to pursue traditional higher education after high school than alternatives—a third (35%) have felt pressured to attend a traditional four-year college. Still, only 18% have felt the same pressure for vocational schools.
Three out of five (62%) said the pressure comes from their parents. Students also said they feel the heat about school from society (47%) and their high school’s faculty (45%).
Meanwhile, nearly three-quarters (72%) believe looking at alternative options to a traditional four-year college is important. However, 30% have considered vocational schools, with 46% contemplating community college and 41% are thinking about having a job immediately after graduation.
“Those choosing to pursue a path in the skilled trades should always be celebrated and supported,” said Tom Kennedy, global president for Wolverine. “As the demand for skilled workers continues to grow, it’s more important than ever to understand student attitudes toward the future of work and help them to see the skilled trades as a valued and rewarding career path.”
Half (51%) said they’re familiar with skilled trade careers at some level, with 70% saying they’ve been taught a practical skill by someone they know outside of school.
Students said they often learned practical skills from their parents (61%), extended family members (47%) or friends (43%). These skills include auto repair (26%), construction (23%) and electrics (20%).
However, two in three students said their schools offer vocational classes that teach them practical skills and essential careers. Meanwhile, 65% favor their vocational courses over their core curriculum.
Overall, 79% of high schoolers believe high schools should teach vocational skills.
For many respondents, it appeals to their learning abilities. Nearly half of students said they were either hands-on learners (42%) or visual learners (45%).
Students expressed the popular skills they want to learn in vocational classes are auto mechanics (33%), electrics (32%) and welding (32%).
“It’s essential that we continue to give high school students practical, hands-on opportunities—inside and out of the classroom—to nurture their interests and help them learn more about the array of career options available to them in the skilled trades,” continued Kennedy.
TOP 10 SKILLS STUDENTS THINK SHOULD BE TAUGHT IN SCHOOL
Culinary arts – 49%
Cosmetology – 40%
Practical nursing (LPNs) – 35%
Auto mechanics – 33%
Electrics – 32%
Welding and machining technology – 32%
Auto body and collision repair – 26%
Landscape design – 26%
Construction trades – 25%
Metalworking – 23%
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Bridget McCarty creates miniature film sets—but they’re so detailed you wouldn’t even know they were fake.
Her works include iconic scenes from Jurassic Park, Friends, and Harry Potter and can take up to a month each to build, but the outcomes are astounding.
Bridget, from Los Angeles, California, says it started as a hobby—but it became her full-time job when people started queueing up demanding to buy her pieces.
She said, “Creating miniatures can really take you away to another world. My ideas can be found everywhere—from my favorite TV shows to theme parks.
Bridget told how she was inspired by her grandmother, who used to collect miniature items whenever she traveled and would store them on shelves.
But as a child Bridget was never allowed to touch the delicate items, which made her more and more curious.
But when she started visiting conventions and set up a small online shop, people were fascinated, and demand for her tiny scenes meant it soon became a full-time job.
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Bridget, who is also trained in animation art, said, “Other artists bought a lot of my pieces and motivated me to keep it up.”
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Her pieces are doll-house sized rooms made room wooden boxes—with dimensions of 50cm or less—and typically depict film sets.
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She creates the incredible sets from “anything you can imagine” after fitting tiny electrical wiring to light the rooms up.
“Tender set to be launched for one of the most unique opportunities in UK hospitality,” reads the Borough of Barrow at Furness website, which is looking for a new landlord to manage a pub on Piel Island, as well as to claim an ancient, beer-soaked royal throne carved from oak.
The claimant should also be ready to be soaked himself, according to a bizarre tradition, and take up the title of King, and to oversee every degree of comings and goings on the small island on the northwest coast of England.
“Tradition holds that each new landlord is crowned ‘King of Piel’ in a ceremony of uncertain origin,” the Barrow council described in a statement.
Tony Callister, another member of the council, said in an interview that the custom would continue. “The person coming in gets the title of King of Piel, which is nice to have, and there’s no reason for that to change.”
The job requires all 50 acres of island grounds to be tended to, for the Ship Inn pub and kitchens to be managed, and for all guests to be made welcome. Furthermore, potential kings should be prepared for loneliness, as there is only one other permanent resident, and the winter months see few visitors, but many storms.
There are, however, many seals on the island, as well as a derelict 14th-century castle that a Scottish man at the head of a mercenary army once used as a base from which to launch a failed usurpation of the English throne. The castle was originally made by monks, perhaps as a defense, or to store smuggled goods. It’s the failed bid for the throne which historians believe spawned the tradition of proclaiming the Ship Inn landlord King of Piel.
Murky waters
The Ship Inn maintains a website, as well as the following description of the history of the Inn, which is murky and uncertain.
“The origins of the Ship Inn are obscure although it is said to be over 300 years old. In 1746 a lease for agricultural land situated within the castle ditch was granted to an Edward Postlethwaite who is described as an innkeeper from the “Pile of Fowdrey.” A description from 1813 paints a vivid picture of the life of the innkeeper at that time.
“‘There is a public-house on the island, the only habitation, tenanted by an old Scotchman, who has been lord of this domain for many years, and goes through the duties of guide and expositor among the ruins of the castle with admirable fluency. The custom of seamen from the roadstead, and the donations of occasional visitors in the summer time support him in a state of which he has no right, he thinks, to complain: but he acknowledged that when there were no vessels in the roadstead he found his situation rather too lonesome, and apt to drive him to his beer-barrel for company.'”
A number of changes and improvements are due to take place on the island from 2022 onwards, including replacing the existing toilet block and considering alternative energy generation as part of the Low Carbon Barrow project, the job application details.
“There’s something incredibly special about Piel Island, it’s certainly a location that is held close to the hearts of so many people across Barrow and the wider area,” former-King Cllr Thomson said.
Barrow hopes to have a new king by the start of April 2022, but to accept so mighty a position requires a ten-year lease.
(WATCH The Previous King Steve Chattaway Don His Golden Crown.)
(LEARN more about the island in the BBC video below.)
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The Lunar New Year, also known as the Chinese New Year, or the Spring Festival, is one of mankind’s great celebratory spectacles. Typified by celebrations of animals from the Chinese zodiac, gift-giving, wild work parties, and a staggering amount of fireworks, it’s a time of joy, and the longest period off work for Chinese employees.
In folklore, many traditions are focused on the story of villagers driving away a demon called “Nian” or “year” by wearing bright red colors, making loud noises and producing bright lights.
One of the foremost traditions is that of the “red packet,” which is a small red envelope filled with money given to family, friends, coworkers, and others to bring good fortune.
Food is also important, as it is in any festival. Jiaozi are the half-moon-shaped dumplings traditionally eaten on the Spring Festival to bring wealth into the new year, and are the most famous of festival dishes. Fish is also eaten, to bring about abundance, and noodles for longevity.
It is the single largest movement of humans on Earth, with hundreds and hundreds of millions of Chinese taking trains, planes, cars, and buses out to wherever their families are to be found.
The most basic explanation for how to find the Spring Festival on a western calendar is that the date of the Chinese New Year transpires on the second new moon following the December solstice. Each year corresponds with an animal in part of a twelve-year cycle, beginning with the rat and ending with the pig.
We are now entering the Year of the Tiger, the third animal in the cycle. The tiger in Chinese Mythology was called upon by the Jade Emperor, the ruler of Heaven, to exorcise demons, and thus many horoscopes are reading that this year is one for courage, bravery, and for banishing demons.
Tiger by Eyesplash, CC license on background by angela roma
This is also the date chosen by conservationists 12 years ago as a deadline for an attempt to double the number of tigers on Earth corresponding to their big year in 2022. While they couldn’t achieve a doubling, the tiger countries of Asia have gained more than 500 individuals over that period.
From the trenches
This reporter lived in China for a period of five months which included the Spring Festival, and saw its undertaking inside a major metropolis first-hand.
In much of China, society is well-ordered. The Lunar New Year changes that, and is one of those events so deeply-rooted in each individual member of the culture that its expression completely halts the functions of ordinary society as easily as a zipper separates the two halves of a coat.
The Chinese invented the zipper; they also invented fireworks, and if the New Year’s Eve fireworks display in New York City or Washington D.C. is impressive, it is only because the spectator has never visited one of the great cities of China. The explosions, crackling, whistling, and sparkling has no obvious break, rather it drums on as thoroughly as the fastest power tools, renewing itself upon every deflectable surface in sonic vigor.
The streets are closed by shopkeepers, who by shuffling out traffic cones claim the piece of road in front of their stores for their use as a personal launching pad for rockets and firecrackers. Anyone foolish enough to be driving around at night, for example, the police, are brusquely shuffled into the oncoming lane by the shopkeepers’ vigorous gesticulating.
This reverence for the effect of fireworks, which is said to ward off evil spirits with their lights and noise, was once widespread, and little notice of any holiday or occasion was needed to send a neighborhood or entire city into a fireworks-lighting frenzy. However the widespread fires and damages that often resulted from these spontaneous celebrations brought the government to limit their use to public holidays.
Before most employees get 7-14 days off work, it’s traditional for the boss of a company to throw a massive corporate party. Typically these events will consist of a lavish quantity of food and beer, as well as karaoke and games.
Afterward, the a long holiday is enjoyed, then the Chinese return to work until the next opportunity to break out the fireworks on Tomb Sweeping Day in early April.
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Quote of the Day: “Life is the gift each of us has been given…our own and no one else’s. It is precious beyond all counting—the greatest value we can have. Rise up and live it.” – Terry Goodkind
Photo: by Aziz Acharki
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While many say the eyes are the windows of the soul, a Greek music professor sees them as windows of soul music… or rock, or electronica, or jazz.
Zacharias Vamvakousis is the creative mastermind behind EyeHarp, and while he missed the opportunity to call it “EyeTunes,” his new digital musical instrument is allowing hundreds of quadriplegics to create music using only their eyes.
With a Ph.D. in music technology, and possessing expert computers skills, Vamvakousis made the field of disabled musicianship a specialty after a friend suffered a motorcycle accident which impaired his ability to play the guitar.
EyeHarp is currently in its fifth iteration, and Vamvakousis launched the EyeHarp Foundation in 2019 to try and get his instrument out to more people.
Notes appear on screen in a color-coded wheel set to pentatonic or heptatonic scales, and are selected for sonification by the user’s gaze. The same note as the one previously selected will remain on the screen for fast power riffing, or another can be chosen.
To help students learn, a visual aid in the form of a circle will drag across the screen to direct the gaze at the next correct note, but can be turned off so that disabled people can go through the rigors of practice that anyone trying to learn an instrument have to suffer.
A little like the Guitar Hero video game, EyeHarp comes with accuracy scores and other gamifying metrics, as well as an option to silence errors.
“Playing music is a process that requires studying and having music classes,” Vamvakousis tells the Christian Science Monitor. “So if we want it to reach many people, we have to reach first the music teachers.”
650 people are currently using EyeHarp, including Joel Bueno, a Spanish guy with cerebral palsy and the focus of the Christian Science Monitor feature, who wanted to play music with his older brother.
EyeHarp is a very important instrument for my life because I always wanted to play music,” says Bueno. “It is an innovative instrument; great, and very fresh.”
“We knew certain activities like playing soccer or music would be impossible for Joel,” says Ms. Bueno. “When EyeHarp appeared, we felt, my God, if we can do this we can do anything.”
(WATCH the video for this story below.)
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Exercising as hard as you can is the best way to alleviate symptoms of chronic anxiety without drugs or therapy, according to a new study.
Circuit training—mixing both strength and cardio exercises—eases feelings of anxiety by decreasing muscle tension and boosting endorphins, say scientists.
Every participant in the Swedish study showed improvement regardless of intensity.
But the chance of improvement in terms of anxiety symptoms increased more in the people who worked out harder.
Most participants in the treatment groups went from a baseline level of moderate-to-high anxiety to a low anxiety level after the 12-week circuit training.
Researchers studied 286 people, average age 39 years old, with chronic anxiety and compared their results with a group who received advice on physical activity according to public health recommendations.
For those who exercised at relatively low intensity, the chance of improvement in terms of anxiety symptoms rose by a factor of 3.62.
The corresponding factor for those who exercised at higher intensity was 4.88.
Both treatment groups had 60-minute training sessions three times a week, under a physical therapist’s guidance.
The sessions included both cardio and strength training. A warmup was followed by circle training around 12 stations for 45 minutes, and sessions ended with cool-down and stretching.
Members of the group that exercised at a moderate level were intended to reach some 60 per cent of their maximum heart rate—a degree of exertion rated as light or moderate.
In the group that trained more intensively, the aim was to attain 75 percent of maximum heart rate, and this degree of exertion was perceived as high.
Malin Henriksson, a doctoral student at the University of Gothenberg in Sweden, said, “There was a significant intensity trend for improvement—that is, the more intensely they exercised, the more their anxiety symptoms improved.”
Professor Maria Åberg added, “Doctors in primary care need treatments that are individualized, have few side effects, and are easy to prescribe.
“The model involving 12 weeks of physical training, regardless of intensity, represents an effective treatment that should be made available in primary health care more often for people with anxiety issues.”
Your morning coffee could be used to make a pair of sneakers, a Finnish startup reveals. Rens makes new kicks from old coffee, cutting back on waste in terms of space in landfills and methane emissions.
5,000 backers pledged over $500,000 to see the sneaker come to life, which uses up 21 cups of coffee and 6 recycled plastic bottles in each pair of shoes.
Rens come in 9 different colors, and are waterproof and super comfy. Furthermore, the shoes absorb odors, and they are designed to be slipped off and on easily.
Jesse Tran, the co-founder of Rens, wanted to do something to help reduce peoples’ carbon ‘footprint,’ while offering an everyday shoe that is functional and fashion-forward.
“As environmental awareness increases, so too does knowledge of the circular economy. Shoes made from recycled coffee grounds may seem novel to some, but we wholeheartedly believe that this is just the beginning of a revolution in garment technology and manufacturing,” said Tran.
Novel to some indeed, as 250,000 water bottles and 750,000 cups of coffee have been turned into these shoes so far. The coffee grounds are combined in a low-heat environment with recycled plastic to create a coffee yarn to spin into the shoes upper section, while recycled plastic accounts for the other components, and a milky tree sap that biodegrades creates the outer sole.
While the price is pretty steep at $119 on Amazon, they offer free shipping everywhere, a 1-year guarantee on their waterproofing technology, and a 30-day money back guarantee as well.
GNN also reported on a shoe made from sustainable material that also acts as a fast-growing pod for an apple tree. The shoe’s canvass is made containing enzymes that attract microorganisms to break down the shoe faster than normal, so even if one doesn’t plant them in the ground, they’ll still breakdown in a landfill where most shoes will not.
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An international team of researchers has discovered that a cell type in the central nervous system known as oligodendrocytes might have a different role in the development of multiple sclerosis (MS) than previously thought.
The findings could open for new therapeutical approaches to MS.
MS is driven by immune cells attacking oligodendrocytes and the myelin they produce, which is an insulating layer ensheathing nerve cells.
These attacks disrupt information flow in the brain and spinal cord and causes nerve damage that triggers symptoms associated with MS such as tremors and loss of gait.
Understanding which mechanisms influence the risk of MS is central to finding effective therapies. Previous genetic studies have found regions in the human genome that contain mutations (single nucleotide polymorphisms) associated with increased risk of MS.Many of these regions are localized near genes that are active in immune cells.
Open configuration of the genome
In this study, the researchers show in mice and human brain samples that oligodendrocytes and their progenitors have an open configuration of the genome near immune genes and at MS-risk associated regions.
This suggests that the MS risk mutations may have a role in the activation of nearby genes in oligodendrocytes and their progenitors, meaning they could play a more important part than previously thought in the development of MS.
“Our findings suggest that the risk for multiple sclerosis might manifest by misfunction not only of immune cells, but also of oligodendrocytes and their precursor cells,” says Gonçalo Castelo-Branco, professor at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet, who conducted the study—published in Neuron—with co-first authors Mandy Meijer, a PhD student, and Eneritz Agirre, a researcher.
“These findings indicate that these cells can also be targeted for therapeutical approaches for MS, to prevent misfunction that might be caused by these mutations.”
Quote of the Day: “It is not life that matters, but the courage, fortitude and determination you bring to it.” – Muhammad Ali Jinnah (the founder of Pakistan)
Photo: by Marcelo Novais
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When France hosts the 2024 Olympics, the plan is for Notre-Dame Cathedral to be restored to its former glory in time for the event.
A team of 35 architects, masters in historical restoration, and international NGOs armed with a billion euro in donations from around the world—including 30 million from U.S donors—are busy helping the Parisian monument rise from the ashes.
North rose stained glass windows/ Zairon; CC license
It’s been three years since fires engulfed the famous cathedral, yet even as the flames rose that night, there were signs that utter destruction could be averted. The firemen trained their hoses with tact, avoiding the enormous stained glass windows Notre Dame is known for.
Furthermore, in the days after the 800-ton spire collapsed, it was discovered that something of a miracle had occurred. While the modern altar had been crushed, the iconic Virgin of Paris, a 14th-century stone statue, stood but several feet away entirely unharmed—albeit quite covered in dust.
Luckier still, the twelve copper apostles lining the staircase to the spire’s summit had been removed four days before the fire for maintenance. The Chapel of St. Ferdinand, apart from suffering an increase in humidity, was entirely spared.
All in all, the Cathedral lost its spire, vaults, and lead ceiling, the last being a particular danger as it poured molten lead all over the architecture, but the walls survived, the treasures and art survived, and the enormous façade survived, giving more than enough for restorationists to work with in a grand revival in time for the Olympics.
When it was being built in the late 12th-to-early 13th century, Notre Dame was a real stunner, and brought many new styles to cathedral building, such as flying buttresses and pointed arches. The buttresses allowed for soaring windows and high walls. National Geographic reports that jealous Italian architects dubbed the style “Gothic,” which to be more specific means, “Visagothic”—in other words, “barbaric,” but that didn’t stop the style from spreading to Germany, Austria, Great Britain, and east as far as Ukraine.
The timber framework was clad in triangular oak trusses from ancient woodlands, the kind that barely exist anymore in France. A forestry expert named Philippe Gourmain manages forests all over the country, and Nat Geo reports that “by 11 p.m. he was on the phone with a friend at the National Forest Office, hatching a plan to collect the needed wood through donations.”
An NGO named Carpenters Without Borders are perfecting the method of constructing these trusses in the Medieval way—working with the heart of each tree in each creation. In September 2020, the non-profit reconstructed one of these trusses in front of the cathedral as a demonstration of what was to come.
In terms of the stone, the heat of the fire at 1,400°F (760°C) was enough to peel as much as four inches off some and turn it into powder.
In some of the wall stones, this caused them to crack, but experts are finding ways to repair these by injecting a paste of lime and other minerals. Those which are too damaged are up for replacement, and architects are looking to find the location of the quarries that birthed Notre Dame’s original stone, long since swallowed up by the city’s sprawl.
Many stones have remained entirely unharmed, however they are fitted in walls that were revealed to be dangerously wobbly; perhaps vulnerable to toppling in just a 56-mph wind. To prevent a secondary calamity, engineers installed huge wooden support beams to hold the walls in place until a new roof is finished.
Even the lead roof will be replaced, and will join the timber roofbeams and spire with modern fire proofing and extinguishing equipment.
The night of the blaze, President Emmanuel Macron called Notre Dame “our history, our literature, our imagination,” and vowed to rebuild it before the 2024 Olympics, a goal which galvanized progress—setting an end date reminiscent of U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 pledge to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
And with a budget most restoration architects could only dream of having, the cathedral should reopen with a sparkling finish, with every new, old, and ancient square inch cleaned to a shine.
(WATCH the new video below from CBS Sunday Morning—and see all the photos at National Geographic… Editor’s Note: Viewers outside the U.S. can watch the CBS video here.)
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