Determined ‘Lassie’ Dog Leads New Hampshire Police Back to Scene of Owner’s Car Crash Down a Hill

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Jan 10, 2022

dog rescue social media screenshot video embed youtube wptv — YouTube/WPTV

A real-life Lassie saved the lives of two men who had overturned their Ford pickup truck and were lying injured in the cold.

Reports are saying she is being treated to venison and back-scratches—a fitting reward for the faithful canine who braved the cold and high-speed traffic to save her owner.

Tinsley, a Shiloh Shepherd, attracted the attention of the police as she was loitering on an embanked stretch of I-89 connecting New Hampshire to Vermont. Trooper Sandberg and other officers of the Lebanon Police Department made attempts to corral her and get close, but she kept running away, eventually leading them to a damaged section of guardrail.

“They were trying to get the dog off of the highway to keep it safe,” NH State Police Lt. Dan Baldassarre explained to local news. “The dog stood at the top of the embankment and looked down.”

When they followed her lead they saw a badly damaged overturned pickup truck with two injured occupants nearby who had been ejected from the vehicle.

At the scene, Trooper Sandberg and the Lebanon Police Officers called for medical assistance and found the two men to be suffering from hypothermia. It was then they learned that the German Shepard, named Tinsley, belonged to one of the injured occupants of the truck.

“It quickly became apparent that Tinsley led Trooper Sandberg and the Lebanon Police to the crash site and injured occupants,” NHSP said on their Facebook page.

“This was almost like a real-life Lassie situation,” Baldassarre said. “It’s really quite remarkable. This dog definitely saved their lives. I don’t think they would have survived the night given the temperatures.”

A Facebook commenter agreed, citing the heroics as proof we don’t deserve dogs.

“She’s my little guardian angel,” said Cam Laundry, her owner. “It’s a miracle that she had that kind of intelligence to do what she did.”

(WATCH the WPTZ video for this story below.)

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“Only two things can reveal life’s great secrets: suffering and love.” – Paulo Coelho

Quote of the Day

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Jan 10, 2022

Quote of the Day: “Only two things can reveal life’s great secrets: suffering and love.” – Paulo Coelho (Aleph)

Photo: by Allef Vinicius

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Heroic New York Police Officer Runs Out on Thin Ice to Rescue Dog Floundering in Frozen Lake – WATCH

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Jan 9, 2022

police officer rescues dog from frozen lake-swns — Lewiston Police Department officer Jonathan Smith - SWNS

Lewiston Police Department officer Jonathan Smith – SWNS

This is the tense moment a police officer bolts onto a frozen lake to rescue a puppy that had fallen through the thin ice.

Officer Jonathan Smith, 30, was called to Bond Lake near Lewiston, New York, after receiving reports of a Labrador that had fallen in about 50 yards from the shore.

In this heart-in-mouth footage captured by a fellow officer’s bodycam, the brave cop throws off some equipment before dashing out onto the ice, without any caution for his own safety.

The owner had been walking the 10-month-old pup around the lake on January 5 when Kona spotted a distant flock of geese landing on the water and bolted towards them.

Horrified, Kona’s owner watched as the dog fell into the freezing water at the edge of the ice.

In an email to Lewiston Police Department, the owner wrote: “Although she is a strong swimmer, there was zero chance of her getting back out onto the ice and she began to panic and tire quickly.”

Frantically they called 911, and 15 minutes later, Officer Smith and two other officers from the Police Department arrived.

LOOK: Families Spend Christmas Eve Rescuing 6 Elk Trapped in Frozen River After Falling Through Ice

Without hesitation or rescue equipment, the officer removed his vest and gun belt and hustled over the ice towards an exhausted Kona.

When he got close enough to her, Officer Smith grabbed the 75-lb. pooch and pulled her from the water so she was able to run back over the ice to her owner.

“Kona and I and everybody that loves her are extremely grateful for his selflessness and courage,” the owner wrote. “His professionalism and bravery should be applauded.”

“I have witnessed countless acts of selfless heroism, Officer Jon Smith’s actions rank high in my book.”

Lewiston Police Department posted the bodycam footage from the rescue on their Facebook page, along with the message from Kona’s owner.

Officer Smith was also honored recently for pulling a woman from a burning building in November, and has been working at Lewiston Police Department since July 2020.

WATCH the outstanding rescue below…

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Astronomers Capture Black Hole Eruption Spanning 16 Times the Full Moon in the Sky

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Jan 9, 2022

Centaurus A elliptical active galaxy w black hole filmed at several wavelengths–Connor Matherne Louisiana State University and Ben McKinley ICRAR:Curtin — Centaurus A elliptical active galaxy with black hole filmed at several wavelengths–Connor Matherne Louisiana State University and Ben McKinley ICRAR/Curtin

Astronomers have produced the most comprehensive image of radio emission from our nearest actively feeding supermassive black hole.

Centaurus A, a giant elliptical active galaxy and its black hole with a mass of 55 million suns – photographed at radio wavelengths, revealing vast lobes of plasma that reach far beyond the visible galaxy. The dots are not stars, but radio galaxies much like Centaurus A, at far greater distances. Credits: Ben McKinley, ICRAR/Curtin and Connor Matherne, Louisiana State University

The emission is powered by a central black hole in the galaxy Centaurus A, about 12 million light years away.

As the black hole feeds on in-falling gas, it ejects material at near light-speed, causing ‘radio bubbles’ to grow over hundreds of millions of years.

When viewed from Earth, the eruption from Centaurus A now extends eight degrees across the sky—the length of 16 full Moons laid side by side.

It was captured using the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) telescope in outback Western Australia.

The research paper was published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Lead author Dr. Benjamin McKinley, from the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), said the image reveals spectacular new details of the radio emissions from the galaxy.

“These radio waves come from material being sucked into the supermassive black hole in the middle of the galaxy,” he said.

“It forms a disc around the black hole, and as the matter gets ripped apart going close to the black hole, powerful jets form on either side of the disc, ejecting most of the material back out into space, to distances of probably more than a million light years.

“Previous radio observations could not handle the extreme brightness of the jets and details of the larger area surrounding the galaxy were distorted, but our new image overcomes these limitations.”

Centaurus A is the closest radio galaxy to our own Milky Way.

“We can learn a lot from Centaurus A in particular, just because it is so close and we can see it in such detail,” Dr. McKinley said.

Not just at radio wavelengths, but at all other wavelengths of light as well, as seen in the photo below.

Centaurus A elliptical active galaxy with black hole filmed at several wavelengths–Connor Matherne Louisiana State University and Ben McKinley ICRAR/Curtin

“In this research we’ve been able to combine the radio observations with optical and x-ray data, to help us better understand the physics of these supermassive black holes.”

Astrophysicist Dr. Massimo Gaspari, from Italy’s National Institute for Astrophysics, said the study corroborated a novel theory known as ‘Chaotic Cold Accretion’ (CCA), which is emerging in different fields.

LOOK: Researchers Solve Mystery of Scattered Black Glass in Chilean Desert – it Was Made by an Exploding Comet

“In this model, clouds of cold gas condense in the galactic halo and rain down onto the central regions, feeding the supermassive black hole,” he said.

“Triggered by this rain, the black hole vigorously reacts by launching energy back via radio jets that inflate the spectacular lobes we see in the MWA image. This study is one of the first to probe in such detail the multiphase CCA ‘weather’ over the full range of scales”, Dr Gaspari concluded.

Dr. McKinley said the galaxy appears brighter in the center where it is more active and there is a lot of energy.

“Then it’s fainter as you go out because the energy’s been lost and things have settled down,” he said.

WATCH: Spectacular Time Lapse Shows the Hypnotic Flames on the Surface of the Sun (WATCH)

“But there are interesting features where charged particles have re-accelerated and are interacting with strong magnetic fields.”

MWA director Professor Steven Tingay said the research was possible because of the telescope’s extremely wide field-of-view, superb radio-quiet location, and excellent sensitivity.

“The wide field of view and, as a consequence, the extraordinary amount of data we can collect, means that the discovery potential of every MWA observation is very high. This provides a fantastic step toward the even bigger SKA.”

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Woman Thanks Hero Who Found a Wallet in Snow, Then Drove it to Her House: ‘Juan is a Great Human!!!’

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Jan 9, 2022

A family in Maryland wants to publicly thank a stranger for going above and beyond—just in time to bring a Happy New Year.

“What a great human!!” That’s how Laura Degnon began her email to GNN, hoping we would share the story of a good Samaritan touching their lives with kindness.

Her son, Jake, realized on Friday that he had lost his wallet Thursday night.

It snowed a couple inches in Rockville overnight which made it challenging for them to find anything outside around his car, or at the last store where he stopped to buy a snack.

“We shoveled so many places looking for it,” she recalled.

They were very motivated, too, as his wallet was unusually full of “quite a bit of Christmas money, college money, and of course his school ID, license, debit, and credit card.”

But they couldn’t find it anywhere.

Laura was up early on Saturday saying goodbye as Jake headed back to the University of South Carolina, and started cleaning up around the house, when the doorbell rang about 8:00AM.

“Much to my surprise a wonderful man by the name of Juan was standing there asking if Jake lived here.”

“I started to cry right away, and asked if he found his wallet, by chance.”

Juan had been up early, going to work on a Saturday morning, when he found Jake’s wallet in the parking lot of the store where he bought the snack—and he drove to their house to return it.

Everything was in tact, with nothing missing.

“What a great human!! Juan made my son’s day, and mine, more than he will ever know!”

HERO: Good Deed Takes Flight, as Man Buys Ticket For Anxious Stranger Desperate to Get Home

She also had a message for Juan’s employer, Brightview Landscaping in Clarksburg, Maryland: ‘You have one hell of an employee’.

“Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.”

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Watch the Adorable Moment a Baby Gorilla Born Prematurely is Reunited With its Family

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Jan 9, 2022

Baby G gorilla-SWNS-Cleveland Metroparks Zoo — Cleveland Metroparks Zoo via SWNS

After their premature baby was hospitalized for weeks, this gorilla family had a delightful reunion that was captured by caretakers.

The tiny western lowland gorilla, nicknamed Baby G, was born October 26 at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo in Ohio.

Baby G was hailed with quite the fanfare in the city last Autumn, because it was the first baby gorilla to be born at the zoo in its 139-year history.

But they were in for a roller coaster ride of health issues.

When its 23-year-old mother Nneka did not show appropriate maternal care, the troop’s eldest female, Fredrika, 47—who herself has raised four infants elsewhere—instinctively took over looking after the newborn.

Baby G weighed only about three pounds at birth, and later contracted pneumonia, so he had to be separated from his family, in order to be treated.

Two weeks later, the now-healthy gorilla who weighed nearly seven pounds was reintroduced to his surrogate mother.

Keepers at the zoo put the baby in a makeshift nest to get him used to how it would feel to be in the gorilla troop.

They then exited the enclosure and let in Fredrika who, after sniffing him for a few minutes, picked him up and has barely let go of him since.

The baby’s surrogate mother continued to impress the zoo’s staff by bouncing Baby G and displaying all the maternal instincts she had before he was removed.

The other gorillas, including its father, Mokolo, 24, welcomed the baby back into the group, with dad keeping a watchful eye.

WATCH the video that was just released in 2022…

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“Don’t accept a life of mediocrity when you hold such infinite potential within the fortress of your mind. Dare to tap into your greatness.” – Robin S. Sharma

Quote of the Day

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Jan 9, 2022

Quote of the Day: “Don’t accept a life of mediocrity when you hold such infinite potential within the fortress of your mind. Dare to tap into your greatness.” – Robin Sharma (The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: A Fable About Fulfilling Your Dreams and Reaching Your Destiny)

Photo: by Nikola Knezevic

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?

Breakthrough Using CRISPR to Target Fat Cells in Genetic Study of Obesity

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Jan 8, 2022

DNA CRISPR editing cell-by Jill George-NIH Image Gallery-CC license — Illustration by Jill George / NIH Image Gallery -CC license

Fat—it is vital for life but too much can lead to a host of health problems. Studying how fat tissue, or adipose, functions in the body is critical for understanding obesity and other issues.

Illustration by Jill George / NIH Image Gallery -CC license

But structural differences in fat cells and their distribution throughout the body make doing so challenging.

“Fat cells are different from other cells in that they lack unique cell surface receptors and only account for a minority of the cells within fat tissue,” said Steven Romanelli, Ph.D., from the Department of Molecular & Integrative Physiology at the University of Michigan.

In a new paper published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Romanelli, Ormand MacDougald, Ph.D. and their colleagues describe a breakthrough using CRISPR-Cas9, a tool that has transformed molecular biological research, but whose use in the study of adipose tissue had been elusive.

It’s a gene editing technique comprised of an enzyme called Cas9, which can break strands of DNA, and a piece of RNA that guides the Cas9 enzyme to a specific site in the genome for editing. The tool has been successfully used to study heart, liver, neurons, and skin cells, to name a few, but never a certain type of adipose cells known as brown fat.

Using the technique, the team was able to successfully target brown fat, a specialized adipose tissue used to generate heat and protect core body temperature.

Using their adeno-associated virus CRISPR-Cas9 components, they knocked out the UCP1 gene that defines brown adipose and enables it to generate heat, in adult mice. They observed that the knockout mice were able to adapt to the loss of the gene and maintain their body temperature in cold conditions, hinting at other pathways involved in temperature homeostasis.

CHECK OUT: Common Heart Disease Drug Reverses Obesity By Targeting Inflammation in Mice – Raising Their Metabolism

“The biggest challenge in terms of adipose research to date has been that if you want to study a gene’s function, you have to commit a considerable amount of time, resources and money into developing a transgenic mouse,” said Romanelli.

The traditional way of developing mouse models involves breeding mice with a desired mutation to delete or introduce certain genes of interest, which can take more than a year and tens of thousands of dollars.

CRISPR-Cas9 has revolutionized this process.

“What we’ve been able to do is take that whole process and distill it into anywhere from two weeks to a month to generate a transgenic mouse, reducing the cost to less than $2,000. Not only does it reduce time and cost, it democratizes the research so that any lab that is familiar with molecular biology techniques can adopt this method and do it themselves,” said Romanelli.

They were also able to use this method to delete multiple genes simultaneously, a fact that could help researchers better understand important molecular pathways.

Though these results are exploratory, the breakthrough represents an important step forward in studying fat.

(Source: Michigan Medicine, University of Michigan – by Kelly Malcom)

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Baby Donkey is Named ‘Betty White’ to Honor Celebrity Who Donated to Their Animal Sanctuary For Years – LOOK

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Jan 8, 2022

Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue named betty white-IG and-David Shankbone-CC — Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue- IG; and Betty White by David Shankbone CC license

Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue- IG; and Betty White by David Shankbone CC license

For years, television star Betty White had donated to the Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue in San Angelo, Texas.

Now, upon her death on December 31 at the age of 99, the animal sanctuary has introduced an adorable baby donkey as her namesake.

“This beautiful little jennet was born on Christmas Day but we were unable to come up with the perfect name until New Year’s Eve,” the rescue donkey group wrote on Facebook.

Ms. White has supported the group since 2006, and to honor her memory, Peaceful Valley is also naming their newly constructed nursery in her honor.

“Betty White was a tremendous voice for animals both here in the US and around the world.”

“She would be over the moon ❤️,” commented Kristan Marie Cobb.

Most remembered for her television roles in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Golden Girls, and Hot in Cleveland, White won 7 Emmy awards—and, at 88 years old, an eighth Emmy for her hosting of Saturday Night Live.

She’s also the author of two memoirs, If You Ask Me, and Here We Go Again: My Life In Television.

WATCH a video of the two-week-old Betty exploring the yard…

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This Week’s Inspiring Horoscopes From Rob Brezsny’s ‘Free Will Astrology’

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Jan 8, 2022

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 beginning January 8, 2021
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Capricorn-born Muhammad Ali was far more than a superb professional boxer. He was an activist, entertainer, and philanthropist who gathered much wisdom in his 74 years. I’ve chosen one of his quotes to be your guide in the coming months. I hope it will motivate you to rigorously manage the sometimes pesky and demanding details that will ultimately enable you to score a big victory. “It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you down,” Ali said. “It’s the pebble in your shoe.”

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
At a pivotal moment in his evolution, Aquarian playwright Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) swore an oath to himself. I’ll tell you about it here because I hope it will inspire you to make a comparable vow to yourself about how you’ll live your life in 2022. Author Robert Greene is the source of the quote. He says that Chekhov promised himself he would engage in “no more bowing and apologizing to people; no more complaining and blaming; no more disorderly living and wasting time. The answer to everything was work and love, work and love. He had to spread this message to his family and save them. He had to share it with humanity through his stories and plays.”

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
Here’s what Piscean author Anais Nin wrote in one of her diaries: “When I first faced pain, I was shattered. When I first met failure, defeat, denial, loss, death, I died. Not today. I believe in my power, in my magic, and I do not die. I survive, I love, live, continue.” According to my analysis of the astrological omens, Pisces, you could claim her triumphant declaration as your own in 2022, with special emphasis on this: “I believe in my power, in my magic. I survive, I love, live, continue.” This will be a golden age, a time when you harvest the fruits of many years of labor.

ARIES (March 21-April 19):
In the fantasy tale The Wizard of Oz, a tornado lifts the hero Dorothy from her modest home in rural Kansas to a magical realm called Oz. There she experiences many provocative and entertaining adventures. Nonetheless, she longs to return to where she started from. A friendly witch helps her find the way back to Kansas, which requires her to click her ruby slippers together three times and say, “There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home.” I suspect, Aries, that there’ll be a different ending to your epic tale in 2022. At some point, you will decide you prefer to stay in your new world. Maybe you’ll even click your ruby slippers together and say, “There’s no place like Oz, there’s no place like Oz.”

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
Fifty-five percent of the people who live in Toronto speak primarily English or French. But for the other 45 percent, their mother tongue is a different language, including Portuguese, Tagalog, Italian, Tamil, Spanish, Cantonese, and Mandarin. I wish you could spend some time there in the coming months. In my astrological opinion, you would benefit from being exposed to maximum cultural diversity. You would thrive by being around a broad spectrum of influences from multiple backgrounds. If you can’t manage a trip to Toronto or another richly diverse place, do your best to approximate the same experience. Give yourself the gift of splendorous variety.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
One of your primary meditations throughout 2022 should be the following advice from The Laws of Human Nature, a book by motivational author Robert Greene. He writes, “In ancient times, many great leaders felt that they were descended from gods and part divine. Such self-belief would translate into high levels of confidence that others would feed off and recognize. It became a self-fulfilling prophecy. You do not need to indulge in such grandiose thoughts, but feeling that you are destined for something great or important will give you a degree of resilience when people oppose or resist you. You will not internalize the doubts that come from such moments. You will have an enterprising spirit. You will continually try new things, even taking risks, confident in your ability to bounce back from failures and feeling destined to succeed.”

CANCER (June 21-July 22):
I would love to unabashedly encourage you to travel widely and explore wildly in 2022. I would rejoice if I could brazenly authorize you to escape your comfort zone and wander in the frontiers. It’s not often the planetary omens offer us Cancerians such an unambiguous mandate to engage in exhilarating adventures and intelligent risks. There’s only one problem: that annoying inconvenience known as the pandemic. We really do have to exercise caution in our pursuit of expansive encounters. Luckily, you now have extra ingenuity about the project of staying safe as you enlarge your world.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
I suspect that your life in 2022 might feature themes beloved by Leo author Emily Brontë (1818–1848). “No coward soul is mine,” she wrote, “No trembler in the world’s storm-troubled sphere.” I suggest making that one of your mottoes. Here’s another guiding inspiration from Emily, via one of her poems: “I’ll walk where my own nature would be leading: / It vexes me to choose another guide: / Where the grey flocks in ferny glens are feeding; / Where the wild wind blows on the mountain-side.” Here’s one more of Brontë’s thoughts especially suitable for your use in the coming months: “I’ll be as dirty as I please, and I like to be dirty, and I will be dirty!”

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
What reversals and turnabouts would you like to experience in 2022, Virgo? Which situations would you like to transform dramatically? Are there imbalances of power you would like to rectify? Contradictions you’d love to dissolve? Misplaced priorities you could correct? All these things are possible in the coming months if you are creative and resourceful enough. With your dynamic efforts, the last could be first, the low could be high, and the weak could become strong.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
“Everything good I’ve ever gotten in my life, I only got because I gave something else up,” wrote author Elizabeth Gilbert. That has often been true for me. For example, if I hadn’t given up my beloved music career, I wouldn’t have had the time and energy to become a skillful astrology writer with a big audience. What about you, Libra? In my reckoning, Gilbert’s observation should be a major theme for you in 2022.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Author C. S. Lewis wrote that we don’t simply want to behold beauty. We “want to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.” If there were ever a time when you could get abundant tastes of that extravagant pleasure, Scorpio, it would be in the coming months. If you make it a goal, if you set an intention, you may enjoy more deep mergers and delightful interactions with beauty than you have had since 2010.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
Sagittarian singer-songwriter Tom Waits began his career in 1969. He achieved modest success during the next 11 years. But his career headed in an even more successful direction after he met Kathleen Brennan, who became his wife and collaborator. In a 1988 interview, Waits said, “She’s got the whole dark forest living inside of her. She pushes me into areas I would not go, and I’d say that a lot of the things I’m trying to do now, she’s encouraged.” In 2022, Sagittarius, I’ll invite you to go looking for the deep dark forest within yourself. I’m sure it’s in there somewhere. If you explore it with luxuriant curiosity, it will ultimately inspire you to generate unprecedented breakthroughs. Yes, it might sometimes be spooky—but in ways that ultimately prove lucky.

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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Shaq Brings 2,000 Nintendo Switches and PS5s To Underprivileged Kids On Christmas: A Long List of His Good Deeds

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Andy Corbley

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Jan 8, 2022

Shaq delivers Christmas presents to school kids-twitter-Pepsi Stronger Together — Twitter post by Pepsi Stronger Together

The always generous Shaquille O’Neil turned into Shaq-a-Claus in December to shower low-income students with gifts this Christmas.

The basketball star revealed on a podcast with Gary Vaynerchuk that he had bought 1,000 Playstation 5s, another 1,000 Nintendo Switches, and an unspecified number of bicycles and and delivered them to school children in Georgia.

“My father was a drill sergeant, my mother just was a hard-working woman,” he said on air. “They had little, but they taught me the value of giving back. They taught me the value of helping those in need.”

“I ordered about 1000 Switches and 1000 PS5s. I went to Walmart and got bikes. So you know yesterday, at this little elementary school in McDonough, Georgia, kids were crying, kids were happy. And that’s what it’s all about,” said Santa Shaq.

He joined representatives from Tonka, ‘Pepsi Stronger Together’, and others to rain down gifts and cheer to schools in Las Vegas, where the Shaquille O’Neal Foundation provided toys, laptops, and lunch for even more children—as well as opening a brand-new basketball court where kids can try on Shaq’s shoes for fun.

Shaq-a-Claus brought the holiday spirit to children at Wesley Lake Elementary School in McDonough, GA! 🎁 @SHAQ joined us for the event which featured donations from @pepsi, @Fritolay, Tonka and many more.#PepsiStrongerTogether pic.twitter.com/dJS0NB49T0
— Pepsi Stronger Together (@PepsiStronger) December 27, 2021

It’s not the first year schools would be on the receiving end of a charitable Shaq-attack, as O’Neil’s “Shaq to School” program coordinates with Amazon and Zappos to delivery school supplies every year to 5,000 children who can’t afford them.

“Kids gravitate to me because I am the simple gateway,” he said in a recent mini-doc about his giving tendencies. “When kids see me they was like, ‘I can relate to Shaq, he’s silly.'”

The gentle giant

Shaquille O’Neil is a walking bundle of good deeds waiting to slam dunk on unsuspecting people. Like the most diligent sports reporter, GNN has closely followed Shaq’s career—of giving.

After overhearing a young man was still after weeks of work, far away from paying the outstanding balance on his wife’s engagement ring, Shaq put the balance on his credit card, saying “I’m just trying to make people smile.”

In 2020 he stopped on the side of the road to help a Florida woman whose car had just crashed. The family of a 12-year old boy in Atlanta who was paralyzed by stray gunfire at a violent shootout, received a shock when Shaq bought them an entirely-new wheelchair accessible house, which we can only assume they called the “Shaq Shack”.

When Shaq was in school himself, and unable to fit into most sneakers, a cobbler who specialized in large shoes gave the boy a free pair. Doug the Cobbler has since been repaid by that single loss of revenue many times, with Shaq buying over 2,000 pairs of shoes—both for himself and for donating to kids who have the same problem as he once did.

WATCH a heartwarming compilation of Shaq kindnesses…

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“Don’t forget, a human’s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.” – H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Quote of the Day

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Jan 8, 2022

Quote of the Day: “Don’t forget, a person’s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.” – H. Jackson Brown Jr. (Life’s Little Instruction Book: 511 Suggestions, Observations, and Reminders on How to Live a Happy and Rewarding Life)

Photo: by Ralu Gal

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?

Couple Stuck on Highway for 21 Hours in Snowstorm Asks Bakery Truck to Give Away Their Supply to Hungry Drivers

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Andy Corbley

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Jan 7, 2022

bread truck saves highway drivers in snow-Casey Holihan Noe-FB

A miserable day stuck in snow on U.S. Interstate 95 took a turn for the better through a positive sort of highway robbery.

The understanding CEO of a baking company ordered one of his drivers to pass bread and rolls out to the stranded cars, breaking some fasts which were going on two days.

With some cars containing babies, pets, and elderly people, a lack of opportunities to eat provided as much discomfort as the cold to thousands of motorists on I-95 who got stranded when a winter storm dropped around a foot of snow on Virginia and other eastern states.

A Maryland couple, Casey Holihan and her husband John Noe, hadn’t eaten for 37 hours while waiting for the snow to clear when they spotted a Schmidt Baking Company truck.

Not thinking it would work, the hungry couple called the company’s customer service line asking if they could have some of the bread.

LOOK: 80-Year-old Man Reunited With Long Lost Siblings Thanks to His Litter Clean-up Dog on TV

“We didn’t think it would actually work, but less then 20 minutes later we got an incredible surprise,” wrote Casey in a Facebook post. “We received a personal call from the owner of the company, Chuck, who contacted the driver.”

“It was an easy decision” Chuck Paterakis, the CEO of H&S Baking, who owns Schmidt, told the Washington Post. His words to the driver were “give away all the bread” adding that he was “very humbled and grateful that we could help.”

The driver Ron Hill opened the back of the truck, and with Casey and John’s help distributed 300 packages of bread and rolls to more than 50 stranded motorists.

MORE: Little Boy’s Stuffed Bambi Was Rescued From Frozen Canal – He Didn’t Think People Would Care

“We just kept giving it out until we couldn’t walk anymore because it was so freezing,” Holihan told NBC affiliate WBAL. “It felt incredible just hearing people say thank you and hearing people just so relieved to finally have food in their car, food in their system and in their kids’ system. It was a really incredible feeling.”

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See the Stunning Winners of the Northern Lights Photographer of the Year Competition

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Jan 7, 2022

The stunning beauty of one of nature’s most spectacular events has been captured in this series of spell-binding images.

On special nights far from the equator, the sky is illuminated by a dazzling, celestial light show.

The aurora borealis and aurora australis are caused when cosmic radiation hits electrically charged particles in Earth’s atmosphere.

The spectacular results have been captured in a series of 25 winning images selected in the Capture the Atlas Northern Lights photography competition.

Winners includes images taken in countries including the United States, Russia, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Australia, Canada, and Antarctica.

They show mesmerizing bands of luminous green light playing in the night sky above icy fjords, snow-capped pine forests, and iceberg crammed seas.

One of the images, taken by photographer Benjamin Eberhard, looks like something out of a sci-fi movie.

The image, titled “Antarctic Night,” shows a vast sky streaked with bands of green, orange, and yellow above the futuristic looking Ice Cube Neutrino Observatory.

Benjamn said, “This image shows a strong and colorful aurora over the IceCube Neutrino observatory in the South Pole and is part of a longer time-lapse series.

“The South Pole is probably one of the most remote and challenging environments to do photography, and it is strenuous for both humans and technology.

“To achieve 24-hour-long time-lapse shots, you need some creativity to heat and insulate your equipment in order to keep it running, and even rotating, in temperatures ranging down to -80ºC (-112 ºF).”

See a few of the other amazing photos below.

Swirling and shimmering…

Pulsing and flashing…

Iridescent Northern Lights…

Make winter nights magic…

From pole to pole.

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Magic Mushrooms Are Safe to Treat Mental Health Conditions, Says Another Landmark Trial

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Jan 7, 2022

magic mushrooms cc license wikimedia commons Arp — Arp, CC license

A trip to the doctor for a dose of magic mushrooms could help treat mental health conditions like PTSD, according to new research.

Small doses of the psychedelic drug psilocybin, found in magic mushrooms are not only good at easing disorders that are resistant to treatment, but they also have no short or long-term side effects in healthy people, scientists say.

In a study led by the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London, researchers have found that the drug can be safely administered in up to six patients using doses of either 10mg or 25mg.

In partnership with COMPASS Pathways, the report is an essential first step for experts to prove the safety and feasibility of psilocybin as a treatment alongside talking therapies for a range of conditions including treatment-resistant depression (TRD) and PTSD.

The psychedelic is the first of its kind to go head-to-head with the traditional and often ineffective treatments on the market.

Although early research has hailed the mushroom as a promising treatment, no human trials have been conducted until now.

The trial is the first of its kind to thoroughly investigate the magic of the mushroom.

Researchers used a sample of 89 participants who hadn’t used psilocybin within a year who were recruited to take part in the trial.

They then randomly picked 60 people to receive either a 10mg or a 25mg dose of psilocybin in a controlled lab environment.

After the doses were administered, the patients received one-to-one support from trained psychotherapists.

The remaining 29 participants acted as the control group and received a placebo drug, as well as psychological support.

The participants were closely monitored for six to eight hours and they were then followed up for 12 weeks.

During this time, they were assessed to track the number of possible changes, including sustained attention, memory, planning, as well as their ability to process emotions.

Dr James Rucker, a clinical scientist from the National Institute for Health Research, was the study’s lead author.

LOOK: Psychedelic Found in Magic Mushrooms Spurs Growth of Neural Connections Lost in Depression, Landmark Study Finds

He said, “This rigorous study is an important first demonstration that the simultaneous administration of psilocybin can be explored further.

“If we think about how psilocybin therapy (if approved) may be delivered in the future, it’s important to demonstrate the feasibility and the safety of giving it to more than one person at the same time, so we can think about how we scale up the treatment.”

Dr Rucker, who is also an honorary consultant psychiatrist at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust added, “This therapy has promise for people living with serious mental health problems, like treatment-resistant depression (TRD) and PTSD.

“They can be extremely disabling, distressing and disruptive, but current treatment options for these conditions are ineffective or partially effective for many people.”

No-one withdrew from the study and there were no suggestions that either of the psilocybin doses had any short or long-term negative effects on the participants.

Professor Guy Goodwin the chief medical officer at COMPASS Pathways, said, “This study was an early part of our clinical development programme for COMP360 psilocybin therapy.

MORE: Dutch Man Invents Coffin That Turns Bodies Into Mushrooms: ‘We are nutrients, not waste’

“It explored the safety and feasibility of simultaneous psilocybin administration, with one to one support, in healthy participants, and provided a strong foundation to which we have now added positive results from our Phase IIb trial in 233 patients with TRD, and from our open-label study of patients taking SSRI antidepressants alongside psilocybin therapy.

“We are looking forward to finalizing plans for our phase three programme, which we expect to begin in Q3 2022.”

Since this study was conducted, the researchers have completed phase two of the study, which has explored the efficacy and safety of psilocybin in people living with TRD and PTSD, and are now analyzing their findings.

This study was published in The Journal of Psychopharmacology.

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“When you chase a dream, you learn about yourself. You learn your capabilities and limitations, and the value of hard work and persistence.” – Nicholas Sparks

Quote of the Day

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Good News Network

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Jan 7, 2022

Quote of the Day: “When you chase a dream, you learn about yourself. You learn your capabilities and limitations, and the value of hard work and persistence.” – Nicholas Sparks (Three Weeks With My Brother)

Photo: by Ivana Cajina

With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?

Watch Our Biggest Moments From Mars in 2021: Riding on the Shoulders of NASA’s Perseverance Rover

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Jan 6, 2022

NASA_JPL-Caltech Perseverance public domain illustration — NASA/JPL-Caltech, illustration of the rover landing

After its harrowing touchdown on Mars ten months ago left NASA engineers cheering, a six-wheeled scientist named Perseverance has been achieving its key objectives.

The rover has been searching for signs of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet and is at the heart of NASA’s goal to complete the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and dust.

Now, all that it has accomplished so far has been captured in a new video.

Surface Operations Mission Manager Jessica Samuels reflected on the year filled with groundbreaking discoveries from the Jezero Crater on Mars.

In the 10 months since it landed with a parachute by working with gravity, the car-size rover has driven 1.8 miles (2.9 kilometers), set a record for the longest rover drive in a Martian day, taken more than 100,000 images, and collected six samples of Martian rock and atmosphere that could eventually be brought to Earth for further study.

And then there’s NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, which hitched a ride to the Red Planet with Perseverance.

It proved that powered, controlled flight is possible in Mars’ thin atmosphere, and the 4-pound (1.8-kilogram) rotorcraft has logged 18 flights and counting.

LOOK: See Incredible Photos and Hear Martian Winds From the Red Planet—Thanks to Perseverance Rover

Samuels, the Perseverance surface operations mission manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, also explains the next phase of Perseverance’s mission: to explore the delta that formed in Jezero Crater billions of years ago from sediment that an ancient river carried into the lake that once existed in the crater.

WATCH it below – and learn more at nasa.gov/perseverance…

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Become a Wildlife Ranger on Idyllic Island Off Scotland Coast With Free Cottage to Live in

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Jan 6, 2022

Roger McLachlan _ Landing on Handa Island _ CC BY-SA 2.0 wikimedia commons

A wildlife ranger is being sought for an idyllic island off the north coast of Scotland—and a free cottage to live in is included.

The Scottish Wildlife Trust is looking for someone to take over the position of Handa Island Ranger on the remote island off the coast of Sutherland in the Highlands.

The successful candidate will be treated to stunning sandy beaches, spectacular views from the 394-feet-high cliffs, and getting to know the 100,000 breeding seabirds living on the island.

Handa is so small it only takes two and a half hours to walk around, but the candidate will need a driver’s licence and a vehicle to make weekly trips to the nearest village, Scourie, over on the mainland.

Those interested will need to have a good knowledge of the local marine and terrestrial natural history, excellent people skills, and organizational abilities.

The six-month fixed term contract is from March to September 2022, and pays £17,290 ($23,458) FTE per annum pro rata.

Applications opened last month and are due to close on January 17 at 2pm–if you’re looking for a wild adventure, it sounds like it’s time to get applying.

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Hockey Fan Spots Cancerous Mole on a Staffer, Gets $10,000 Medical School Scholarship from Grateful NHL Team

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Andy Corbley

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Jan 6, 2022

hockey mole social media embed Twitter @Canucks — Twitter/@Canucks

“The mole on the back of your neck is possibly cancerous. Please go see a doctor!”

It was a strange thing for Vancouver Canucks assistant equipment manager Brian Hamilton to see on the screen of a cell phone belonging to a fan who had pressed it against the glass separating fans from players.

Fans do all kinds of strange things at sporting events, but Nadia Popovici was following her medical training when she noticed that the dark spot on the back of Hamilton’s neck was discolored, raised, and had irregular borders: all potential signs of the skin cancer melanoma.

As it turns out, Hamilton had the mole removed which was subsequently confirmed to be a melanoma tumor.

“… She saved my life,” Mr. Hamilton said at a press conference. “The words out of the doctor’s mouth were if I ignored that for four to five years I wouldn’t be here. How she saw it boggles my mind. It wasn’t very big, I wear a jacket, I wear a radio on the back of my jacket… She’s a hero.”

MORE: Your Body’s Own ‘Cannabis-Like’ Substance Can Reduce Chronic Inflammation During Exercise

The team wanted to reach out to Popovici somehow, and so set up a social media campaign to reunite the two before the Canucks played Seattle Kraken on January 1st, which succeeded.

An act of kindness towards another human that Brian (Red) will forever be grateful for.

Brian and Nadia had an emotional meeting ahead of tonight's game in Seattle. pic.twitter.com/xvld8x2ltz
— Vancouver #Canucks (@Canucks) January 2, 2022

As a way of saying thank you, during the second commercial break it was revealed for everyone in the Seattle Climate Fund Arena to see, that both teams had raised $10,000 to send Popovici to medical school.

Together with the @SeattleKraken, we awarded Nadia Popovici a $10,000 scholarship for medical school as a show of our appreciation 👏 pic.twitter.com/VgK8aMgJTA
— Vancouver #Canucks (@Canucks) January 2, 2022

What Popovici described in her diagnosis of the melanoma was a method of identification called the “ABCDE Rule,” an acronym for Asymmetry, Border, Color, Dark, and Evolving, five signs that anyone’s mole might be a common yet dangerous skin cancer.

“After that moment I kind of regretted it,” Popovici told Sky News of her typed-out phone warning. “I thought, ‘you know, that was inappropriate it, I shouldn’t have brought it up, maybe he already knows about it and it’s a sensitive topic.'”

“To not know for so many months what happened to this man and to finally put a name to the face and a story, it’s been incredible and truly life-changing,” she added.

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NASA Launches James Webb Telescope to See First Galaxies and Distant Worlds With its Giant Sunshield

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Jan 6, 2022

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope officially launched on December 25. Its mission? To seek the light from the first galaxies in the early universe and to explore our own solar system, as well as planets orbiting other stars, called exoplanets.

“The James Webb Space Telescope represents the ambition that NASA and our partners maintain to propel us forward into the future,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “The promise of Webb is not what we know we will discover; it’s what we don’t yet understand or can’t yet fathom about our universe. I can’t wait to see what it uncovers!”

Ground teams began receiving telemetry data from Webb about five minutes after launch.

The Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket performed as expected, separating from the observatory 27 minutes into the flight.

The observatory was released at an altitude of approximately 870 miles (1,400 kilometers). Approximately 30 minutes after launch, Webb unfolded its solar array, and mission managers confirmed that the solar array was providing power to the observatory.

Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said, “Webb’s scientific promise is now closer than it ever has been. We are poised on the edge of a truly exciting time of discovery, of things we’ve never before seen or imagined.”

MORE: Cosmic Telescope Finally Captures Light From the Dawn of Time

The world’s largest and most complex space science observatory will now begin six months of commissioning in space. At the end of commissioning, Webb will deliver its first images.

Webb carries four state-of-the-art science instruments with highly sensitive infrared detectors of unprecedented resolution. Webb will study infrared light from celestial objects with much greater clarity than ever before. The premier mission is the scientific successor to NASA’s iconic Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, built to complement and further the scientific discoveries of these and other missions.

“The launch of the Webb Space Telescope is a pivotal moment—this is just the beginning for the Webb mission,” said Gregory L. Robinson, Webb’s program director at NASA Headquarters. “Now we will watch Webb’s highly anticipated and critical 29 days on the edge. When the spacecraft unfurls in space, Webb will undergo the most difficult and complex deployment sequence ever attempted in space. Once commissioning is complete, we will see awe-inspiring images that will capture our imagination.”

LOOK: Astronomers Uncover the Largest Group of Rogue Planets Yet

The telescope’s revolutionary technology will explore every phase of cosmic history—from within our solar system to the most distant observable galaxies in the early universe, to everything in between. Webb will reveal new and unexpected discoveries and help humanity understand the origins of the universe and our place in it.

Sunshield success

On January 4, the telescope team announced it fully deployed the spacecraft’s 70-foot sunshield, a key milestone in preparing it for science operations.

“This is the first time anyone has ever attempted to put a telescope this large into space,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “Webb required not only careful assembly but also careful deployments. The success of its most challenging deployment – the sunshield – is an incredible testament to the human ingenuity and engineering skill that will enable Webb to accomplish its science goals.”

CHECK OUT: Huge Supply of Water Discovered on Mars, Frozen at the Bottom of its Grand Canyon

The five-layered sunshield will protect the telescope from the light and heat of the Sun, Earth, and Moon. Each plastic sheet is about as thin as a human hair and coated with reflective metal, providing protection on the order of more than SPF 1 million. Together, the five layers reduce exposure from the Sun from over 200 kilowatts of solar energy to a fraction of a watt.

This protection is crucial to keep Webb’s scientific instruments at temperatures of 40 kelvins, or under minus 380 degrees Fahrenheit – cold enough to see the faint infrared light that Webb seeks to observe.

“Unfolding Webb’s sunshield in space is an incredible milestone, crucial to the success of the mission,” said Gregory L. Robinson, Webb’s program director at NASA Headquarters. “Thousands of parts had to work with precision for this marvel of engineering to fully unfurl. The team has accomplished an audacious feat with the complexity of this deployment—one of the boldest undertakings yet for Webb.”

The world’s largest and most complex space science observatory has another 5 1/2 months of setup still to come, including deployment of the secondary mirror and primary mirror wings, alignment of the telescope optics, and calibration of the science instruments. After that, Webb will deliver its first images.

We’ll keep you updated as news from the Hubble telescope’s successor–a joint effort with ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency–continues to unfold.

(LEARN more about this historic launch in the video below.)

Source: NASA

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