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How One Developer is Turning Farm Storage into Soaring Yet Affordable Apartments

By
Andy Corbley
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Chris Miele/Prince Concepts

Produced by the U.S. Navy for use in World War II, and now consigned primarily for storage use on farms, the Quonset hut is experiencing a rebirth within the residential neighborhoods of Detroit.

Chris Miele/Prince Concepts

The long half-cylinder of corrugated steel, prefabricated in factories, was used by development company Prince Concepts to create a unique apartment building of eight high-ceilinged units for 30% less than comparable affordable housing in up-and-coming neighborhoods in the city.

“A Quonset hut isn’t a design, it’s a tool—think about it the same way you’d think about a brick, it’s a tool to achieve a purpose,” explains their website. “For Caterpillar, Prince Concepts challenged architect, Ishtiaq Rafiuddin, to create an 8 unit project within one massive hut, as a 9,000 square foot sculpture with 6 residences and 2 Live/Work spaces that anchors a public park where people can soak up the majesty of a new age monument.”

The Caterpillar’s designer and financier, Philip Kafka, has been using Quonset hut architecture to cut costs and offer unique housing and business opportunities in Detroit. Between the low cost of the hut, and of the land in the city, his projects offer perspective renters something totally unique in terms of price and style.

“With True North [another rental project that consists of live/work spaces, which gave rise to an art gallery and a yoga studio] we used the Quonset hut to create a sculptural community with public and semi-private outdoor nooks that residents and neighbors, alike, could enjoy, marvel at and marvel in,” Kafka explains.

In an interview with Fast Company, the Texas-born, former-NYC advertisement mogul describes his work as “Home-Depot architecture.” The Caterpillar rooms are between 750-1375 square feet, with walls pock-marked with symmetrical window arrangements, hardwood floors, and a 23-foot high vaulted ceiling.

Chris Miele/Prince Concepts

“You get a sunrise view in your bedroom and a sunset view in your living room. That was intentional. It’s all about light, this project,” Kafka explained. “The real benefit isn’t that the Quonset hut lets me build a project so inexpensively, it’s that it lets me give people extremely high-quality space for a reasonable price.”

MORE: These Floating Islands Will Form a ‘Parkipelago’ in Copenhagen’s Harbor

In addition, the landscape is bespoke, and features a wrap around deck, gardens, and forty trees. The project was fully leased months before it was officially finished.

Chris Miele/Prince Concepts

With raw wood, steel, pipes, and other construction materials fully visible inside, the Caterpillar, and True North for that matter, were designed with artists in mind, whose creativity would be able to be unleashed upon the raw space.

RELATED: The New Green Building Revolution Uses Timber to Build ‘Plyscrapers’ That Save Tons of CO2

Kafka says he doesn’t want to become the Quonset hut guy, only that it allows him to build bold spaces and buildings on the cheap side. As he mentioned earlier, they are merely a tool for him to do a job, which is hopefully bring a bit of creative artistry to dilapidated neighborhoods of the Motor City.

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Brave Boy Who Was Told He’d Never Speak is Now Honored in Disney Storybook of Pocahontas

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SWNS
SWNS

A brave 11-year-old boy who was told he’d never speak has been honored in a Disney storybook all about kindness.

Zac Du Boulay, who was born with Moebius Syndrome, won $5,000 in a recent ‘Inspire Like Churchill’ speech competition, but decided to donate all his winnings to Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity.

“I didn’t want the [sick children’s] parents to be sad or lonely, so I wanted to help,” he said of his generosity.

Now Zac has been honored by Disney—in its just-launched Tales of Courage and Kindness—a digital storybook collection.

14 young people from around the world have been given dedications in the storybooks, which feature 14 original Disney Princess stories aimed at inspiring children to help create a kinder world.

A difficult start

Zac was born with facial and oral paralysis which left him unable to breathe or eat.

“I put so much time and effort into trying to speak, and I did the impossible, I proved the doctors wrong,” said Zac. “I didn’t worry about people bullying me, I kept strong in my heart.

“I’ve always been determined, kept strong, and tried not to worry about anything. ‘Hakuna-matata’, as they say in Disney’s The Lion King.”

Zac’s mom spoke of the difficulties the family faced when he was born: “Zac spent his first five months fighting for his life in intensive care.

SWNS

“We were then trained by intensive care nurses to care for him at home, where we were resuscitating him several times a day under emergency conditions, so life as a family was very stressful and restrictive.

“However, Zac is a fighter. He defied all the odds, firstly, by surviving. Then on Christmas Day, when he was three years old, he said his first word. ‘Mama’.

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“It was the first sound he had ever made other than crying and laughing. From that moment on, he was on a mission to teach himself to speak. Then, once his airway had stabilized somewhat, he was determined not only to speak, but to teach himself how to eat orally.

“So we had another couple of stressful years, finding him raiding the fridge and choking on food, until he worked out a way in which to eat despite the nerve palsy to his face, mouth, and throat.

CHECK OUT: Boy Hero Saves Sister From Choking After Watching John Cena, Who Congratulated Him With a Video

“Similar to his incessant talking, he now never stops eating either,” she joked.

And now? Zac loves using his own experiences to support other children and help them to overcome challenges like he has.

SWNS

“I feel amazing, excited, happy, and proud to be honored [by Disney]” he said. “It has inspired me to keep on doing what I’m doing, giving more speeches, and hopefully inspiring more people.”

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Farms in UK Saved This Beautiful Duke of Burgundy Butterfly From Extinction

By
Andy Corbley
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Charlie Jackson, CC license
Charlie Jackson, CC license

The United Kingdom loves its butterflies: Its Butterfly Conservation is the world’s largest insect-focused conservation organization, and it’s just helped yet another species recover from dangerously low numbers.

Ten years ago the Duke of Burgundy butterfly, named after an aristocrat from a faraway land, was found only in the southern Lake District and the North York Moors. At that point it was Britain’s rarest butterfly.

In the two decades prior, its numbers had fallen 46%. Now its population, of which the newly emerged adults will be preparing to take flight on May winds, has grown 25% between 2010 and 2020.

The Dukes on the Edge conservation program by the Butterfly Conservation was launched in 2011 in response to the dismal population surveys, and included 23 hectares of habitat restoration, management advice for 147 different sites where the Dukes were present, and rallying 1,000 volunteers ranging from land owners to concerned local citizens.

The Duke’s recovery was well-summarized when last spring a butterfly enthusiast and writer stumbled upon the largest single colony in the country.

MORE: Photographer Captures His Passion for the Flight of the Butterfly, Detailing 17 Species in 3-Year Study

The colony was found, according to the Guardian, on the hills of a Dorset organic dairy farm, whose owner has proudly supported habitat for butterflies, including the Duke, in his fields for 20 years.

A force for good

Charlie Jackson, CC license

The Butterfly Conservation has championed the cause of hundreds of different species in decline. They convinced the UK government to use moths and butterflies as official biodiversity indicators, and manage 190 nature reserves in the country while conducting 1,600 events yearly to promote awareness of such insects and what they need to thrive in and around human civilization.

RELATED: Large Blue Butterflies Were Extinct in England, But Now Those Beauties Are Back After 50 Years

Dark brown with orange-peel spots on the outer halves of its wings, it’s no surprise the Duke of Burgundy butterfly could remain hidden in such large numbers. The males are solitary but for the mating season when they compete with other males for territory, while the females and caterpillars deliberately hide themselves under leaves in scrubland and sunny forest clearings.

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5-Year-old is a Neighborhood Hero For Drawing Colorful Messages of Hope on Her House During Lockdown (Look)

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Good News Network
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SWNS
SWNS

A little girl has become famous in her neighbourhood after drawing colourful messages of hope on her family’s garage door in lockdown.

Mom-of-two Christine Hilditch has been letting her five-year-old daughter Eilidh turn their black glossy garage door into a massive art project.

Twice a week since April 2020, Eilidh has let her imagination run wild, covering the space with mermaids, dolphins, Spiderman, and dinosaurs.

She has this week illustrated it with a rainbow, flowers, and the word ‘Hope’ as lockdown is further eased in Scotland.

Eilidh has a little stool she can stand on to help her reach higher up, and her artist mom gives her a hand with things she struggles to reach.

People stop them in the street to ask if the drawings are hers, and an adoring fan club has begun leaving boxes of chocolates on their doorstep.

Proud mom Christine said: “Whatever comes into her head she does… It could be quite random, one week we had a fairytale as she had been learning about them at school so there was a fairy godmother and it began ‘Once upon a time’ and ended ‘Happily ever after’.

MORE: Sister Makes Video For the Classmates of Her Brother With Autism Who is Starting First Grade – And it’s Adorably Helpful

“She did poppies for Remembrance Day, and one for Valentines’ Day. It depends on what is happening around her.”

When neighborhood shops ran out of chalk, rather than paying more for it online, Christine decided to make some from scratch using plaster of Paris, food coloring, poster paint, and flour.

CHECK OUT: Boy Hero Saves Sister From Choking After Watching John Cena, Who Congratulated Him With a Video

Christine added: “She is just drawing outside to make people happy.”

SWNS

Christine has already worn out one broom by scrubbing down the garage but when it rains the chalk is washed away, and Eilidh starts from scratch on the next dry day.

In August Eildih was rushed to hospital by ambulance after she flew off a roundabout in a playpark and broke her elbow, needing an operation to fix it.

SWNS

But while she couldn’t draw with her right arm she became ambidextrous.

RELATED: This Teen Makes Tiny Bow Ties for Shelter Dogs to Help Them Look Spiffy and Get Adopted

Christine said: “She was learning how to draw with her left hand, she just wanted to keep going. She was going into P1 [first grade] so she was really anxious about not being able to do stuff. Now she can write with her left hand as well as her right.”

SWNS

Eilidh is now loving being back at school as lockdown in Britain eases. And one thing is for sure—this little girl is no doubt excelling her art classes.

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Floating Dandelion Seeds Produce Vortex Not Noticed Before By Scientists

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Ilmunho, CC license
Ilmunho, CC license

The extraordinary flying ability of dandelion seeds is possible thanks to a form of flight that has not been seen before in nature, research has revealed.

The discovery, which confirms the common plant among the natural world’s best fliers, shows that movement of air around and within its parachute-shaped bundle of bristles enables seeds to travel great distances—often a kilometer or more, kept afloat entirely by wind power.

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh carried out experiments to better understand why dandelion seeds fly so well, despite their parachute structure being largely made up of empty space.

Their study revealed that a ring-shaped air bubble forms as air moves through the bristles, enhancing the drag that slows each seed’s descent to the ground.

This newly found form of air bubble—which the scientists have named the separated vortex ring—is physically detached from the bristles and is stabilized by air flowing through it.

The amount of air flowing through, which is critical for keeping the bubble stable and directly above the seed in flight, is precisely controlled by the spacing of the bristles.

MORE: The Mind-Blowing Mathematics of Sunflowers… From Scientific American Magazine on Their 175th Birthday

This flight mechanism of the bristly parachute underpins the seeds’ steady flight. It is four times more efficient than what is possible with conventional parachute design, according to the research.

Researchers suggest that the dandelion’s porous parachute might inspire the development of small-scale drones that require little or no power consumption. Such drones could be useful for remote sensing or air pollution monitoring.

The study, published in Nature, was led by Dr Cathal Cummins, who said: “Taking a closer look at the ingenious structures in nature—like the dandelion’s parachute—can reveal novel insights.

“We found a natural solution for flight that minimizes the material and energy costs, which can be applied to engineering of sustainable technology.” That’s exciting news indeed.

Source: University of Edinburgh

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“Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Quote of the Day: “Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Photo: by Alexander Schimmeck

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

 

India’s Richest Man Retools Factories to Provide FREE Oxygen to 1 in 10 COVID Patients Across Country

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Mukesh Ambani cc wikimedia commons kumawat;covid 19 cc license wikimedia commons NIAID
Mukesh Ambani, kumawat, CC license/COVID-19, NIAID, CC license

As India grapples with an unprecedented new wave of COVID-19, one of the country’s major companies is working round-the-clock to get free oxygen out to people in need.

Traditionally, Reliance Industries is not a manufacturer of medical-grade liquid oxygen. But over a year into the pandemic, the company—which is owned by India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani—has gone on to become the nation’s largest producer from a single location, supplying over 55,000 MT of medical-grade liquid oxygen to people since March 2020.

At its refinery-cum-petrochemical complex in Jamnagar and other facilities, Reliance is producing over 1000 MT of medical-grade liquid oxygen per day—or over 11% of India’s total production—meeting the needs of nearly every 1 in 10 patients needing the life-saving treatment across the nation.

“Nothing is more important than saving every life as India battles against a new wave of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Chairman Mukesh Ambani said in a statement.

MORE: Millionaire Turned Quadriplegic Jon Ayers is Giving it All to Save Wild Cats, After Finding a New Purpose

The switch-over to producing high-purity medical grade oxygen hasn’t been too difficult for Reliance engineers—the main facility is already designed for refining and petrochemicals-grade oxygen.

That said, medical grade oxygen has to be produced in liquid form at -183°C with almost 99.5% purity, which poses extraordinary challenges and risks in production and maximizing tonnage.

RELATED: 60 Years Ago He Couldn’t Afford College–Now He’s Donating $20M to Fulfill the Dreams of Students Today

“I am proud of our engineers at Jamnagar who have worked tirelessly, with a great sense of patriotic urgency, to meet this new challenge… [They’ve] risen to the occasion and delivered when India needs it the most,” said Ambani of his staff, who are now bringing immediate relief to over 100,000 COVID-19 patients on a daily basis.

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Battery Parts Can Be Recycled Without Crushing or Melting, Saving Valuable Raw Materials

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Researchers in Finland have discovered that electrodes in lithium batteries containing cobalt can be reused following a special process.

In comparison to traditional recycling, which typically extracts metals from crushed batteries by melting or dissolving them, the new process—which newly saturates the electrodes with lithium—saves valuable raw materials, and likely also energy.

Aalto University

The rechargeable batteries problem

The proliferation of electric cars, smartphones, and portable devices is leading to an estimated 25 percent increase globally in the manufacturing of rechargeable batteries each year.

Many raw materials used in the batteries, such as cobalt, may soon be in short supply. The European Commission is preparing a new battery decree, which would require the recycling of 95 percent of the cobalt in batteries. Yet existing battery recycling methods are far from perfect.

Almost like new

Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries have two electrodes between which electrically charged particles move. Lithium cobalt oxide is used in one electrode and, in most of the batteries, the other is made of carbon and copper.

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In traditional battery recycling methods, some of batteries’ raw materials are lost and lithium cobalt oxide turns into other cobalt compounds, which require a lengthy chemical refinement process to turn them back into electrode material.

The new method from scientists at Aalto University sidesteps this painstaking process: by replenishing the spent lithium in the electrode through an electrolysis process—commonly used in industry—the cobalt compound can be directly reused.

The results, published in ChemSusChem journal, show that the performance of electrodes newly saturated with lithium is almost as good as that of those made of new material.

Aalto University Professor Tanja Kallio believes that with further development the method would also work on an industrial scale.

‘By reusing the structures of batteries we can avoid a lot of the labour that is common in recycling and potentially save energy at the same time. We believe that the method could help companies that are developing industrial recycling,’ Kallio says.

RELATED: Scientists Create World’s First Truly Biodegradable Single-use Plastic That ‘Eats Itself’ in Just 2 Weeks

The researchers next aim to see if the same method could also be used with the nickel-based batteries of electric cars.

Source: Aalto University

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Becoming a Part-time Mermaid is a Big Trend in China – It’s as Difficult as it is Lovely

By
Andy Corbley
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Atlantis Sanya/PADI
Courtesy of Atlantis Sanya/PADI

Is it really any surprise that the world’s largest scuba diver training organization is instructing a new generation of freedivers in the art and techniques of “mermaiding?”

PADI, the aforementioned organization, now offers four levels of mermaid diving certification, which is essentially freediving but with a large and sometimes heavy artificial tail that requires a different kind of human locomotion.

Humans have always been drawn to forms of extreme movement, and since ancient times, bungee jumping with jungle vines, surfing with primitive boards, or skiing with pieces of wood covered in leather and fur have allowed people alternative ways to move around and get their thrills.

That hasn’t stopped, and modern technologies like parachutes, or in this case artificial mermaid tails, have continued this millennia-old pastime.

The genesis of these mermaid diving courses is Dada Li, the world’s first Chinese woman to hold a Master Freediving training certification from PADI—shecreated the first professional underwater performance team composed of freedivers only.

Atlantis Sanya/PADI

“I was inspired by an old movie called ‘Splash’ in the 1980s,” Li tells CNN Travel. “The heroine is a mermaid who lives in the sea… That image has lived in my head ever since.”

“A mermaid tail ties both legs together so they can’t move freely, [so] we need to use our belly and waist to move like a dolphin. It requires practice to make this movement smooth and elegant like a real mermaid.”

CHECK OUT: Woman Shocked to Be Reunited With Prosthetic Leg After Scuba Diver Happened to Find It the Next Day

Since 2012, Li has been enchanted with freediving, a skillset that involves a deep understanding of human physiology, and one which doesn’t include any equipment but regular flippers and a pair of goggles with a snorkel. She was the first female freediving instructor in her home country of China, where she now holds position of PADI ambassador.

Li decided to use her skills to pursue her dream of becoming a mermaid, and in doing so she stumbled upon a growing sport which is now exploding in popularity worldwide.

Worldwide mermaiding

Atlantis Sanya/PADI

Standardized mermaiding (and mermanning for that matter) schools, techniques, and competitions have swept across the globe in the last decade, and the percentage of international diving licenses given out for mermaid diving will surpass all other kinds if the trend continues.

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Corinna Davids, head of development of the mermaid courses offered by SSI (Scuba Schools International), told CNN Travel they have mermaid diving programs in more than 3,000 diving schools worldwide, and more than 1,000 certified instructors in China alone.

In 2015, after years of working to find, and then eventually to make, a functional “merfin,” she founded a performance diving team consisting entirely of mermaid divers to perform at aquariums and other watersport events in China.

RELATED: Fresh Sheets or Great Books? These Are The Top 50 Simple Pleasures That Americans Love the Most

The market for performance mermaid diving is growing, not just in terms of licenses issued, which has helped diving license issuing grow by 40% in China in 2018, a rate eight-times the world average, but also for venue demands, as mega-resorts like Atlantis in Sanya pay regularly for live mermaid performances; recently they broke the Guinness world record for the largest ever.

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Watch NASA Mars Helicopter Make Aviation History: The First Powered, Controlled Flight on Another Planet

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NASA
Ingenuity illustration, NASA

When NASA’s Perseverance rover touched down on Mars two months ago, it did so with a helicopter attached to its belly. Now the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has made history as the first to take a powered, controlled flight on another planet.

On April 19, the chopper rose three meters above the floor of a crater, stayed aloft in the Red Planet’s extremely thin red air for 39 seconds, then come down for a pinpoint landing at its take-off spot.

MORE: Giant Storms on Jupiter Captured By Incredible NASA Images Sent From Juno Spacecraft

The 4-pound rotorcraft is being used as a demonstration to help determine whether future explorations on Mars could include an aerial perspective. That means lots more flying tests for this helicopter.

On Friday, Ingenuity ascended to five meters, then was pushed to new limits: flying south for 84 meters, passing over rocks and small craters—and taking photos the whole way.

(WATCH the NASA video of Ingenuity’s historic first flight below.)

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“Everything negative—pressure, challenges—is all an opportunity for me to rise.” – Kobe Bryant

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Quote of the Day: “Everything negative—pressure, challenges—is all an opportunity for me to rise.” – Kobe Bryant

Photo: by nikko macaspac

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

 

Prancer the ‘Demonic Chihuahua’ Who Went Viral Finds Dream Forever Home

By
Judy Cole
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Second Chance Adoption Center/@PrancertheChihuahua, Instagram
Second Chance Adoption Center/@PrancertheChihuahua, Instagram

Some pet owners get a kick from dressing their mellow-tempered puppers in ‘Chuckie’ garb for Halloween, but in everyday life, when dogs aren’t treated with care and socialized properly, the behavior that ensues can be, let’s just say, a little ornery—no costume required.

And that was exactly the case for Prancer, whose cheerful name belied a four-legged “demon” dog his frazzled foster mom feared was never going to find his furever home.

Ariel Davis

“Ok, I’ve tried. I’ve tried for the last several months to post this dog for adoption and make him sound…palatable. The problem is, he’s just not,” Tyfanee Fortuna’s now-viral Facebook post began.

In addition to her belief that rather than a dog, Prancer was “a vessel for a traumatized Victorian child that now haunts our home,” Fortuna ruefully admitted, “There’s not a very big market for neurotic, man-hating, animal-hating, children-hating dogs that look like gremlins.

“But I have to believe there’s someone out there for Prancer, because I am tired and so is my family. Every day we live in the grips of the demonic Chihuahua hellscape he has created.”

Placing the ill-tempered pup was beginning to seem a near-impossible task, but love and social media work in mysterious ways. When Ariel Davis read the hilariously blunt profile description Fortuna had posted for the itsy-bitsy Beelzepup, it seemed as if her life had come full circle.

Several years earlier, Davis had been forced by circumstance to surrender Doodle, a Chi/Jack Russel terrier mix she’d raised from a puppy that was eerily similar in personality to Prancer.

Second Chance Adoption Center

“He had a lot of the same qualities as Prancer,” she told TODAY. “He was a little neurotic and he barked a lot and he didn’t work well with other people and other animals. I spent a lot of time working with him and understanding his personality and learning about myself through him.”

With her life back on track after rehab, Davis felt she was ready to take on the commitment of dog ownership again, and she was pretty certain Prancer was her doggy soulmate.

“Reading about Prancer brought back intense memories of the dog I still love so much,” Davis wrote on her email application to Prancer’s sponsor, The Second Chance Adoption League. “They were very similar in demeanor… I am not looking to replace Doodle, but I am looking for a companion that I can take proper care of and give a loving home.”

Davis, who is single, has a female housemate, works at a women’s rehab center, and has no other pets seemed like Prancer’s perfect match. Their first meeting confirmed it.

“I got there and we just connected,” Davis told TODAY. “Prancer took pretty well to me. Eventually, I took [him] for a walk and he wasn’t nipping at me or biting at my heels. We just got along. With my story and the fact that I didn’t come off as incredibly crazy just kind of meshed and everything seemed to go well. He went home with me that day. He was a perfect little gentleman in the car.”

MORE: Dog Saved From Icy River After 4 Days Gets Adopted by Rescuer – And a New Name ‘Miracle’

Perfect gentleman or demon may be in the eye of the beholder, but one thing’s for sure: Prancer’s a lucky dog that’s going to be loved for the rest of his life.

And Fortuna, whose snarky adoption strategy won the Internet couldn’t be more pleased. “Time flies when you’re having fun. Time also flies when the Chihuahua who held your family hostage for 6 months finally gets adopted. Prancer is almost a distant nightmare to me now, even though he was adopted just over a week ago. His adoption day was one of the best days of my life,” she posted.

“On the flip side, I couldn’t help but feel a bit wrong….it was like expelling myself of a demon and passing it on to someone else. I justify it by knowing it was a consensual exchange, and I couldn’t have made the terms and conditions anymore clear. It also helps that his new victim is madly in love with him (or she has Stockholm syndrome already.)”

P.S. If you’re on Instagram and you want to follow Prancer’s adventures, you likely won’t regret it.

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North Carolina-based writer Judy Cole has a new rom-com murder mystery debuting at Amazon: And Jilly Came Tumbling After (from Red Sky Presents).

Elderly Man Gets Lessons on Hair and Make-Up to Help His Struggling Wife

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A devoted 79-year-old husband (pictured) visited a beauty school to get lessons in hair and make up to help his "beautiful" wife who can no longer get ready by herself. See SWNS story SWOCmakeup; This devoted husband walked into a beauty school to ask for hair and makeup lessons - as his wife can no longer get ready by herself. The 79-year-old gentleman walked in to the college and told director Carrie Hannah that he wanted to learn how to use the curling wand. His wife's vision was failing and she keeps burning herself as a result, so wanted to enquire about lessons at Delmar College of Hair and Esthetics in Alberta, Canada.

A devoted 79-year-old husband visited a beauty school to get lessons in hair and make-up to help his “beautiful” wife who can no longer get ready by herself.

The gentleman walked into Alberta’s Delmar College of Hair and Esthetics and told director Carrie Hannah that he wanted to learn how to use the curling wand.

SWNS

His wife’s vision was failing and she keeps burning herself as a result, so he was looking for a few tips.

The man was paired with a student and mannequin and was taught how to operate the curling wand and protect his wife’s skin. He also asked for tips on applying her mascara.

The adorable OAP also asked for tips on applying her mascara.

RELATED: Older People Became Younger, With ‘Meaningful’ Mental And Physical Improvement Since 1990, Says Study

Carrie said: “My staff and students were so touched by his sincere wish to help his wife of 50 plus years.

“He lovingly pulled pictures from his wallet, showing everyone his wife, and boasted about how beautiful and talented she has always been.

“Her appearance has always been something she has taken pride in and it’s important to her so therefore important to him.”

SWNS

“He is turning 80 in May, and I think he is also a very brave man for stepping into a hair college and asking for lessons on styling hair, as I don’t think too many men would do that.

“In an age of staged social media photos, it was really great to see an authentic real human gesture of love.”

MORE: Daughter Gets Job in Dad’s Alzheimer’s Care Home So They Can Be Together in Pandemic – And Finds Her Passion

Since his initial visit, both the man and his wife have visited the college to express their gratitude to everyone there.

Carrie said, “They’re both impressed with his new professional skills. And her hair is looking great!”

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Meteor Shower From Halley’s Comet Set to Peak in Night Sky This Week

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Channone Arif, CC license

This week, we’ll be treated to one of spring’s best stargazing events as the Eta Aquarid meteor shower lights up the skies.

You’ll want to set your alarm for before dawn on Wednesday, May 5, as that’s when the greatest number of meteors—originating in the debris trail of ice and rock particles from Halley’s comet—will alight the night.

The mornings of May 4 and 6 are also set to have a decent number of meteors.

The Aquarids are famously fast—rushing into Earth’s atmosphere of speeds around 148,000 miles per hour (66 kilometers per second), according to NASA. Such meteors can leave glowing trains of light—or incandescent bits of debris—which can be seen for seconds or even minutes.

Readers in the Northern Hemisphere can expect around 10 meteors per hour at its peak. In the north, the meteors are more likely to be seen as ‘earthgrazers’: shooting stars with long, bright trails that appear to ‘graze’ the earth as they streak across the sky from just below the horizon.

MORE: Mind-Bending Pictures of the Moon With Inverted Colors Show Where Magma Once Flowed

The moon is pretty full this week, so the sky may be quite bright where you are—impeding optimal meteor viewing. Still, with a little patience, you should get a great show in the coming nights.

Just look east towards the Aquarius constellation—specifically at the bright Eta Aquarii star—and maybe get that wide-angle lens ready so you can capture the event?

Featured image: Channone Arif, CC license

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New Smart Farming Robot Unveiled That ‘Smokes’ Weeds With High-Powered Lasers For Healthy Weeding

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Andy Corbley
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Carbon Robotics
Carbon Robotics

Weeds compete for soil nutrients, water, space, and sunlight with the crops farmers grow to help feed people. Now a third-generation weeding robot, armed with lasers and powered by AI, offers the ultimate labor-saving device—while also eliminating the need for chemical herbicides.

The Autonomous Weeder by Carbon Robotics can eliminate 100,000 weeds per hour, and clear 15-20 acres in a single day—numbers that require a person working an entire season to match.

Trundling down a row of crops, a battery of twelve cameras scan the ground, identifying weeds through machine-learning and killing them with a CO2 laser. CO2 lasers use reactions between nitrogen, helium, carbon, and oxygen to generate powerful beams of light that are concentrated through mirrors inside the laser.

The robot’s onboard supercomputer ensures millimeter precision with its laser so as to avoid accidently clipping crops.

“This is one of the most innovative and valuable technologies that I’ve seen as a farmer,” said James Johnson of Carzalia Farm in a statement, who has utilized Carbon Robotics’ technology on his farm.

MORE: This 2-Acre Vertical Farm Produces More Than ‘Flat Farms’ That Are Using 720 Acres

“I expect the robots to go mainstream because of how effectively they address some of farming’s most critical issues, including the overuse of chemicals, process efficiency, and labor. The sky’s the limit.”

If a farmer wants to avoid using chemical herbicides, which have flooded nearly every corner of our food and water supply chains with a probable carcinogen in the form of glyphosate, they must find enough unskilled workers to pull weeds manually—a difficult task in the already shorted market of agricultural labor.

Solving both problems, it’s no surprise that the 2021 model of the Autonomous Weeder has already sold out, even considering its price tag which was quoted at “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Attempting to make the device more accessible, lease options are available from the company, as they have already made the 2022 models available for preorder.

RELATED: Couple Turns Barren English Estate into Conservation Eden, Rewilding to Attract Rare Species of Astonishing Biodiversity

The de-weeding method of the robot is Certified Organic and in line with regenerative farming practices. Cost-effective weed control is the biggest barrier to entry with organic farming, and agriculturalists looking to make the switch finally have a seriously scalable alternative to help them get their veg out to people.

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‘The Manta’ Sailing Vessel is Designed to Feed on Plastic Waste for Power – While Cleaning Oceans

By
Andy Corbley
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Manta rendering, SeaCleaners
Manta rendering, The SeaCleaners

A professional yacht racer in France, annoyed by the constant sightings of floating mats of plastic garbage in coastal waters, has designed an ocean-cleaning sailboat that is powered by the waste it collects.

The 56-meter (184 feet) Manta is the first offering from racer Yves Bourgnon’s SeaCleaners Project, and would be one of the largest waste-collecting vessels on the seas, according to Reuters.

At the end of the film Back to the Future, Dr. Emmet Brown has famously managed to replace his plutonium-powered generator with one which uses ordinary garbage. Like the DeLorean in the movie, the Manta uses garbage to power an electric motor that works in conjunction with the sails to propel the large catamaran.

In between the three pontoons, conveyor belts scoop up trash as small as 10 millimeters, over which the Manta glides, while three trawl nets drifting behind (to a depth of 1 meter, thereby avoiding sea life) add to the onboard collection. This trash is then fed into a processing machine where crewmen sort it before moving it into an incinerator that shreds and melts the plastic—and even uses the heat and gases—to power a turbine to creates the electric power.

MORE: Scientists Make Microplastics Breakthrough, Devising Method to Trap And Remove Them

Paired with solar panels lining the decks and a wind turbine that harvests power from the wind coming off the sails, the Manta would be 70% self-sufficient in terms of energy, allowing it to sail around sucking up 3 tons of waste an hour, without almost ever needing to return to harbor and refuel or offload plastic.

There’s also room onboard for a scientific laboratory, allowing marine biologists and chemists to study the effects of plastic on the ecosystem.

Unveiled purely as a concept, the SeaCleaners want to put a working prototype on the waves by 2024. Bourgnon believes that if 400 of the vessels were made, they could eventually remove 33% of the ocean’s plastic pollution.

(SEE how the boat would work in the video below.)

 

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“Love nothing but that which comes to you woven in the pattern of your destiny. For what could more aptly fit your needs?” – Marcus Aurelius

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “Love nothing but that which comes to you woven in the pattern of your destiny. For what could more aptly fit your needs?” – Marcus Aurelius

Photo: by Amber Flowers

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

World’s First Laundry Detergent Made From Industrial Carbon Emissions Launched By Unilever

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Good News Network
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Unilever has partnered with LanzaTech and India Glycols to produce a laundry soap made from industrial carbon emissions—instead of from fossil-fuels.

The innovative shift in production utilizes biotechnologies and a newly configured supply chain between the three partners, who are working together for the first time.

Typically derived from fossil fuels, surfactants are a critical ingredient for creating the foam and cleaning action of many household cleaning and laundry products—from dish soaps to fabric detergents. The new process now allows surfactants to be made using recycled carbon.

Recycled carbon is a key form of renewable carbon and is essential to eliminating the use of fossil fuels.

RELATED: Branson-backed Company Captures Mega Tons of Carbon Injected Into Concrete–and Amazon is Building Their HQ With It

The process marks the first time a surfactant made using captured carbon emissions will be offered to consumers in a mainstream cleaning product. The new surfactant launched in China on April 22nd, Earth Dan, in an OMO (Persil) laundry capsule—and, best of all, will not increase the price of the product.

Unilever consumer data from 2020 found that 87% of consumers in China considered climate change as serious a threat as Covid-19, the highest of all countries polled.

The breakthrough process involves primarily three stages:

Capture– LanzaTech, a “world leader in CarbonSmart products”, uses biotechnology to capture industrial waste emissions at its Beijing Shougang plant and converts these emissions to ethanol, which is estimated to cut the greenhouse gas emissions by 82% compared to the traditional fossil-fuel process, according to a company study.

Conversion: India Glycols converts the ethanol into ethylene oxide, a key feedstock to make surfactants at their site in India.

Formulation: Unilever uses the surfactant in the new OMO laundry capsules, manufactured at its Hefei factory in China.

The partnership is just one way that Unilever is making good on its September 2020 Clean Future pledge, which states that the multinational company hopes to eliminate fossil-fuel based chemicals from its cleaning and laundry product formulations by 2030.

RELATED: New XPRIZE Funded by Elon Musk Will Award $100 Million For Top Carbon Removal Ideas to Address Climate Crisis

“Advancements in technology like this mean we can now reinvent the chemistry of our products, asserts Peter ter Kulve, President of Home Care, Unilever. “Instead of valuable carbon being released directly into the atmosphere, we can capture it and recycle it in our products instead of using fossil fuels.

“New innovations like this help move our iconic cleaning brands away from fossil fuels without compromising on performance or affordability,” he added in a company statement.

Jennifer Holmgren, the CEO of LanzaTech said, “Our planet is running out of time and how we treat carbon requires urgent revision. By working with Unilever and IGL we can turn waste carbon into an opportunity, keeping fossil fuels in the ground and enabling new circular processes to make the products we use every day.”

POPULAR: The First Farmer in the US to Sequester Carbon for Cash in Private Marketplace Earns $115,000 For His Planting Strategy

A recent report estimates that renewable carbon production will need to increase by a factor of 15x by 2050 to phase-out the use of fossil carbon in consumer products.

The Unilever Home Care division also has committed to achieving Net Zero emissions from all products by 2039.

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Sister Makes Video For the Classmates of Her Brother With Autism Who is Starting First Grade – And it’s Adorably Helpful

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Good News Network
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Tania Van Bree / Facebook

A proud mom posted a beautiful video that her daughter made, marking the day her little brother was starting school this year.

Tania Van Bree / Facebook

Tania Van Bree, wrote on Facebook that Elli created this video to help spread as much information about autism as possible to the classmates at Elm Grove Elementary School who will be surrounding Willem for the next four years.

“Sometimes new kids, or loud places, scare him because his ears and eyes are extra sensitive,” she explains.

Elli, in fifth grade, who will be attending the same school until next year, provides 4 tips for how to be prepared for meeting Willem.

“Overall, he’s a kid like you and me,” she concludes. “And, I hope you love him as much as I do.”

LOOK: McDonald’s Gives New Car—And Golden Arches—to Family Whose Autistic Son Draws Them Continuously

The video was even going to be aired during the school announcements.

(You might want to have a tissue nearby as you watch her talk so lovingly about her brother!)

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Joint Venture With Love’s Truck Stops Will Produce 80M Gallons of Renewable Biodiesel Made From 100% Waste

By
Good News Network
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A giant agricultural company’s years of work on a renewable, sustainable diesel fuel is finally coming to fruition—and it’s made from 100% waste products.

A 50-50 joint venture between Cargill and Love’s Travel Stops, will produce and market a green fuel under the name Heartwell Renewables.

Its new production plant now under construction in Hastings, Nebraska, will have the ability to produce approximately 80 million gallons of renewable diesel fuel annually—while creating 50 new jobs there.

Cargill will provide feedstock in the form of tallow, the animal fat discarded during its beef processing, and also used cooking oil. Once the diesel is produced, the Love’s Family of Companies, which owns and operates truck stops in 41 states, will transport and market the product in the U.S.

RELATED: More Renewable Energy Used in 2020 Than Fossil Fuels For the First Time in World’s 4th Largest Economy

Heartwell Renewables will be the only entity of its kind to both produce and market renewable diesel all the way to the retail pump.

“When considering the environmental benefits and performance enhancements of renewable diesel, the creation of Heartwell Renewables is a long-term win for not only the companies involved, but also for consumers and the environment,” said JP Fjeld-Hansen, a vice president at Love’s Family of Companies.

The production process makes renewable diesel chemically identical to petroleum diesel with significant improvements in environmental performance due to its drop in carbon intensity and emissions. Renewable diesel also has a faster combustion speed, which brings more power to an engine and has been shown to lead to lower vehicle maintenance, according to a company statement.

RELATED: Daimler Trucks is Now Accepting Orders for All-Electric Freight Trucks, Having Tested Them on America’s Highways

“Through the partnership with Love’s, both companies can leverage their unique expertise and resources to address the growing demand for biofuels, while making an impact in the communities where we operate,” said Cargill’s John Niemann.

Operations should start in the spring of 2023. Once the plant opens, it will be one of only a handful of renewable diesel plants in the United States, according to the U.S. Energy Department.

(Featured photo by Khamkéo Vilaysing)

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