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Hospital Opens Roof Garden Where Critical Care Patients Can Enjoy the Outdoors for Hours With Full Care

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The King’s Critical Care Roof Garden - Courtesy King’s College Hospital
The King’s Critical Care Roof Garden – Courtesy King’s College Hospital

A hospital in south London opened a garden on its rooftop where Critical Care patients can spend hours in the fresh air and sunlight.

ICU patients visiting the rooftop garden receive “full life support” while experiencing the therapeutic benefits of the natural surroundings.

Located on top of the hospital’s 60-bed critical care unit, King’s College Hospital says their roof garden has space for up to six beds.

The best part is that each patient can be safely cared-for—without being disconnected from essential life-support systems.

Six specially-designed weatherproof cabinets keep the patients close to power, data, and medical gas supplies, just like they would receive on the unit.

The hospital’s team will also be able to research how exposure to fresh air, greenery and sunlight can reduce stress, lower blood pressure, and improve the well-being of patients—and the families and staff who care for them.

Weather-proof medical box provides life support on the King’s Critical Care Roof Garden – Courtesy King’s College Hospital

Dr. Tom Best, Clinical Director of King’s Critical Care, said many of their patients spend weeks or even months receiving intensive care—and research shows that time spent in nature can improve recovery outcomes.

“It’s important to treat the whole person and this outdoor critical care unit helps meet our goal of caring for the mind as well as the body,” he said in a media release.

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Iona Joy, Director of Grants at the King’s College Hospital Charity, said the garden—the first of its kind in the UK—is about dignity, humanity, and innovation.

“We are transforming intensive care into compassionate care—where science, technology, and empathy work together to save and rebuild lives.”

“When you’re stuck inside all day there’s no motivation to try and get back to normal life,” said Holly, who is waiting for a vital heart operation and spends hours at a time on the outdoor ward.

“Even if it was thunderstorms, I’d be out here,” she told the BBC. “It’s lovely.”

The garden designers, landscape architect Nigel Dunnett—a professor at the University of Sheffield—and Sarah Price—a three-time winner of the Chelsea Flower Show—formed a planting strategy.

The King’s Critical Care Roof Garden from above – Courtesy King’s College Hospital

Aromatic species, including rosemary, sage, and oregano, were incorporated alongside native species and tactile plants, such as lamb’s ear, to actively encourage engagement rather than passive observation.

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The low-maintenance garden has become a vital extension of the King’s Critical Care Centre, which supports over 5,000 patients and 15,000 loved ones each year.

As part of the research for the department, the Critical Care team will study patients’ long-term outcomes, with an additional focus on how families and staff benefit from using the space, particularly in managing stress levels.

Professor Clive Kay, Chief Executive of King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, says the roof garden is dedicated to those with serious and life-threatening conditions.

“It’s been built with purpose and guided by the needs of patients and their families—and reflects a deep commitment to dignity, support, and hope.”

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Your Weekly Horoscope – ‘Free Will Astrology’ by Rob Brezsny

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

Here is your weekly horoscope…

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY – Week of June 27, 2026
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com

CANCER (June 21-July 22):
Now is an auspicious time to declare a sweeping amnesty and observe a personal season of pardon. To the best of your ability, release your clenched feelings about people who have caused you pain. Banish blame! Purge any lingering resentment and regret that has curdled into self‑reproach. Celebrate atonement and absolution! Most vital of all, exonerate yourself. Shed the guilt you’ve carried for missteps and missed chances. And please offer yourself a sweet gift: a ritual of renewal.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
If you happen to be swallowed whole by a dragon or whale sometime soon, don’t freak out. It’s far preferable to being chomped into bits first, which absolutely won’t happen. You may indeed spend a brief spell inside the creature’s dark belly, but I confidently predict you will ultimately be deposited on the outside in one intact piece, after which you will only need to find your meandering way back home. The whole episode may be confounding or humbling, but I bet it will also scrub you free of a load of old karma.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Bees perform what scientists call a “waggle dance” to communicate the location of flowers to their hive-mates. But the directions are sometimes imprecise, and the apparent sloppiness actually helps the hive. It forces other bees to explore more broadly, discovering new food sources that the original bee missed. Perfect information would make them too efficient to be adaptable. Your precision is one of your gifts, Virgo, but right now I think you need strategic vagueness and fuzzy logic. Leave some directions unclear. Mistakes and misunderstandings might lead to discoveries that your perfect plans would have eliminated.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
In ancient Greek thought, kairos referred to the opportune moment. It meant the right timing, when circumstances aligned for action to be most effective. The term chronos, on the other hand, was about sequential time, which blindly marched forward without any regard for special moments or auspiciousness. Most of us are more or less hypnotized by chronos-consciousness. We measure our lives by calendar dates and external schedules. But in the coming weeks, Libra, I recommend you stay on high alert for kairos-rich pivots. For now, suspend inquiries like “Am I on schedule?” and ask, “Are the circumstances ripe?”

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Ravens are strongly motivated to engage in elaborate play: aerial acrobatics, complex games, sliding down snowbanks, and sharing food with non-relatives. These behaviors lack an immediate payoff, yet support learning, motor skill development, and social relationships. They seem to be both emotionally rewarding and indirectly advantageous for survival and success over the long term.​ Let’s apply this to you, Scorpio. Let’s conclude that delight isn’t wastefully frivolous and that pleasure doesn’t need to justify itself through productivity. In the coming weeks, you may face pressure to explain or defend your joy, as if to prove it’s worth it in some utilitarian way. Refuse. Like the ravens, engage in purposeless beauty and fun simply because it feels so good.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
Glaciologists studying ice cores can read Earth’s climate history going back 800,000 years. Each layer contains trapped air bubbles. These are time capsules that preserve the atmospheric composition of each moment. The ice remembers everything. You accumulate similar records, Sagittarius. Each of your experiences leaves its trace. And in the coming weeks, you will have extra access to these archived layers of your own history. Memories and patterns you thought were lost will surface with intriguing clarity. I hope you study these revelations to glean insight about your long-term patterns and cycles. It’s time to see the Big Picture.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Many people forget, but you know: Structure is the foundation for freedom, not a suppression of it. While others fantasize about escaping responsibility, you know that mastery is key to every emancipation. When properly practiced, your flair for discipline adds vigor as well as rigor. More than any other sign of the zodiac, you are adept at using limits to give unlimited possibilities their specific shape. I trust you will express all these Capricornian powers to the max in the coming weeks. People in your life need them even more than usual.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Horticulturists practice “deadheading.” They remove spent flowers from plants to encourage new vitality. Faded flowers drain energy that could go toward fresh growth. Plants that have been deadheaded produce more abundant blooms than those left to manage their own decay. I recommend a metaphorical version of this practice to you, Aquarius. You’ll be wise to deadhead your emotional garden. Certain attachments, once vibrant and nourishing, have expired. They’re not evil or wrong; they’re simply finished. It’s best not to keep directing precious energy toward maintaining their faded forms. With gratitude for the old beauty, clear the way for new beauty.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
For maximum safety, be as uninteresting as possible. Shun risks that might shake up your beliefs and avoid adventures that could expose you to people who aren’t similar to you. If you really want to be certain about preserving your security and stability, as I’m recommending, the surest method is to retreat to your power spot and do nothing at all. WAIT! STOP! Dear Pisces, everything I just said was pure misdirection! I was joking! In fact, the opposite is true. The true way to nurture genuine safety and security is to pursue what sparks your curiosity and lights up your zeal. And the coming days are likely to provide you with plenty of chances to do exactly that.

ARIES (March 21-April 19):
The interesting struggles you’ll wage in the coming weeks will require your vulnerability: showing up exactly as you are when you might rather fight or escape. Your warrior nature probably prefers a clear enemy or a definable problem you can confront, but the truer conquest will come from laying down your weaponry. I suggest you meet aggression with curiosity and engage chaos with receptive stillness. At least for now, your greatest strength will be to remain undominated by your own reactive impulses. Think of it as an advanced martial art.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
In accordance with astrological omens, I invite you to be inspired by this wisdom from artist Pablo Picasso: “I am always doing that which I cannot do in order that I may learn how to do it.” He’s proposing that we treat a lack of expertise not as an embarrassment, but as a doorway. Instead of waiting until we feel ready, trained, and confident, he suggests we head into territory where we fumble, guess, and feel awkward. Our discomfort may lead to gratifying growth. So I dare you to ask yourself whether there’s a capacity or skill you’d love to add to your repertoire but are too shy or timid to try. Then take small, imperfect steps toward it, trusting that each move will teach you how to do what once felt impossible.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
Hummingbirds keep track of every flower they visit and know how long it will take each one to replenish its nectar. They maintain mental maps of many feeding sites and visit them on precise schedules. To ensure their survival, they can’t waste energy on flowers that aren’t ready yet. Your mind could work like this if you want it to, Gemini. Which people, places, and projects need time to refill before you visit them again? Who have you been approaching too frequently, seeking their nectar before it has had time to regenerate? In the coming weeks, practice strategic patience with your resources. In your secret conversations with yourself, call yourself “Hummingbird.”

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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“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – John Wooden

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Credit: Getty Images for Unsplash+

Quote of the Day: “Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – John Wooden

Photo by: Getty Images for Unsplash+

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?

Credit: Getty Images for Unsplash+

Good News in History, June 27

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176 years ago today, a hero of the Japanese nation was born on the Greek island of Lefkada. Scarcely could one find a life as strange and colorful as that lived by Patrick Lafcadio Hearn, who was the first Westerner to write extensively on everyday life in Japan. His unrivaled affection for the country that would become his home and resting place “lies in the glimpses he offered of an older, more mystical Japan lost during the country’s hectic plunge into Western-style industrialization and nation building,” wrote the Times. “His books are treasured as a trove of legends and folk tales that otherwise might have vanished because no Japanese had bothered to record them.” READ about his incredible life… (1850)

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370,000 Acres of Rainforest and Granite Peaks Now Protected in French Guiana

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Andy Corbley
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Hilly terrain in French Guiana - credit Lesly Derksen, unsplash
Hilly terrain in French Guiana – credit Lesly Derksen, unsplash

As part of new wildlands protection law, the French Government has announced the creation of a new nature reserve in French Guiana spanning 370,000 acres.

Called the Rocky Peaks of Armontabo, the reserve includes giant, isolated granite mountains surrounded by intact rainforest of rich biodiverse value.

The same law also protected 7 other landscapes in France proper, but by comparison add up to little more than 2,400 acres.

French Guiana contains over one-thousand species of tree, and has one of the highest forest-integrity index scores of any territory on Earth, with 41% of its land area comprised just of the Amazon Rainforest alone. Other forest biomes are also present.

It’s already host to one of the world’s largest national parks, Guiana Amazon National Park—also technically the largest in “Europe.”

The Armontabo Peaks are a feature of a geo-eco region called the Guiana Shield which stretches across the Guianas, Brazil, Venezuela, and Colombia, and which is one of the most biodiverse places on Earth.

Their reserve takes the amount of French territory under “strong protections” closer to the country’s goal of 10% by 2030, and almost achieves the goal for 180,000 hectares of additional protections in Guiana by the same date.

“In concrete terms, this translates into less pressure on natural environments and stronger protection for species and habitats,” says Monique Barbut, France’s minister for ecological transition, biodiversity and international climate and nature negotiations.

The northeast corner of South America is rapidly becoming one of the most protected areas on Earth. Along with Armontabo and Guiana Amazon in French Guiana, neighboring Suriname announced protections for 25 million acres last year.

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The country is 90% forested, so virtually every last one of those acres will protect trees and the Amazon-style rainforest they form.

Re:wild, a conservation organization working actively in the Amazon and other South American landscapes, reports that more than 700 birds, 100 species of amphibians, and many charismatic mammals such as lowland tapirs, jaguars, giant river otters, and 8 different primates range throughout the country.

MORE SOUTH AMERICAN PROTECTIONS: Locals Finally Save ‘the Yosemite of South America’ After Decade Long Battle with Industrialist Who Owned it

“I’ve worked in Suriname for 50 years and I am absolutely delighted that President Geerlings-Simons has made this historic and unprecedented commitment to maintain Suriname’s forest cover at this level within her first two months in office,” said Russell Mittermeier, chief conservation officer at Re:wild.

“This sets a new standard for the Amazonian region as a whole, which has suffered from serious deforestation in recent decades.”

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Unique Double Cochlear Implant Surgery Lets Twins Hear Mom’s Voice For the First Time–Together

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Andy Corbley
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Mom Emily with Artie, Jack, and their older brother - family photo
Mom Emily with Artie, Jack, and their older brother – family photo

In what is believed to be the first surgical program of its kind in Australia, a pair of profoundly deaf twins have received cochlear implants at the same time.

The marathon 8-hour surgery involved 4 implants on 4 ears and 2 boys, all done in order to minimize the impact of pre and post surgical preparation on the family, and for the twins—who survived a premature birth—to make another important milestone together: hearing mom’s voice for the first time.

Artie and Jack were born prematurely due to a genetic condition, and though they’ve grown up healthy in many ways, they couldn’t hear a fire engine if it were next to their head.

A cochlear implant is a small device that transmits sound directly to the hearing nerve while bypassing the ear. It’s fixed under the skin and held in place with a magnet that connects to an external device mounted above the ear helix.

In April, ear-nose-and-throat surgeon Rithvik Reddy operated on both at once in what is believed to be the first time this procedure has been organized this way.

After a recovery period, Artie and Jack went to the Shepherd Center, a provider that helps children who experience hearing loss in New South Wales, to calibrate the implants to each child’s needs, and, at long last, turn them on.

Their mother, Emily Porter, spoke with ABC News AU about that moment.

“It was incredible and emotional … for them to turn their head to the sound of my voice and see their little eyes widen at the sound of that was just, it’s just mind-blowing.”

In comparison to other Australian states, New South Wales has for years had less revenue for cochlear implant funding assistance.

HEARING LOSS REVERSED: 10 out of 10 Patients with Congenital Deafness Have Hearing Restored in Children’s Gene Therapy Trial

Covering Artie and Jack’s surgery, ABC News spoke with the NSW government and Health Minister Ryan Park to inquire about the deficit compared to other states, and received a reply that AUD$20 million would be provided in next year’s budget to organizations like the Shepherd Center—specifically for helping parents afford cochlear implants and surgery.

“I think this will be one of the most important decisions I make as a part of this budget and indeed during my time as a health minister,” said Minister Park. “These kids deserve the very best start to life and we’re hopefully playing a role in delivering that for them and their families.”

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Though they will need extensive therapy for the rest of their childhood, Mrs. Porter and her husband Ewan are looking forward to the future—and to every morning when they and their first born son Tommy, get to turn on Artie and Jack’s implants, and bring them back into the wonderful world of sound which for so long they had lived apart from.

“They smile … you can tell that they’re understanding what you’re saying. You’re talking to them … it really is a gift and a miracle,” Mr. Porter said.

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Firemen Rushed a 5-year old’s Fingertips to Hospital Where She Recovered and Painted a Thank-You Picture for Them

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Andy Corbley
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Olive meets the firefighters who saved her fingers - Essex Fire and Rescue Service
Olive meets the firefighters who saved her fingers – Essex Fire and Rescue Service

A 5-year-old who had her fingertips sliced off in a freak merry-go-round accident recently visited the station of the firefighters who saved them.

As Olive was rushed to the hospital, a group of 8 “Red Watch” volunteers at the Essex County Fire and Rescue Service frantically searched for the severed digits in the grass.

Finding all of them and putting them on ice, the firefighters hopped in their engine and with sirens blaring, delivered them to Broomsfield Hospital where they were successfully reattached.

8 weeks after the incident, Olive was able to visit Rayleigh Weir Fire Station to meet the team, bringing the perfect thank-you gift: paintings of them and their fire engine done with the same hand that was operated on.

“We’re incredibly grateful for what they did that day. Their determination and care meant so much to us as a family,” said Olive’s mother Linda, remarking how quickly everything had happened, but how the Red Watch didn’t waste a second.

“Our firefighters showed great professionalism, determination and care in supporting Olive and her family,” said group manager Dave Walpole, who leads the South East Command at Essex Fire and Rescue.

MORE FIREFIGHTERS AT WORK: 

“While Olive was receiving treatment, crews remained focused on doing everything they could to assist. It’s great to see how well she is recovering, and I know Red Watch loved welcoming her to the station.”

While visiting, the Red Watch presented Olive with a certificate of bravery, signed by Chief Fire Officer, Rick Hylton.

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Italy’s Forest Cover is Larger Than Agriculture Land for the First Time Since the Middle Ages

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Andy Corbley
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A view from a mountain town down into the Valle Ossola, Piemonte region - credit, Andrew Corbley
A view from a mountain town down into the Valle Ossola, Piemonte region – credit, Andrew Corbley

For the first time since the Middle Ages, Italy has more woodland than agricultural land.

Forests now stretch across 60,000 square miles of the Italian Peninsula, overly concentrated in mountain areas, but which nevertheless represent the gradual reversion of cultivated land to woodland again.

The milestone was officially hit in 2020, but only revealed this week thanks to a report published by National Union of Mountain Municipalities and Entities.

The report stresses the forest’s role providing work for free as a major net benefit from this reforestation.

In a single Italian municipality, called Marcetelli in the Rieti Province, where 94% of the land is covered in trees, the combined natural functions of the forests to store carbon, filter water and air, and to prevent erosion, would cost some $9.5 million if industrial solutions had to be sought.

Additionally, the increase in forested acreage is creating a somewhat ironic reversal of rural Italy’s emigration crisis.

For the last 2 decades, young people have increasingly left mountain and rural-plains areas for the big cities, resulting in the abandonment of marginal land or traditionally farmed/pastured lands, as well as an emptying of small towns—many of which have habitation records going back to medieval times.

Since 2021, however, 932 Italian municipalities showed a positive net migration of 10 per 1,000 inhabitants, with a significant share of these municipalities being located in heavily forested areas.

Discounting the coastlines, Italy’s geography is pretty straightforward. The Alps give way to the pre-Alpine hills which fall into the North Italian Plain, which give way to the Apennines until you reach the far south. These three mountain regions and the 3,598 municipalities nested therein account for three-quarters of Italy’s total forested area, even though they harbor just 13.5% of the country’s population.

It’s a statistic that captures their rurality, but also highlights the benefit beyond these trends in migration.

For locally endangered species like bears and wolves, more woods in mountain areas will go a long way toward supporting their populations.

There are ample opportunities to use these new forests for eco-tourism and sustainable forestry, while expansion of habitat for animals like wild boar and red deer offers increased bounty for Italy’s hunters who supply so many national restaurants with these favored game meats.

NOTIZIE D’ITALIA: Italy Unifies its Historic Pilgrimage Trails to Offer Slower, More Intimate Tourism

The report nonetheless points out that many of these forests weren’t just appearing out of nowhere—they’re taking over agricultural land where farmers and ranchers used to ply there own trade.

All things being equal, however, the supply of farmland and pasture in Italy was clearly in a glut, otherwise the demand for agricultural products would have kept farming families there to satisfy it. In economic terms, the demand for living close to nature has grown, while the demand from living in farming communities has declined.

A GREENER EUROPE: Herd of Bison Reintroduced in Europe Are Climate Heroes–Helping Store CO2 Equal to 43,000 Cars

Therefore, though the report colors the loss of farmland as an economic decline, it cannot be logically said to be so.

Those seeking to experience some of these rich woodland ecosystems on a trip to the Peninsula can find in the data some clear signals: of the 5 most-wooded municipalities in Italy, 2 are in the province of Perugia, and 2 are found in Udine.

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“Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.” – George Washington Carver

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Credit: Getty Images for Unsplash+

Quote of the Day: “Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.” – George Washington Carver

Photo by: Getty Images for Unsplash+

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?

Credit: Getty Images for Unsplash+

Good News in History, June 26

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Good News Network
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Left, US release cover, right original UK release

29 years ago today, the first installment of the Harry Potter book series – Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, was published in the UK under Bloomsbury. It won most of the British book awards that were judged by children. The book reached the top of the New York Times list of best-selling fiction in August 1999 and stayed near the top of that list for much of 1999 and 2000. It has been translated into at least 73 other languages, and sold 120 million copies, making it the third best-selling book of all time. READ more about the book’s acclaim… (1997)

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Million Dollar Makeover Turns Old Railroad Bridge into City’s Trendiest Venue With a View

By
Andy Corbley
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Former railroad bridge now serves as a public gathering space over the Kansas River – Credit: Thornton Tomasetti
Former railroad bridge now serves as a public gathering space over the Kansas River – Credit: Thornton Tomasetti

GNN has previously reported on heritage American architecture finding new life as hospitality and entertainment centers.

On the Kansas River, a 120-year-old railroad bridge has been infused with the labor and love of both states the trains used to pass through, and has been resurrected into a restaurant and event space plus walking path.

The Rock Island Bridge opened this April, with a full opening of all areas slated for mid-summer. Its CEO, Mike Zeller, holds a 66-year lease on the structure received from the united authority of Wyandotte County Kansas and Kansas City Missouri.

Zeller was the “band leader” behind the project, which started on a boat trip up the Kansas where he passed the old rail bridge which seemed like others he remembered loitering on as a young man; an object that something should be done with

10 years later, in 2017 he founded the company that would lead the bridge’s renovation: Flying Truss LLC, which after several years of begging, pitching, and brainstorming, managed to coalesce a coalition which Zeller called a “P6 approach” for public-private-philanthropy-people-purpose-process.

Speaking with Engineering News Record, Zeller said that some 35 local businesses donated materials and labor for the job—everything from the big neon entrance sign made by Hammer Out Design, to a local legal firm which worked pro bono for 7 years.

Many ideas were floated out, from being entirely a part of the city’s burgeoning trail network to a place were food vendors would work out of shipping containers. Eventually it was agreed that there’d be a two-story restaurant, an event venue, and an open-air space that would connect with the levee-top trails being built by Kansas and Missouri governments—costing $16 million.

A pretty standard rail crossing, the Rock Island Bridge was about 18-feet wide and utilized 3 steel trusses built by Andrew Carnegie’s steel firm. Trusses are those cage-like structures that sit atop flat river bridges to add stability.

After structural analysis found the bridge able to support 3.16 million pounds before any elements were removed, such as the old rail track and concrete, primary contractor. L.G. Barcus and Sons, Inc. determined that not much needed to be done to the original components. A few bolts needed to be replaced and some rust addressed, but that was it.

For the new structure, 15-foot cantilevers would support a wrap-around deck for restaurant space. Intriguing challenges awaited Barcus, such as what would happen if everyone moved to one side of the bridge to watch fireworks, and how to fit the second and first stories of the restaurant under the 300-foot-long central truss without covering them up.

BRIDGES AS VENUES: Contest Winner Turns Bridge into the Longest Walking Art Gallery in South Korea

As far as the trusses were concerned, existing machinery called lift gates had been well maintained, and Barcus was the original contractor on a 1952 project to raise the trusses to meet the heights of newly-built levees following a flood. With nothing more than a new motor and new grease, not only could the trusses be raised to accommodate the second story of the restaurant, but to satisfy the US Army Corps of Engineers’ standards for both a 750-year flood and the levees they were building along the Kansas River.

All the new support steel and cantilevers added up to around 680,000 pounds—well within the weight constraints.

Opened in April, it’s already one of the highlights of the city’s many venues. The truss beams occasionally plunge right through the walkway—even the tables, but they transmute the charm of the old architecture into the place—just like the steel railroad track acting as the footrests along the restaurant’s bar.

SIMILAR STORY IN SCOTLAND: Scotland’s Largest Greenhouse Set to Be Preserved as ‘Living Ruin’ and New Event Space

At the conclusion of the project, the cost was a mere $20 million, funded through a mixture of private investment (60%) public funding and grants (30%) and philanthropic donations (10%), which Zeller said had helped “create something spectacular for Kansas City that our kids and our grandkids are going to enjoy,” … “a gift from about 200 Kansas Citians to our city.”

Kansas City Magazine, attending the opener, wrote that Rock Island Bridge is free to enter and walk across, “and Zeller says visitors can also expect fun events, from farmers markets and live musicians to ticketed concerts and more.”

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Musée d’Orsay Opens Gallery Dedicated to Still-Unclaimed Artworks Stolen by Nazis in WWII

By
Andy Corbley
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‘Madame Alphonse Daudet’ by RENOIR - Credits © Musée d'Orsay-dist RMN Grand Palais/Patrice Schmidt (right) The Paris museum - by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra (CC BY 2.0)
‘Madame Alphonse Daudet’ by RENOIR – Credits © Musée d’Orsay-dist RMN Grand Palais/Patrice Schmidt (right)
The Paris museum – by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra (CC BY 2.0)

The world-famous Musée d’Orsay has opened the doors to a very unique gallery—its dream would be to get rid of all the paintings inside.

That’s because it exhibits a rotating selection of 225 works that were stolen when the Nazis occupied Paris during the Second World War. Currently 12 paintings, including works by Renoir and Degas, and a sculpture from Rodin are on display.

To Whom Do These Belong is part of the museum’s efforts to reckon with the city’s past, and, if at all possible, to find the rightful inheritors of these masterworks.

Though the north of France resisted Nazi occupation, the south, governed by the Vichy regime, collaborated with the Germans including in carrying out the Holocaust.

By the end of the conflict, over 100,000 items of cultural property had been looted. Some 60,000 works were recovered in Germany and Austria after the war; many of them had been sold on the art market and were easily traceable. 45,000 were restituted, while 15,000 went without identified owners according to a statement from the museum.

Most of these 15,000 were sold by France in the early 1950s, except for 2,200 of them, which were selected to be entrusted to the custody of various museums. Today, the museums are “duty-bound” to keep them in trust of their original owners and to investigate the provenance of their arrival in state hands.

Credit: Musée d’Orsay © L. Striffling

Over the last thirty years, 15 of these works conserved at the Musée d’Orsay have been returned to their rightful owners. 225 others remain because of uncertain origin, and in a few case because it has been established that they were not stolen or plundered.

Credit: Musée d’Orsay © L. Striffling

“The opening of this room on the permanent itinerary enables rotating exhibition with a view to providing a glimpse of the investigative work underway. A selection of 13 works is currently on exhibition there, highlighting the legacy’s complexity and the issues involved in it,” the statement read.

“Suspended between past and present, each of them testifies to ongoing provenance research, revealing the diversity of situations, both as regards quality and background. Others are on display in the Museum and are now identifiable by their special (purple) labels, or are on long-term loan to many other French museums.”

CREATIVE MUSEUM EXHIBTIONS: Visitors Can Now Watch the Restoring of a Masterpiece Bellini in Venice (Check out the Video)

CNN spoke with a British man of German origin whose family inheritance was looted by the Nazis. He, like other individuals highlighted in the Musée d’Orsay, has worked for years to establish clear evidence for the return of his family’s stolen property—some of it identified in German museums.

“I think it’s great that its [the looted works] going on display and it’s going to be an actual room set aside for art that is stolen,” said the man, named Antony Easton.

MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: Concealed for 100 Years by Empress Who Defied Hitler, Royal Jewels Thought Lost are Set for Public Exhibit

The established facts accompany each work, including when it was sold in France, where it was brought in the Third Reich, and who painted it, but the key part—who owned it—is unknown for each of the 13 exhibited works apart from one.

That one is Le Souper au Bal (The Supper at Ball) by Edgar Degas and was acquired in 1919 by the Jewish collector Fernand Ochsé, who went on to be deported and murdered in Auschwitz. 22 years later, it arrived in Germany at the Brame gallery via a Mr. M. Coutot. It’s unknown if anyone from Ochsé’s family or extended family lives or was aware he owned the piece.

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USA’s Largest Renewable Project Comes Online–With More Power Than the Hoover Dam

By
Andy Corbley
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The transmission line of the SunZia project from Pattern Energy - credit, Pattern Energy, ©
The transmission line of the SunZia project from Pattern Energy – credit, Pattern Energy, ©

The largest renewable energy infrastructure project in US history is fully operational.

The SunZia project is expected to generate and deliver more power than the Hoover Dam and be a reliable energy to the western United States for the next 30 years.

The approximately 3,650-megawatt (MW) wind project and 550-mile high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line that comprise SunZia generate power in New Mexico to Arizona and deliver it to customers across the western grid.

At full capacity, the project can deliver enough energy to power approximately one million American homes annually.

The wind turbines are located between Torrance and Lincoln counties in New Mexico, while the transmission line runs to a station in Pinal County just south of Phoenix.

At the center of that solution is SunZia’s HVDC transmission system, which moves large amounts of electricity efficiently across long distances. With major converter stations at each end of the line converting power for delivery and then back for use on the grid, SunZia is deploying one of the first major HVDC systems built in the United States in a generation.

“SunZia proves that we can still build the consequential infrastructure this country needs,” said Hunter Armistead, CEO of Pattern Energy, which owns, funded, and built SunZia.

“We did this the right way, we did it on time and on budget—in genuine partnership with the local communities and landowners who trusted us, with the environmental stewardship this unique landscape deserves, and with the determination to see something through that many thought was too big and too complex to finish.”

Complexities included many, from an agreement to relocate existing mature saguaro cacti and large agave plants to building the tall HVDC towers is remote, environmentally sensitive areas supplied almost entirely by helicopter.

WORLD’S BIGGEST RENEWABLES: A Desert Full of Power: Gargantuan Solar Array 250-Miles Long to Power Beijing

Construction on SunZia began in September 2023 and more than 2,000 quality jobs were supported at peak construction. The project also created more than 100 permanent operations jobs in New Mexico and Arizona.

Pattern Energy claims the facility will invest over $20 billion in New Mexico and Arizona communities including $1.3 billion in direct payments to local governments, schools, counties and private landowners over the first 30 years of operations.

WIND POWER IN THE US: Right to Build Offshore Wind Power Upheld by US Judge for 5th Time Since Attempted White House Ban

“Large-scale transmission is essential to meeting the West’s growing energy needs and strengthening reliability across the grid,” said Elliot Mainzer, President and CEO of the California Independent System Operator (ISO).

“Projects of this scale help deliver energy reliably to areas of rising demand, improve the movement of power across states and support a more resilient, flexible, and affordable electric system. SunZia represents the kind of long-term infrastructure investment needed to serve customers today and prepare the grid for the future.”

RING In This Amazing Addition To The US Grid With Your Friends…

Mars Perseverance Rover Completes a Marathon on Mars to Cap Off Extraordinary 5 Years

By
Andy Corbley
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A map of the Perseverance Mars rover marathon - credit, NASA
A map of the Perseverance Mars rover marathon – credit, NASA

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover just completed a special milestone as it recently marked 5 years on the Red Planet.

The robotic science lab has put 26.2 miles under its wheels: in other words, a marathon.

Having conducted hundreds of experiments so far, the rover’s data has already helped refine our understanding of the Martian surface, and in celebration of its marathon achievement, a summary of success is in order.

Through its drilling efforts at the bottom of Jezero Crater, where it landed, Perseverance has helped scientists confirm that the crater at some point was filled with water, leaving lake sediments at its base.

In 2022, the rover drove up from the crater floor onto the delta, a vast expanse of 3-billion-year-old sediments that, from orbit, resembles river deltas on Earth.

As the rover drove onto the delta, its  Radar Imager for Mars’ Subsurface Experiment instrument (RIMFAX) fired radar waves downward at 10-centimeter intervals and measured pulses reflected from depths of about 65-feet below the surface (20 meters). With the radar, scientists can see down to the base of the sediments to reveal the top surface of the buried crater floor.

The Martian surface outside of Jezero Crater appears strikingly different compared to the sandy red bed of the crater floor – Credit NASAJPL-CaltechASUMSSS

The images showed that the sediments are regular and horizontal—just like sediments deposited in lakes on Earth.

That same year, the rover captured video footage of a Martian solar eclipse with the tiny moon Phobos. The potato-shaped sphere doesn’t block out the sun, but was still cool to watch.

Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z has a solar filter that acts like sunglasses to reduce light intensity. This allowed for unrivaled color and detail to appear in the eclipse video.

By the end of 2023, Perseverance had finished exploring Jezero crater, and began exploring the furthest reaches of the canyon where the river would have flown into the lake. Rich carbonate deposits had been spotted along the margin which stood out in orbital images.

“We picked Jezero Crater as a landing site because orbital imagery showed a delta—clear evidence that a large lake once filled the crater. A lake is a potentially habitable environment, and delta rocks are a great environment for entombing signs of ancient life as fossils in the geologic record,” said Perseverance’s project scientist, Ken Farley of Caltech.

In April 2025, Perseverance was back with its head down, studying the Martian geology at the fastest rate since the early sample gathering in Jezero.

By then it had summited the crater rim, and conducted almost 100 sampling efforts.

This included some of the earliest molten rock to form on Mars, and formerly underground boulders juxtaposed with well-preserved layered rocks and other masses that seem to have been sculpted by running water; a veritable rock bonanza that may have also included the oldest sample yet.

JPL / NASA video

As the rover passed the Marathon mark, there is still no concrete plan for how to get Perseverance’s cached samples back from Mars. The sample return mission seen as feasible when the rover launched saw its costs rise to $11 billion, prompting NASA to begin a complete overhaul of the plan and solicit new proposals from industry and academia to find a more affordable and faster way to return the samples to Earth.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has floated the idea out of sending a manned mission to Mars and simply having astronauts pick them up by hand. Such a mission is an eventual goal of NASA and its sole rocket supplier SpaceX, which would like the costs of a robotic sample return mission rather redundant.

The samples were deposited in tubes of sterilized sapphire dubbed the “cleanest surfaces in the universe,” and so are therefore presumably durable enough to last a few decades provided a meteor doesn’t smash them to pieces.

WATCH the rover’s progress sped up below… 

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“I love everything that’s old—old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine.” – Oliver Goldsmith

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Good News Network
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By mana5280

Quote of the Day: “I love everything that’s old—old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine.” – Oliver Goldsmith

Photo by: mana5280

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?

By mana5280

Good News in History, June 25

By
Good News Network
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70 years ago today, the renegade travel host and chef Anthony Bourdain, was born. With his food and culture show, No Reservations, and the groundbreaking book, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, he became known as “the culinary bad boy”. The pair catapulted him to stardom, resulting Parts Unknown, the definitive American travel program on basic cable. It ran for over 60 episodes before being interrupted tragically by Bourdain’s death by suicide. READ more… (1956)

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8 Acres of Rewilding Completed Along Santa Monica Coastline: ‘It’s Still Your Beach, Only Better’

By
Andy Corbley
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LA County used to be covered in vegetated dunes like these - credit, Annie Spratt, unsplash
LA County used to be covered in vegetated dunes like these – credit, Annie Spratt, unsplash

A group in Los Angeles is ensuring that the city’s famous beaches retain enough nature to protect wildlife and the city from harsher storms.

“Your beach is still your beach, only better.” That was Tom Ford’s message to any Angelinos who might be indignant at the sight on his nonprofit staking out and roping off big squares of Santa Monica Beach sand.

It’s part of The Bay Foundation‘s effort to rebuild the ecosystems of Southern California’s dune landscapes, lost, but not forgotten.

If you’ve never seen vegetated and wild coastal sand dunes bloom in springtime, you’re missing out on exactly what Ford is describing—a better beach.

So far the Bay Foundation has helped restore 8 acres of natural dunes on the Santa Monica beaches by creating big patches of vegetated sand halfway between the ocean and the coastal road.

“The native plants provide that habitat value for native wildlife. So, if you want to have endangered El Segundo blue butterflies, you need Sea Cliff Buckwheat, which is the plant that they count on,” Ford told CBS news.

As the plants grow and take root in the sand, grains blown about by the ocean wind catch and build up on the plants. These then must grow taller, allowing for more surface area, more sand, and higher dunes.

BETTER BEACHES, WORLDWIDE: 

Higher vegetated dunes can reduce the impact of storm surges by absorbing wave energy, slowing erosion, and protecting coastal real estate. Early response to the 8 natural acres has been positive, and the Coastal Commission has permitted an additional 30 acres of natural dune creation all the way down to Venice Beach.

Unlike seawalls which protect only what’s behind them, these natural dunes protect what’s in front of them. And what’s in front of them is what helped make LA so famous—a “non-optional” feature of priceless necessity for the city and county, Ford says.

“We work extremely hard with the lifeguards, with the police, with the sports groups, with the various clubs down here to make sure that all that space for those activities is preserved,” Ford said. “Your beach is still your beach, only better.”

WATCH the story below from CBS News…

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Dawn of Modular Architecture Sees 26-Story Apartment Finished in 5 Days Thanks to US-China Collab.

By
Andy Corbley
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The Jindu Holon tower - credit, BROAD Group, released
The Jindu Holon tower – credit, BROAD Group, released

It was a rare snowy day in southcentral China’s Changsha—a city of ancient innovation—when flatbeds loaded with steel arrived at a building site.

On January 7th, 2024, workers began to arrange stainless steel modules on the empty site. Standing in its place just 5 days later was a 26-story high-rise apartment complex.

The nothing-short-of-remarkable demonstration of module construction on the grandest scale yet seen won major international engineering acclaim, but more than that, the Jindu Holon Tower fulfilled a company’s 17-year journey that started amid disaster.

A terrible earthquake rocked the province of Sichuan further south in 2009, killing tens of thousands of people and knocking down reinforced concrete towers in cities like Chengdu as if they were sand castles. Watching on was the founder of the Chinese construction firm BROAD Group. He realized something had to change.

BROAD Sustainable Building was formed as a direct response to the disaster, hoping to pioneer modular construction methods to make towers flexible and resistant to seismic events.

It can take 3 years to pour the concrete and install the utilities of a medium-height apartment building in New York or London. All the while, roads are disrupted, and gas-guzzling trucks move in and out every day bringing in concrete mix and sand, rebar and other components. Risks of accidents compound daily by the sheer number of days—in the rain, in the heat—that workers are assembling the structure.

Then, in 5-7 years, major concrete renovations may already be needed.

In Hunan, the event was totally different. Trucks rolled in carrying stainless steel shipping-container-like modules, each measuring 12 meters long, 3 meters high, and 2.4 meters wide. A crane stacked one atop the other, and workers bolted them into place. No concrete needed to be poured, nothing needed to be welded.

The interior of a Jindu Tower apartment – credit BROAD Group

In 5 days they had finished and were ready to start welcoming residents. That’s because each of these stainless steel modules had everything already built in: the plumbing, the windows, the HVAC, the lights, the kitchen cupboards even—all of it was assembled on a factory floor in the space of 21 days.

BROAD Sustainable Building uses a patented stainless steel “sandwich” called B-CORE that boasts high tensile strength that will allow the building to bend not break if faced with another magnitude 8 earthquake like in Sichuan. Stainless steel is also much more resistant to corrosion and weathering.

Andrew Zimman, marketing director at BROAD Group USA, spoke to the French Modular Building Institute, which gave it the Innovation of the Year Award back in 2022, about the decision.

“We switched to stainless steel about five years ago,” Zimman explained, “because we realized that the mechanical properties of stainless steel weren’t limited to corrosion resistance, which is good for facades, but that stainless steel also had great ductility. That’s why we chose stainless steel for our load-bearing elements. We’re the first to do so.”

FUTURE ARCHITECTURE: ‘Sponge’ Cities Combat Urban Flooding by Letting Nature Do the Work

“Even though our volumetric product is only two years old, we’re constantly innovating,” Zimman continued. “For example, in the first Holon building we built two years ago, the beams had to be installed on-site. Now, when we lower the modules, the beams are integrated into the floor system of those modules. So there’s no welding on-site. There are only bolts. The cranes are ready; all you have to do is select and position, stack, bolt, connect the utilities, and you’re good to go.”

Zhang Yanwei, a manager at BROAD Group Holon Jianan Co, which manages the actual building, told China Daily that the company furnished the units before handing them over with everything that isn’t portable. Washing machines, refrigerators, beds, etc. are not included.

There’s another party trick the Holon modular building system boasts that is especially interesting to those of an eco-friendly persuasion. When it’s time to go, there’s no demolition. The whole structure can be unbolted, unstacked, reloaded onto trucks, and driven off. No waste, no noise, no dust, no gas-guzzling excavators working dawn till dusk to clean up a collapsed building, and no landfill waste.

MORE INNOVATION TO EXCITE: Stylish Prefab Home Can Be ‘Dropped’ into Flooded Areas or Anywhere Housing is Needed

This is a game changer for municipalities balancing zoning laws, or insurance firms calculating for various disaster risks. If for legal or safety reasons the building has to go, it can, as it turns out, simply go.

Zimman told the institute that BROAD Group has projects in the pipeline for Ohio, Texas, and California, alongside work in the Philippines and the United Arab Emirates. Like many of the world’s great suspension bridges, the performance of stainless steel suggests that there isn’t a particular height limitation: as far as there is design and demand, their buildings can keep climbing.

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Minnesota Artist’s ‘Mini Art Vending Machine’ Has Sold Nearly 3,000 Pieces of One-Dollar Art

By
Andy Corbley
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Mini Art Vending Machine with tiny art for $1 (at Inkwell Booksellers) - Credit: OneTiredArtist on IG
Mini Art Vending Machine with tiny art for $1 (at Inkwell Booksellers) – Credit: OneTiredArtist on IG

A Minnesota artist who wanted to do more to help her peers built and installed a “Mini Art Vending Machine” at a local book store.

Head inside Inkwell Booksellers at 426 E. Hennepin in Minneapolis, put 4 quarters in and turn the wheel, and a little envelope will fall down containing a mystery piece of art.

Each row features mini works by the same artist, whose bio can be read about on the left-hand side of the machine.

It might seem kitsch, but it’s a hit—almost 3,000 pieces of art have been sold in the vending machine, with every $1 going straight back into the artist’s pocket.

It was created by local artist Lilyan Lauzon, who goes by OneTiredArtist online and works as community engagement manager at Inkwell.

“For new and emerging artists, it’s really hard to find spaces to sell your artwork, and I wanted to make a project that was fun and collaborative for local artists,” said Lauzon.

The machine needs restocking every month with works from artists who apply for “gallery space” online. Lauzon told CBS news that she’s seen the vending machine be the catalyst that many artist’s can’t find elsewhere.

“Artists have told me that people have come to their art fairs to buy more of their artwork because of what they got in this snapshot of their portfolio,” said Lauzon. “There’s also been a few people who have had larger commissions come out from the mini art vending machine.”

MAKING ROOM FOR ART: 

The machine only takes quarters, but the Inkwell staff have loads on hand to exchange for dollars.

Following the project’s success, Lauzon wants to see about getting a second vending machine to install at another location.

WATCH the story below from CBS News… 

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7.4 Mil. Plant and Fungi Samples Have Been Digitized to ‘Democratize Knowledge’ and Save Species

By
Andy Corbley
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A man in the cold specimen storage at the Kew seed vault - Jeff Eden © RBG Kew
– Jeff Eden © RBG Kew

After a marathon effort to digitize each of the 7.4 million plant and fungi samples in its herbarium, the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew has said the result will help “democratize knowledge” while leveraging AI’s incredible computation power to plan conservation strategies, discover new chemicals, and more.

The new archive is just one part in an international online archive of herbariums that are aiming to assess as many plants and fungi species as possible.

The effort has already revealed fascinating and important trends in these kingdoms, such as how flowers worldwide are blooming weeks earlier than in earlier decades.

RBG Kew has one of the largest plant and fungi collections on the planet. Its scientists have been collecting samples since the time of Charles Darwin. But a 180-year-old pressed stem with a few leaves makes for a difficult ID job for a pair of eyes; not so for artificial intelligence models which have been trained to examine microscopic details.

With the advent of such technology, RBG Kew began a marathon effort to digitize every specimen: stem, leaf, seedhead, flower bud, and more. This has proven especially useful for mosses or forbs, plants which can have no perceptible difference between species.

“We can use digital assets, artificial intelligence and other technologies to really harness the information locked in many of these specimens that have been here for centuries, and use that to advance science and conservation at a global level,” said Kew’s executive director of science Alexandre Antonelli.

“We can use this digitized information to discover new species, and also to reveal species that have gone extinct or are likely to have done so.”

OTHER KEW ACTIVITIES: Quarter Century of Collecting Seeds From Around the World Safeguards Them From Extinction

The possibilities are expansive. Thousands of plant and fungi species are identified every year, but nothing substantial is known about at least 300,000 plants which have already been identified. Additionally, it’s believed that there are still 100,000 plants and 2 million fungi species that are undescribed.

Each one could hold genomic secrets that could support or even transform agriculture, medicine, or materials sciences. Penicillin and statins were both isolated from fungi, to name the most obvious examples.

SIMILAR EFFORTS: Scientists Map Underground Fungal Networks and Find They Cover 62 Quadrillion Miles

A broader, instantly accessible digital archive will supercharge environmental DNA gathering, a method of scientific observation that can identify species by biological material shed into the environment—invaluable for estimating ecosystem-wide populations of hard-to-find species like fungi which may only fruit a few times a year.

Efforts like Kew’s and others mean that an archive of 145 million plant, animal, and fungi samples is now freely available to anyone with an internet connection worldwide who might want to access them for any reason.

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