Quote of the Day: “April is the kindest month. April gets you out of your head and out working in the garden.” – Marty Rubin
Photo by: Jez Timms
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?
How can a megacity find water for 10 million people if it exists in the desert? Fog-catching nets, erected on hills over the city of Lima could solve the city’s water shortages for good.
A twenty-meter high (60 feet) tower of spiraling nets will be unveiled this summer in the city as a solution to the threat which a warming climate poses to the shaky foundations of water availability in Lima.
Aside from glacial runoff from the Andes, and water from the stressed Rímac River, Peru’s capital city accumulates just one inch of rain a year. The city sees high annual temperatures, and water consumption rates, despite being located in a desert, are higher than world averages.
However, a unique feature of Lima’s weather offers a way of relieving some of this demand. Situated on the coast, Lima’s surrounding hills are constantly bathed in waves of fog coming off the Pacific Ocean, and the moisture captured by plants ensures they stay green year-round.
Inspired by rudimentary, two-dimensional fog nets installed by rural communities across the continent, Alberto Fernandez, a Chilean designer currently studying for a Ph.D. from University College London, wanted to extrapolate the technology to its most sophisticated conclusion, because while the nets had major flaws, their basic principles were brilliant.
The towers and fog-catching nets unveiled by Fernandez are made of aluminum wrapped in copper mesh covered in plastic, and could create as much as 1,000 liters of water per day, amounting to 3.6 million liters per year, if enough are installed.
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Their towering structure allows them to get into the clouds, collecting more vital water vapor, and their spiral shape means that no matter the direction of the wind, the moisture-rich fog will strike some part of the structure directly.
The water will largely be used for agriculture—as the water would require filtering before consumption—helping free up resources for city-dwellers.
Cheaper than seawater desalination or filtering water from the Rímac, the towers and nets, which Fernandez says could be built up to 200 meters high, are part of a myriad of designs for the Lima 2035 project.
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It aims at reversing current desertification trends to create a re-generative oasis for sustainable and human-centered food systems that promote healthy diets and improved incomes in the driest megacity on Earth.
(WATCH the video about fog-catching towers below.)
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After more than 10 years of cruise ships plowing through Venice’s historic Giudecca Canal, they’ve been permanently banned.
Italian Cultural Minister Dario Franceschini announced the news on Wednesday, stating it was in response to a request from UNESCO, and described it as “a correct decision, awaited for years.”
After a 2019 collision between one of these floating cities and a Venetian harbor left five people injured, pressure mounted to ban cruise ships from stopping in the Italian city. They will now have to dock at the industrial port until a new solution can be found.
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Scientists and civil servants have argued that the wake from the huge vessels, which can legally enter as long as they weigh less than 96,000 tones, have eroded the foundations of the city—which suffers regularly from flooding.
The Giudecca Canal goes right past the iconic Saint Mark’s Square, or Piazza San Marco: seat of the Duchy of Venice when it was the most prosperous merchant republic in the world, as well as the jaw-dropping Basilica di San Marco.
Cruise ships have not been able to enter Venice since the outbreak of COVID-19, and it seems the 2019 tourist season was the last to feature them, at least until a permanent alternative port can be found—a topic for which the government plans to hold a “call for ideas.”
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The world is full of everyday heroes. People behind the scenes who go out of their way to make life better for all of us. Sometimes, they’re recognized; oftentimes they’re not.
When Raymond Brown, head custodian at Edenton’s White Oak Elementary didn’t take home the North Carolina School Hero Award he’d been nominated for last year, an entire community—led by one determined mom—got together to let him know just how much they appreciated him.
“He’s kind of our rock, our foundation of what we do here,” White Oak principal Michelle Newsome told WRAL. “Probably what makes Mr. Brown the most special is he works really hard to build relationships with the students.”
No one knows that better than Adrian Wood, whose son Amos has formed a special bond with Brown. Amos has autism, which can make finding friends among his peers a challenge. He and Brown, however, encountered no such obstacle.
“He got attached to me and I got attached to him, so I gave him the name Famous Amos,” Brown told WRAL.
When the kids at his school realized there was something special going on between the 7-year-old and the school’s favorite grownup, it helped them see Amos in a way they hadn’t before.
“[Mr. Brown] welcomed my son,” Wood told WITN. “And when the most popular man in school gives you a nice nickname, it draws other children in. All the kids started talking to him. Even now, if you walk down the hall, you’ll hear children say, ‘There’s Famous Amos! Hey, Famous Amos!’ And as a mom of a child with a disability, there’s nothing more I want in the world to include him.”
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With her other two children, Wood went through the usual school-related worries, but having a child with special needs was another experience entirely. “Sending Amos to school was such a different path,” she told TODAY. “He was 3 when he started school. He was in diapers and he didn’t speak. But after Mr. Brown started saying hello to him and calling him Famous Amos,’ Amos started saying, ‘Hey Brown,’ when he saw him. He wasn’t even saying ‘Daddy,’ at that point, so it was really something.”
Wood admits to crying tears of frustration when she learned Brown was passed over for the NC Heroes Award, but rather than admit defeat, she decided to find another means of honoring him.
Wood used her Facebook blog, Tales of an Educated Debutante, as a platform to, as she saw it, right a wrong. Within a week, she’d raised $35,000 from nearly 2,000 people from around the globe and had a plan in the works to shower Brown with the kudos he deserved.
On March 20, in a surprise ceremony that coincided with Brown and his wife’s 38th wedding anniversary, the Browns’ grown children along with hundreds of well-wishers—including Edenton’s mayor, the chief of police, and Miss North Carolina—were on hand to sing their beloved custodian’s praises and present him with a $35,000 honorarium dubbed “The Famous Amos Award.”
“I just hope that people will look around and see…it’s not hard to do—it’s not hard to be kind and it’s not hard to recognize kindness,” Wood told WITN.
And so it’s fitting that the most precious accolade for the small-town hero came from Amos himself, who simply said, “I love you, Mr. Brown.”
(WATCH the WRAL video for this story below.)
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North Carolina-based writer Judy Cole has a new rom-com murder mystery debuting on Amazon: And Jilly Came Tumbling After (from Red Sky Presents).
The amazing lives of two rescued street dogs who travel with their owner on trips around Europe have been captured in a series of stunning photographs.
Finn and Yuri were plucked from the streets of Romania by photographer Anne Geier where they faced being abused or put down in a shelter.
Now Anne and her two doggy companions enjoy traveling to some of Europe’s most spectacular beauty spots in her VW T4 camper van.
In her latest adventure with her two loyal canine companions, Anne spent two weeks touring the mountains and fjords of Norway and documenting their trip with her camera.
The result is a stunning series of beautifully crafted portraits.
In the photos, you can see the two dogs in a landscape of crystal clear lakes, snow-bound mountain peaks, and foggy forests.
Anne, who lives in Tauplitz in Austria, said of van life with her best friends: “It’s perfect, we can go wherever we want and whenever we want… [and] I think moving from hotel to hotel every few days would be too stressful.
She said that, as a group, they have been to South Tirol, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany—and of course all around Austria as well as Norway.
Finn, a fox-terrier and Labrador cross, was adopted by Anne in 2014 and was joined by Yuri—an Australian cattle dog/border collie cross—in 2017.
Together, they make the perfect companions for each other, don’t you think?
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Earthlings can feel some relief for now, as NASA has confirmed our planet is safe from a particularly worrisome asteroid for the next century at least.
99942 Apophis—which was discovered in 2004—had been identified as one of the most hazardous asteroids that could impact the planet. But results from a new radar observation campaign, combined with precise orbit analysis, have helped astronomers conclude that Apophis won’t hit Earth in 2068—as had been the fear.
Estimated to be about 1,100 feet across, when Apophis—named after the Egyptian god of destruction—made a flyby of Earth in early March, NASA states its scientists took the opportunity to use powerful radar observations to refine the estimate of its orbit around the Sun with extreme precision, enabling them to confidently rule out any impact risk in 2068 and long after.
“Although Apophis made a recent close approach with Earth, it was still nearly 10.6 million miles away. Even so, we were able to acquire incredibly precise information about its distance to an accuracy of about 150 meters [490 feet],” said JPL scientist Marina Brozovic, who led the radar campaign. “This campaign not only helped us rule out any impact risk, it set us up for a wonderful science opportunity.”
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On April 13, 2029, NASA says the asteroid will pass less than 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometers) from our planet’s surface. During that close approach, Apophis will be visible to observers on the ground in the Eastern Hemisphere without the aid of a telescope or binoculars.
NASA explains this makes for an unrivaled chance for astronomers to get a close-up view of a solar system relic.
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“When I started working with asteroids after college, Apophis was the poster child for hazardous asteroids,” said Davide Farnocchia of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies. “There’s a certain sense of satisfaction to see it removed from the risk list, and we’re looking forward to the science we might uncover during its close approach in 2029.”
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Sounds like we should all be making a note in our diaries about an amazing night sky-watching opportunity in 8 years’ time.
(WATCH the video about the Apophis asteroid below).
Source: NASA
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Quote of the Day: “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.” – Shunryu Suzuki, Zen master
Photo by: Bruno Martins
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?
200,000 donated AstraZeneca vaccines left Mumbai for Denmark last week—where they will be safely stored and distributed to UN peacekeepers serving in various mission around the globe.
Lauding India as “a longstanding and steadfast supporter of peacekeeping”, UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said, “an effective roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine to all peacekeepers is a key priority for the United Nations in order to protect our personnel and their capacity to continue their crucial work, help protect vulnerable communities and deliver on their mandates.”
A gift of 200,000 #COVID19 vaccine doses from the Government and the people of India 🇮🇳 to @UNPeacekeeping 🇺🇳 shipped to Denmark today.
— United Nations in India (@UNinIndia) March 27, 2021
This important donation will not only protect the health of #UNPeacekeepers but also protect their capacity to continue #ServingForPeace. pic.twitter.com/sg5fMKDAFt
He thanked the government and people of India for their generous donation to safeguard peacekeeping personnel and “enable them to continue their life-saving work in a safe manner.”
The head of UN Operational Support, Atul Khare, said the donation will ensure that UN peacekeepers remain healthy and “deliver in some of the most difficult environments in the world without relying on already stretched national health systems or ongoing COVAX efforts.”
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At the same time, Mr. Khare’s department is leading UN system-wide arrangements to support national efforts in vaccinating UN civilian personnel and family members.
India has long played an important role in peacekeeping, particularly though its contribution of troops. Currently, more than 95,000 UN peacekeepers are deployed in 12 missions.
Meanwhile, the UN Resident Coordinator in India, Renata Desalien, “heartily” thanked India for its “generous gesture of solidarity and support.”
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“This step, especially for the United Nations, reflects India’s strong commitment to global peace and multilateralism,” she stated. We’ll be sure to share more of these acts of generosity from around the world as they come in.
Source: UN News
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Until April 13, a phenomenon that can only be sighted twice a year is occurring above our heads.
Look towards the western horizon around an hour after sunset, and if the air is clear you could see ‘zodiacal light’.
Seen in the Northern Hemisphere just after twilight, according to NASA, what we’re seeing in that faint glow is “sunlight reflected toward Earth by a cloud of tiny dust particles orbiting the Sun.”
According to the U.S. space agency, while there’s now solid evidence that Mars—the dustiest planet scientists know of—is the source of zodiacal light, it cannot yet be explained exactly how this dust “could have escaped the grip of Martian gravity.”
CHECK OUT: 50 Years Ago NASA Sent a Map Into Space to Help Aliens Find Earth—Now They’ve Got An Awesome Update
For the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Dr. Roy Bishop, Emeritus Professor of Physics at Acadia University, describes the celestial sight beautifully: “The zodiacal light appears as a huge, softly radiant pyramid of white light with its base near the horizon and its axis centred on the zodiac (or better, the ecliptic). In its brightest parts, it exceeds the luminance of the central Milky Way.”
Who wouldn’t want to see that? With the weather getting milder, it’s a very good time to gaze up at the night sky. Let us know if you see this particular light pillar shooting up, and good luck with your zodiacal hunt.
MORE: Scientist Thinks He Finally Knows Why People Hear Sounds Coming From the Northern Lights
P.S. There’s always the September equinox for another chance to see this special, pyramid-shaped glow.
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Global companies have put on a lot of fun jokes this April Fools’ Day, but instead of joining in with the high jinks this year, T-Mobile is instead partaking in high fives—by launching the hashtag movement #GiveThanksNotPranks.
Inspired by a study finding that those who witness even a single act of gratitude are more inspired to join in and express gratitude themselves—T-Mobile is donating $5 to classrooms every time their new hashtag is shared.
*taps 🎤* Ah-hem. This is NOT a prank.
— T-Mobile (@TMobile) March 30, 2021
For every tweet with #GiveThanksNotPranks we give $5 to a classroom in need. pic.twitter.com/SqDYzDv0pt
Through the nonprofit education crowdfunding site DonorsChoose, the company is helping the USA’s hardworking and often under-resourced teachers purchase critical classroom supplies to support students—to help educators and teachers adapting to all the changes in learning during the pandemic.
Motorola, OnePlus, SanMar, Wattpad, Mattress Firm, Sleep.com, and Drone Racing League have already pledged their support to join the movement with T-Mobile.
MORE: Scott Kolbrenner Won $145,000 on ‘Wheel of Fortune.’ Now He’s Giving It All to Charity
They’ll pause the pranks today and instead give donations to non-profit organizations and drive a wave of shout-outs through their social media channels with the #GiveThanksNotPranks hashtag.
TikTok is participating too, bringing their community in with a hashtag challenge.
CHECK OUT: #WallStreetBets Traders Donate $300,000 to Adopt Gorillas From Dian Fossey Fund
So who’s in? You can join the movement by doing any of the following:
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We’ve scoured the web to bring you the best April Fools’ jokes from brands around the world.
From cauliflower-flavored Peeps to an anti-gravity trampoline that we really wish existed, check them out—and share your own favorites.
Wow! While travelling on the surface of Mars, the Perseverance rover found the place where all the missing socks from the dryer end up! 🙃#AprilFools pic.twitter.com/rB1A21rTfF
— Canadian Space Agency (@csa_asc) April 1, 2021
And, we thought they went out the hold in the Hozone.
To be honest, we’re kind of hoping that Lipton does put some of their innovators onto a bag-jiggle technology that “guarantees even infusion, and aids milk dispersement.”
Language learning is hard... so we made it soft.
— Duolingo (@duolingo) April 1, 2021
It's time to turn your bathroom into a classroom with our latest innovation: Duolingo Roll – toilet paper (yes, toilet paper) that teaches you phrases in new languages! 🧻https://t.co/IwQke0z0gT #DuolingoRoll pic.twitter.com/ilVLtx5Cbl
The language-learning app Duolingo knows that some of us spend at least a little toilet time playing on apps. So they created the Duolingo Roll that “turns your bathroom into a classroom.”
These joke-rolls have actually been made. Head over to their social media channels today for a giveaway of loo rolls in Japanese, Portuguese, English, Chinese, and Spanish. ¡Olé!
eBooks company Rakuten Kobo has described its new perfume as having “just a hint of the musty smell of aged paper.”
“Our new signature fragrance conjures memories of old-school reading with a sprinkling of violets and a dash of tasteful potpourri. For those who just *need* the scent of paper to dive into a good story, we’re here for you too.” Sounds good to us.
Regular Peeps are pretty much straight injections of sugar. But Green Giant’s April Fools peeps? They taste of sugar… and boiled vegetables. Sound good to you?
It’s been a good year for jigsaw puzzle manufacturers, but we’re not sure this $100,000 one, made up of 100,000 brilliantly blue pieces—of “unadulterated azure agony”—would actually do well if it went on the market. But it’s a great play for a company called Blue Kazoo.
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Doesn’t this ‘hand-scooped’ GuacPaste toothpaste from Chosen Foods look mighty fine? Who wouldn’t want to freshen their breath with “aromatic savory flavors.”
The best-kept glow secret? @Jif peanut butter, obviously. This deliciously exfoliating and hydrating duo is packed with vitamins, nourishing oils, and 100% a joke—don't try this at home, folks! #Jif #IPSY #ThatJifingGood #AprilFools pic.twitter.com/cIn5rMJz2B
— IPSY (@IPSY) April 1, 2021
Peanut butter is super popular. Beauty subscription services are super popular. Put the two together and what do you get? Ipsy plus Jif came up with creamy peanut butter sheet masks and more.
Outdoor play company Vuly has gone more than a little sci-fi, with an anti-gravity trampoline that… turns out to be just a joke. Still, watch the video and imagine something this fun was real!
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So the fire pits are all sold at the local hardware store—but that shouldn’t mean you can’t get your fix of perfectly toasty mallows. Jet-Puffed, for one day only, is giving a glimpse of something people might actually pay good money for: marshmallows flavored so they’re already “burnt to that perfect level of crisp.”
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What can generate clean energy, biomass for fertilizers, convert CO2 into oxygen, and be used in space? Algae.
Pursuing this incredible organism’s potential is young Adán Ramirez Sánchez—23-year-old Mexican biotechnician and winner of MIT’s 2019 Latin American Innovators Under 35—who has made solar panels powered by algae instead of minerals mined from the earth.
His Intelligent Solar Biopanels, made at his firm GreenFluidics, are one part microalgae, one part nanotechnology, and they absorb CO2 before converting it into electricity and oxygen, potentially solving two of the largest problems of our time.
If you paid attention in biology class, you may notice a similarity between this and the evolutionary strategy of photosynthesis, the method by which plants generate energy from CO2 and sunlight.
The invention just gets better and better however, as the panels are totally biodegradable—since they are made from algae and abundant marine material—and they produce biomass while running, which can be collected and used as fertilizer.
Measuring a meter across, the green triangular panels are quirky and avant-garde, and can lend an office a unique touch while purifying the air within.
#LunesInnovadores | Adán Ramírez ha desarrollado paneles solares biológicos que producen energía y oxígeno mientras absorben dióxido de carbono y podrían ayudar a colonizar Martehttps://t.co/JLYqscNk0a pic.twitter.com/6tZEt0wgTJ
— MIT Tech Review ES (@techreview_es) January 20, 2020
Consumption of fuel to generate electricity or thrust is the largest source of emissions by an enormous margin. For comparison’s sake, the U.S. would have to multiply the number of horses, sheep, goats, and cows in the country by roughly 50 to come close to matching it through the animals’ enteric fermentation.
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Ramirez defines GreenFluidics as Mexico’s first technology firm to produce biotech for outer space exploration, saying upon receiving his award from MIT that “we are looking to connect outer space with planet Earth through the technology we have developed.”
He hopes they can be taken onboard spaceships or within colonies, as they can simply be set on a window and generate electricity and oxygen for the astronauts inside using the sun. The biomass produced can be used to fertilize space crops—another biotech that’s being developed by NASA and ESA.
Sometimes when you want to dream big and reach for the sky, the first step is looking down, in this case, into a pond perhaps.
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Quote of the Day: “Over the winter glaciers, I see the summer glow. And through the wind-piled snowdrift, the warm rosebuds below.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Photo by: Bernd Dittrich
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?
Reprinted with permission from World At Large, a news website of nature, politics, science, health, and travel.
Alone on the windswept island Skokholm, wardens have found Stone Age tools and a pottery shard from an unlikely survey plot—down a rabbit burrow.
The finds date to 3,750—9,000 years ago, and include tools for making seal hide clothes and boats and the shard of a funerary urn, suggesting the small island could have been used for ritual burial.
Richard Brown and Giselle Eagle, the only humans on the island since COVID-19 arrived, discovered the first of two “bevelled pebbles” outside of a burrow where, rather than tomb-robbers or artifact hunters, it had been dug up from the ground by the island’s rabbits as they strove to make their underground home.
Snapping a photograph, they sent it to Dr. Toby Driver of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, who replied back that “the photos are clearly of a late Mesolithic ‘bevelled pebble.”
“These are common and distinctive finds amongst flint scatters of this age found on coastal sites all the way from [northern] France up to western Scotland, and also on some northern English coasts,” he added, according to the Skokholm Blog, managed by Brown and Eagle.
“We had our eye in, and it wasn’t long before we found another very likely candidate for a bevelled pebble along Little Bay Wall (again exposed by the digging of Rabbits),” wrote the pair two days later when they happened upon another find.
“Although we couldn’t find any more stones at the original site in the lee of the knoll, we did find a piece of pottery which to our (very) untrained eyes looked old.”
Once again they alerted an expert and received an analysis that the thick-walled pottery shard was part, not of ancient food storage, but rather of a funerary urn. Jody Deacon at the National Museum of Wales told them that they are “common in Ireland and seem to turn up more frequently in the western areas of Wales”.
“[This is the] First Bronze Age burial urn fragment from the west Pembrokeshire islands,” remarked Dr. Driver upon hearing the news. “The prehistory of Skokholm has changed completely in only a few days.”
Similar examples from west Wales dated to about 2,100 and 1,750 BCE, or around 3,750 years ago.
Situated two miles off the coast of Pembrokeshire, in Wales, the island of Skokholm, meaning “wooded island” in the language of the Norse peoples who settled it in the Viking Age, is just one-mile long and a half mile across at the widest point.
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Nicknamed, “Dream Island,” rabbits and seabirds, along with other sea life are the only inhabitants outside of primitive campers seeking an overnight experience in nature. The island was bought and turned into a nature reserve by the The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales.
Colonized every summer by tens of thousands of shearwaters, petrels, gulls, guillemots, puffins, and razorbills, there is also a plentiful population of rabbits. Rabbits, according to Danièle Cybulskie writing at Medievalists, were brought over to Britain by the Normans, and warrens were created for them on islands like Bannow, and probably Skokholm, to protect them from predators so as to supply a stable food and fur resource.
Nearby Skomer Island is better known for its well-preserved prehistoric archaeology, and archaeologists Driver and Louise Barker from the Royal Commission, who have carried out archaeological surveys there, intend to pay a little visit to Skokholm after quarantine restrictions ease to investigate the site further.
“Now Skokholm is producing some amazing prehistoric finds,” write the Commission in a release. “It seems we may have an Early Bronze burial mound built over a Middle Stone Age hunter gatherer site, disturbed by rabbits. It’s a sheltered spot, where the island’s cottage now stands, and has clearly been settled for millennia.”
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Shoplifting and petty theft are no laughing matter—except when the culprit is a cute canine kleptomaniac determined to liberate a certain stuffed purple unicorn from the confines of a North Carolina Dollar General store.
According to the store staff, the dogged doggo was a repeat offender—making five separate attempts to be reunited with his favorite cuddle-buddy.
“The store called and said they had a stray dog in the parking lot that kept coming into the store,” Joe Newburn, head of the County Animal Services Department, told McClatchy News. “He’d walk in, go to that unicorn and try to get it. He did it four or five times before they locked the door and called us to come get him. Maybe he had a stuffed animal like that in his original home. I don’t know, but he wanted that purple unicorn bad.”
The persistent “pup-a-traitor” was eventually collared but rather than the hoosegow, he found himself at the local animal shelter, where he was booked in as a stray and given the name Sisu (a nod to a character in Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon).
While Dollar General might have been hard-pressed to sell a plushie covered in doggie drool, Samantha Lane, the animal control officer tasked with escorting Sisu to the shelter decided it was in everyone’s best interest to keep the pair together, so she purchased the $10 toy and took it along.
“He kept going to that one particular unicorn,” Lane told Inside Edition. “He likes to sleep on it, lay on it… He just loves his unicorn.”
Not long after his arrival, the shelter posted pictures of Sisu and a report of his exploits to their Facebook page, saying: “This is what happens when you break into the Dollar General consistently to steal the purple unicorn… but then get Animal Control called to lock you up for your B&E and larceny.”
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Almost immediately, they were inundated with praise for the thoughtful animal control officer as well as interest from potential adopters.
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Although he’ll have to wait out his stray hold, shelter updates indicate that Sisu has new pet parents waiting in the wings to bring him—and his BFF unicorn—home.
Along with a thank-you gift for Officer Lane and a pet food donation to Duplin County Animal Services, Dollar General plans to send a “few extra purple unicorns for the adoptive family,” company spokesperson Crystal Luce told People.
Now, while we firmly believe in the adage “crime doesn’t pay,” for this heart-stealing hound with an unwavering devotion to stuffed his unicorn, we’re willing to make an exception.
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North Carolina-based writer Judy Cole has a new rom-com murder mystery debuting on Amazon: And Jilly Came Tumbling After (from Red Sky Presents).
Bottles of wines recently brought back from the International Space Station were finally opened and drank—several of them—for research purposes.
Having drifted 273 miles above the surface of the Earth for a year, a dozen bottles of Petrus Pomerol, as well as 320 snippets of grape vines, were brought back down as part of an experiment to study the changes in plants within environments of minimal gravity, light, and moisture.
Having the honor of uncorking and sharing a glass of wine at the Institute for Wine and Vine Research in Bordeaux is a lovely thing, but the special space wine tasting was something so unique as to invoke tears among the organizers and tasters.
The program is not just an exercise in excess, but an important scientific experiment to understand how plants react to stress.
Here on Earth, we’re familiar with many of the ways in which plants protect themselves from bugs, heat, water, and more. But things like zero gravity or radiation are not understood in most plants, but must be for several reasons.
MORE: 50 Years Ago NASA Sent a Map Into Space to Help Aliens Find Earth—Now They’ve Got An Awesome Update
If human beings cannot slow or reverse the warming of the planet, more radiation from the Sun will reach the surface of the Earth. If we expect to enjoy wine in space, or amid a changing climate, wine makers must be able to understand what is lethal stress to the plants and what is manageable stress.
Announced on Wednesday, the experiment confirmed that the cold, weightless confines of the ISS do not ruin the wine, but they seem to make it age faster.
Space wines and vines are on their way back to Earth. Is this one giant leap for understanding how wines age, why they taste the way they do, and how vines mutate under extreme conditions?https://t.co/Q3R2ezi2uw#IWC2020 #wine #winelover #NASA #spacecargo #bordeauxwine #bordeaux pic.twitter.com/vWS71zSNrz
— International Wine Challenge (@WineChallenge) January 12, 2021
Likewise, the vine snippets survived the journey and grew faster, even under the restrictive conditions.
12 connoisseurs tasted the bottles blinded alongside an identically aged vintage from a normal cellar. Delightfully, no two tasters described the same experience, with some of the notes reporting the smell of campfires, cured leather, and burnt orange.
“The one that had remained on Earth, for me, was still a bit more closed, a bit more tannic, a bit younger. And the one that had been up into space, the tannins had softened, the side of more floral aromatics came out,” said Jane Anson, a wine expert and writer, according to AP.
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“The wine of Bordeaux is a wine that gets its singularity from its history but also from its innovations,” Christophe Chateau of the Bordeaux Wine-Makers’ Council, who welcomed the research, told AP directly. “And we should never stop innovating.”
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, takeout food has come to feel like an essential rather than a luxury.
Of course, if your best-loved dining spot isn’t close to where you live, that generally puts the kibosh on a delivery… Unless there happens to be a generous chef who’s willing to go the extra miles—roughly 530 of them—to ensure a loyal customer gets to enjoy her favorite meal one more time.
When Baltimore restaurant owner Steve Chu learned one of his longtime patrons (whose name is being withheld for reasons of privacy) was losing her battle with cancer, rather than share the recipe for her go-to dish per son-in-law’s Brandon Jones’ request, the chef offered instead to make the six-hour drive to Vermont to cook it for her in person.
The woman’s daughter, Rina, knows just how much the tempura broccoli from Chu’s Asian-Fusion restaurant Ekiben means to her mom. Even though her mom was teasing, the 72-year-old made sure to put in her takeout order for Rina and Brandon’s upcoming visit.
“She always told us, ‘When I’m on my death bed, I want to have that broccoli,’” Rina said in an interview with The Washington Post. “In fact, when I was packing on Friday to drive up to Vermont, I called my mom to see if she wanted us to bring anything special and she jokingly said, ‘tempura broccoli!’”
After confirming his plans with Rina and Brandon, Chu provisioned his pickup truck, and with business partner Ephrem Abebe and restaurant worker Joe Anonuevo in tow, the three men made the trek to Vermont. The next morning, Chu and his crew bivouacked in the parking lot of his unsuspecting patron’s condo, where they proceeded to fire up the grill, and get cooking.
When the woman opened her door and saw Chu’s familiar figure standing there with a takeout order, she could hardly believe her eyes. It was almost impossible for her to fathom that he’d be willing to travel from Baltimore to Vermont just to cook her a meal.
But for Chu, the gesture didn’t seem far-fetched at all. Unlike many other restaurants, thanks to its devoted clientele, Ekiben was able to ride out the pandemic with relative ease. Knowing how lucky he was, Chu felt it was only right to pay back some of the kindness he’d been so fortunate to receive.
Chu recognized his longtime customer the minute he set eyes on her as well. While patrons come and go, he says she’d made a lasting impression, not only in the way she enjoyed his cooking but in always making a point of praising the cuisine to his restaurant staff.
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Their mission accomplished, Chu and his crew turned down an offer to stay for dinner and headed back to Baltimore—also refusing to take any payment for their time and trouble. Rina Jones reported Chu’s generosity left her and her mom with tears of gratitude—and enough leftovers to stand them to lunch the following day.
After a thankful Brandon Jones reported the events to Facebook his post was deluged with thousands of likes, including one from Baltimore City Council member Zeke Cohen who said: “I always point to Ekiben as a business that always models respect for community and treats people with love. Plus their food is amazing! Read this, eat their tofu nuggets and try not to cry!”
While Chu says he’s enjoying an uptick in business since the details of the long-distance delivery became known, his reason for reaching out had nothing to do with grabbing glory.
“She’s a lovely lady, who has showered us with love at our restaurant for years,” he told The Washington Post, adding it was an honor to help fulfill the family’s wishes. “It was a powerful experience, and I’m happy that we could make it happen.”
And that’s the best takeaway we’ve had in ages.
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North Carolina-based writer Judy Cole has a new rom-com murder mystery debuting on Amazon: And Jilly Came Tumbling After (from Red Sky Presents).
Fagradalsfjall volcano in Iceland began its much-anticipated eruption a couple of weeks ago—marking the first eruption on the Reykjanes Peninsula in over 800 years.
Luckily, drone videographer Vilius Petrikas was there to capture history in the making by flying his camera over the site.
The stunning footage shows the main volcanic cone and surrounding smaller cones erupting—while a valley surrounded by mountains slowly fills with lava.
30-year-old Vilius, who lives in Reykjavik, described first seeing the eruption site: “I was speechless… It’s very hard to describe how it looked and felt in person, the power was overwhelming.
“I’m still in disbelief to what I saw, and can’t wait to get back there to feel the energy of our powerful nature.”
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By viewing Vilius’ work, you’re seeing the first time Fagradalsfjall volcano has erupted in 6,000 years.
(WATCH Vilius’ stunning drone video below.)
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Quote of the Day: “It takes two flints to make a fire.” – Louisa May Alcott
Photo by: Jonathan Forage, cropped
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?
For the first time in 100 years, the endangered California condor will return to the Pacific Northwest.
Once on the brink of extinction, this iconic species has made significant steps towards recovery.
This month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, and the Yurok Tribe announced a final rule that will help facilitate the creation of a new California condor release facility for the reintroduction of condors to Yurok Ancestral Territory and Redwood National Park, which is in the northern portion of the species’ historic range.
The rule will designate the condors affiliated with this program as a nonessential, experimental population under the Endangered Species Act.
This status will provide needed flexibility in managing the reintroduced population, reduce the regulatory impact of reintroducing a federally listed species, and facilitate cooperative conservation.
“The California condor is a shining example of how a species can be brought back from the brink of extinction through the power of partnerships,” said Paul Souza, Regional Director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s California-Great Basin Region. Together, we can help recover and conserve this magnificent species for future generations.”
With a wingspan of almost 10 feet, the California condor is the largest soaring land bird in North America. These massive vultures are essential members of their ecosystems and play a significant role in the spiritual and cultural beliefs of the Yurok Tribe, as well as many other Tribes throughout northern California and the Pacific Northwest.
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Over the past twelve years, the Yurok Tribe has led this reintroduction effort and completed a tremendous amount of legwork to prepare for the return of condors to the Pacific Northwest.
Extensive environmental assessments, contaminant analyses, and community outreach were just a few of the requisite tasks. The Tribe completed this endeavor because the condor is an irreplaceable part of a sacred cultural landscape. Pending completion of the condor release facility, the anticipated release of condors would be fall of 2021 or spring of 2022.
“We are extremely proud of the fact that our future generations will not know a world without prey-go-neesh,” said Joseph L. James, Chairman of the Yurok Tribe.
California condors prehistorically ranged from California to Florida and, in contemporary times, from Western Canada to Northern Mexico.
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By the mid-20th century, condor populations drastically declined due to poaching and poisoning. In 1967, the California condor was listed as endangered. In 1982, only 23 condors survived worldwide. By 1987, all remaining wild condors were placed into a captive breeding program. Thus began an intensive recovery program to save the species from extinction.
As a result of exemplary conservation partnerships, and intensive captive breeding and reintroduction efforts, there are now over 300 California condors in the wild in California, Arizona, Utah, and Baja California.
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“The return of condors to the skies above Redwood National and State Parks is a critical step toward recovery of this majestic landscape,” said Steve Mietz, superintendent of Redwood National and State Parks. “Working with our friends and partners… we will continue the unparalleled success story of condor recovery allowing all Americans to visit the tallest trees in the world while watching one of the largest birds in the world soar overhead.”
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