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Endangered Condors to Return to Northern California Skies After Nearly a Century

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Good News Network
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Jon Myatt/USFWS

For the first time in 100 years, the endangered California condor will return to the Pacific Northwest.

Jon Myatt/USFWS

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.”

Brian Sims, CC license

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.

MORE: Being Around Birds Makes Us Much Happier Says New Science

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.

RELATED: 400 Years After Being Wiped Out by Hunters Britain’s Wild Cranes Make a 
Comeback

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.

CHECK OUT: One Simple Change Cut Accidental Albatross and Seabird Deaths by 98%: ‘Absolutely amazing’

“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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Navajo Nation Reports No New Covid Cases or Deaths

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Good News Network
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For the second day in a row, on Monday the Navajo Nation reported no new COVID-19 cases or deaths.

Tribal health officials say over 191,000 vaccine doses have already been distributed among the community—with more than 87 percent of people already receiving their first-round dose.

Tribal President Jonathan Nez said in a statement, “Once again, the Navajo Nation is exemplifying what can be accomplished when we listen to the public health experts and work together.”

He continued, Our hard work is paying off and our prayers are being answered.”

MORE: Anyone in These States Can Get a Covid-19 Vaccine, Thanks to Several Native Tribes

Last week, the Navajo Nation—which covers parts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah—had a soft re-opening, with some businesses opening their doors at 25% capacity.

(WATCH the KOB4 video about this story below.)

Featured image: Massimo Catarinella, CC license 

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After Massive Wildfires, DroneSeed is Replanting Forests 6x Faster By Using Special Drones

By
Andy Corbley
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DroneSeed
DroneSeed

When a wildfire destroys the forest on your property, what are your options for restoring what has been lost?

DroneSeed will fly a squadron of seed-dispersing aerial robots to lay the foundations for a new forest atop ones that have been torched.

Carrying 57 pounds of tree seeds, the drones weigh over 100 pounds in total, and operate in teams of five using satellite-guided software to identify hundreds of “microsites”—areas where trees will be expected to grow the best.

Holders of the only Federal Aviation Administration license for operating “heavy lift drone swarms,” DroneSeed can seed the ground 6x faster than hand-planting seedlings can—covering around 40 acres per day at a cost of around $275 to $400 per acre.

This may seem like a lot, but as well as saving a huge amount of time—a lot of the cost can be offset with discounts offered by DroneSeed if they can successfully offer the land’s reforestation as carbon credits on the global carbon market. This can help make the cost of planting seedlings 60-70% less than traditional reforesting.

DroneSeed

“We are always looking for ways to innovate, especially when it can help us increase the pace and scale of habitat restoration to benefit both nature and people,” says Jay Kerby, Project Manager at The Nature Conservancy, which was able to contract DroneSeed for Oregon state reforestation after a recent fundraising event.

MORE: Wombats Hailed as Heroes for Digging Down Under, Revealing Water Well During Drought

Right now the company is in beta-testing for their software, but the team feels it’s a game changer that can be used to totally update the playbook for how to combat global climate emissions.

“Across the world there’s been a lot of slash and burn agriculture, so how do you go out and replant those in a cost effective way? And that’s where our technology comes in,” says Grant Canary, CEO of DroneSeed.

An obvious implication is restoration after wildfires on public land, for which DroneSeed would save a lot of taxpayer dollars if contracted. But not all American forests are owned by the government, and for a private owner DroneSeed could be a real help.

CHECK OUT: This Non-Profit is Hard at Work Designing New Forests to Cure California’s Wildfire Curse

For those to whom forests act as a livelihood as sources of lumber, honey, resin, mushrooms, or other agroforestry products, there’s every chance that their business is over if a wildfire moves across their land. But the sheer amount of labor, time, and costs saved by DroneSeed’s technology gives a chance for not only their forests to regrow, but their lives too.

(WATCH the Mashable video about DroneSeed below.)

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This High Schooler Invented Color-Changing Sutures to Detect Infection

By
Andy Corbley
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Society for Science

In the country’s oldest science fair, 17-year old high schooler Dasia Taylor submitted a surgical suture that changes colors to warn of possible infections.

Society for Science

This invention, aimed at helping surgery patients in Africa detect infections before they become serious, elevated Dasia into the 40 finalists of the national Regeneron Science Talent Search. 

The sutures are the perfect solution to a problem which Smithsonian Magazine summarizes—where not only are post-surgical infection rates typically higher in Africa, but expensive, smartphone-based infection early warning systems aren’t practical in many African countries where basic cell phones are widely used, but not smartphones.

Beginning her project back in 2019 in her chemistry class at Iowa City West High School, the process from theory to practice ended up winning Dasia several regional science fair prizes.

Her method uses beetroot, famous as any cook knows for turning everything red and purple. The pH of our skin is acidic and averages at 5, while an infected wound raises that pH to a level of 9, and as it turns out beets change color from candy apple red to deep purple as the pH level of its environment grows.

“I found that beets changed color at the perfect pH point,” Taylor tells Smithsonian. “That’s perfect for an infected wound. And so, I was like, ‘Oh, okay. So beets is where it’s at.’”

MORE: New Mexico Girl Wins $250,000 Top Prize in Teen Science Fair For Inventing Tool That Could Prevent Starvation in Africa

After concluding beets were where it’s at, the next step was to find which material held the dye from the beet juice in while also fulfilling the natural requirements of suture thread. A cotton-polyester blend eventually proved to be the ticket.

Suture thread turning from red to purple after 5 minutes under an infection-like pH/Society for Science

After five minutes of infection, the red suture began to turn purple, suggesting patients would be aware of infection immediately, perhaps even before being discharged from a hospital.

While outside of the top ten, Dasia’s sutures won her $25,000, as well as the Seaborg Award, given by the 40 finalists to whichever student most embodies the spirit of their class. Taylor was also given the honor of speaking on behalf of the Regeneron Science Talent Search Class of 2021.

“I have so much school pride because when somebody in our school does something great, they’re celebrated to its fullest extent,” says Taylor. “And being able to be one of those kids has been so amazing.”

CHECK OUT:  Teen from Wildfire-Hit Town Wins $250k Scholarship for Awesome Explanation of Quantum Tunneling

Curiously enough, Taylor sees her fortunes elsewhere, and wants to study political science at Howard University, before becoming a lawyer when her time at high school comes to an end.

(MEET Dasia and learn about her project in the video below.)

Editor’s Note: this story has been altered to better reflect the characteristics of pH.

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Scientist Thinks He Finally Knows Why People Hear Sounds Coming From the Northern Lights

By
Andy Corbley
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Emily Hon
Emily Hon

Epitomizing the old adage of “where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” a group of volunteers and scientists in Finland have set out to prove or disprove that the aurora borealis, or northern lights, make sounds.

For hundreds of years reports of sizzling, cracking, or whooshing sounds abound, especially from Indigenous people living in the Arctic, but also from non-Indigenous people living in Canada, Finland, and other northern countries.

A belief among some groups of Canadian First Nations is that the aurora consists of the spirits of their ancestors, and the noise is their singing.

However, very little science exists which would suggest that the solar radiation moving in the magnetosphere is capable of producing anything more than visuals of famous green, pink, and purple lights.

MORE: Jaw-Dropping Footage of Northern Lights Pulsing Across Entire Canadian Sky–With Southern Lights, Too

But just as there’s a line of reasoning among people who look for species presumed extinct that if so many people are reporting sightings, there must be something there, one scientist figures that for years people have described sounds coming from the aurora, so it’s at least worth exploring the possibility.

Auroral Acoustics

Robert Snache, CC license

A professor in acoustics at Finland’s Aalto University, Unto Laine, who himself heard slight sounds while watching the northern lights in remote Lapland, looked at the mountain of anecdotal reports and sought to construct a hypothesis that might explain them.

He came up with the idea in 2016 that the sounds were electrical discharges resulting from a “temperature inversion,” which happens when cool air, rather than floating above the earth, clings to the ground, and when warm air which normally radiates near the level of dirt, rises to cover the cold air at altitudes around 60-400 meters—a reversal of their normal positions.

When this warm air rises, it carries negatively charged electrons with it to the bottom of the inversion. The field of static electrical potential expands up towards the sky and down towards the earth, and as the northern lights bombard the magnetosphere with positively charged electrons, they coalesce at the top of the inversion.

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

“I tested it with two hours of material I recorded in Fiskars in 2013,” Laine wrote in his university press. “The model fitted the hypothesis beautifully and at the same time gave the height of the inversion layer more precisely at 78–80 meters.”

This would at least explain why the sounds are described as “sizzling” by one First Nations photographer, and of “bubbles popping” by Laine himself, as well as why plenty of people never hear anything when standing under the aurora—since if there were no temperature inversion the electrical conditions would be absent.

The data was gathered by Laine over nearly two decades with a setup of three microphones recorded over certain periods, but now his research has inspired a new citizen science project at the Hankasalmi Observatory in Jyväskylä, Finland that will record potential aurora sounds 24 hours a day with four microphones.

The project was funded by 200 separate donors, as well as a science grant from the EU.

“We are trying to hear the same sound with three or four microphones located a few meters apart,” said Arto Oksanen, the observatory’s president. “By measuring the time delay in each recording, it is possible to calculate the three-dimensional position of the sound source—or at least the direction to the sound source.”

CHECK OUT: Star-Gazer Reveals Stunning Pictures of Space He Takes From His Back Garden

This would allow researchers to place a distance on the genesis of the sound, and to a large part would help prove or disprove Laine’s theory. We’ll be sure to keep you updated on the eventual findings of this intriguing project.

(LISTEN for claps in the northern lights video below.)

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“There is immense power when a group of people with similar interests gets together to work toward the same goals.” – Idowu Koyenikan

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “There is immense power when a group of people with similar interests gets together to work toward the same goals.” – Idowu Koyenikan

Photo by: Carl Jorgensen

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?

 

 

Startup’s New Method to Recycle CO2 into Protein-Rich Animal Feed Gets $9 Million in Funding

By
Andy Corbley
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Deep Branch
Deep Branch

An agriculture feed startup has received $9.4 million in initial funding for its technology that produces pure protein from CO2.

The protein would come from carbon dioxide generated by industrial exhaust, and would be combined with hydrogen to create scalable, cheap animal feed to replace soybeans—a major feed crop linked heavily with deforestation.

Deep Branch combines some of the most basic chemical building blocks, present in everything from stars to skyscrapers—like carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen—inside a fermentation chamber where it produces high-value protein called “Proton.”

This Proton is then dried, mixed with other nutrients, and turned into pellets at a 90% CO2 savings rate compared to other feed sources.

Attracting support from the biggest feed producers in Europe, as well as carbon-control/sustainable investment funds from financial institutions like Barclays, a Series-A funding round has now been completed with multiple long-term investment commitments.

Deep Branch

James Ferrier, an investment director at Barclays, said in a statement that “Deep Branch’s technology has the potential to be part of the solution to overcome the biggest environmental challenges of our time.”

Unlike fishmeal or soy, there is no fluctuation in price or yield caused by seasonality, food security, or reliance on favorable weather conditions.

The resulting stable prices and reliable manufacturing means that every link in the supply chain can calculate costs with much more precision.

MORE: Inspired by Marvel’s Mythical ‘Wakanda’, Ugandan Village is Built on Shea Butter and Solar Power

Deep Branch, which operates in the UK and Netherlands, is currently looking for a suitable location for its first large-scale production facility.

Their hope is that the product will cut into the market share of soybeans, but also fishmeal produced normally from wild-caught salmon leftovers—another source of protein for animal feed. Their first scouted location is in Norway, the world’s largest exporter of salmon.

RELATED: This Brilliant Low-Income Housing in Colombia is Made From Coffee Waste

Deep Branch is looking to begin commercially trialing their feed with hatchery salmon and chickens next year, with the only remaining major production hurdle being where to find sources of the other vitamins and minerals needed for healthy animal growth.

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See Couple Adorably Recreate Their Wedding Album 50 Years Later, at the Same Church in the Same Dress

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Good News Network
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SWNS
SWNS

A couple have recreated their wedding album half a century later—at the same church, and in the very same dress.

Carolyn and Kelly Gay, who are now in their seventies, got married in March 1971 with a white wedding at their local church.

To celebrate their golden anniversary, the couple returned to DSM First Church in Des Moines, Iowa, to recreate their pictures—exactly 50 years later to the day.

The church had the same alter, cross, and candelabras as was present at their first ceremony so many years before, so the photos were a perfect match.

SWNS

Grandmother-of-four Carolyn spent three years growing out her hair for the shoot and was even able to wear the same dress she wore in her twenties.

SWNS

The new photos were taken by Sam Hoyle from Two Hoyles Photography—who even managed to edit in Carolyn’s late father Rolland Swalking her down the aisle.

Carolyn said, “It took about an hour to an hour-and-a-half to take the new pictures and it was just a fun time. They’ve had the church painted a couple of times since, but not long ago they scraped it back and have taken it back to the original colour… it’s amazing.”

MORE: Flood Waters Couldn’t Stop This Australian Miracle Wedding From Happening

As part of the shoot, Carolyn and Kelly dug out receipts from the original big day and rediscovered the entire thing—including honeymoon and feeding nearly 200 guests—came to around $340.

Carolyn’s dress cost $46.35, with an extra $8.24 for alterations, while catering for 193 guests totaled $63.82.

Flowers, the biggest expense, came to $131.84, while their four-night honeymoon to New Orleans came in at $91.20, with $0.36 for gas.

RELATED: Cancer Ward Sets Up Dream Wedding For Patient in 3 Days: ‘We’ll totally figure it out for you’

But why go to all the trouble of recreating their wedding after all these years? Carolyn says, “I have one wedding picture I really, really loved when they took it from in the balcony overlooking all the people that came, and you can see a picture of Jesus overlooking the wedding.

SWNS

“I wanted so badly to recreate that picture in particular.

The overlaid image took weeks to produce after the wedding, because it was a novel photography technique, but this time the photographer “whipped it out in no time.”

CHECK OUT: They Canceled Their Big Wedding But Took a $5k Catering Deposit And Served Thanksgiving Meals To The Needy

Carolyn hasn’t made plans for the 60th anniversary because, after all, “we’ve got to get there first”.

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Scott Kolbrenner Won $145,000 on ‘Wheel of Fortune.’ Now He’s Giving It All to Charity

By
Judy Cole
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Wheel of Fortune

Wheel of Fortune players have been buying vowels and filling in the blanks on “America’s game” since 1975. With stakes determined by the luck of the spin combined with contestants’ puzzle-solving prowess, it’s a formula that ensures pretty much anything can happen—including one winner who recently gave away his entire $145,000 prize earnings to charity.

Wheel of Fortune

That’s just what Encino, California resident Scott Kolbrenner did on the Wheel episode that aired March 18, 2021—and it was what he’d planned to do all along should he win.

“When I went on the show, I was doing it for the fun of it,” he told Good Morning America. “I said to my wife… ‘…Anything that I get, let’s give it to charity. We’re very fortunate. Let’s see if we can support some others who aren’t as fortunate as we are.”

The luck of the wheel was with Kolbrenner throughout the entire show. After scoring a $3,500 wedge, he landed next on the Express Wedge, which he parlayed into another winning answer.

Kolbrenner kept the momentum building, finishing the game with a total of $45,000 to ace out the other contestants. Along with the show’s pre-set letters, R, L, S, T, N, and E, Kolbrenner chose P, H, G, and O for his chance at solving the grand-prize puzzle in the category “What Are You Wearing?”

Once Vanna White was finished turning tiles, all only six letters remained hidden. The 10-second clock had barely begun ticking when Kolbrenner correctly guessed: “Flowing white gown.”

Pat Sajack revealed the bonus amount—$100,000. With winnings totaling $145,000, Kolbrenner became the fifth-biggest winner in Wheel’s 46-year history.

MORE: Oklahoma Goodwill Employee Finds $42,000 Hidden in Donated Clothing –And Her Integrity Pays Off

Kolbrenner split the booty between two local charities with which he’s long been affiliated: Uplift Family Services, a comprehensive behavioral health treatment provider (of which he is a board member), and Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, whose outreach supports thousands of California families facing food insecurity.

“While I hoped I would do okay, I never thought that anything like this could happen,” Kolbrenner told Yahoo News, “I got lucky that day and knew right away that I wanted to share my good fortune. The fun and memories from the day will stay with me forever, but the urgent need in our community cannot wait.”

In a statement from Uplift Family Services, Kolbrenner revealed that “his ‘good fortune’ came long before he ever spun the Wheel, having grown up an intact, secure family where he never had to worry about his next meal or for his safety.” He credits his grandfather with instilling the values of “charity and civic duty as a critical part of life.”

RELATED: Elon Musk’s Brother Starts ‘Million Garden Movement’ to Plant a Garden For Every Household Living in a Food Desert

We’ll bet you don’t need to buy a “U” to know that makes Scott Kolbrenner, a TR_E H_MANITARIAN.

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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).

A Team of Maverick Engineers Want to Roll the Geological Clock Back on Sinai and Replace Desert with Lush Greenery

By
Andy Corbley
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Sinai Desert/Florian Prischl, CC license
Sinai Desert/Florian Prischl, CC license

A pioneering Dutch land engineer wants to turn the Sinai Desert into the Sinai Forest, using techniques demonstrated on a mass scale in China.

Theorizing that since it’s been confirmed that even primitive human activity can  permanently degrade a landscape, with effort it should be perfectly plausible to return a landscape to a greener, more watered state too.

Green Gold, a documentary covering the transformation of the dry, arid deserts of the Loess Plateau in China into green productive farmland, has Dutch morphologist and former dredger—whose CV includes work on Dubai’s artificial islands—thinking he might do the same in the Biblical land of Sinai, where Egypt meets Asia.

While working as a dredging specialist, Ties Van der Hoeven, founder of The Weather Makers Holistic Engineering, was contacted by Egyptian colleagues who asked him if it were possible to try and dredge Lake Bardawil in the Sinai Peninsula back to a normal state. Where once the waters reached down 20-40 meters, the lake had become so filled with sediment as to be not much deeper than a community diving pool.

In surveying for the project, Van der Hoeven came to realize the bottom of the lake was essentially acting as a sewer for the entire peninsula’s soil runoff for thousands of years. This runoff is evidence of an emerging scientific theory that Sinai, and in fact all of North Africa, was green at one point, with Van der Hoeven discovering ancient monastery records that tally timber exports, and cave paintings of trees and grass.

While the unique relationship of the region to solar weather patterns already means that the Sahara needs no unique reason for why it became the world’s largest hot desert,  ancient human shepherds across North Africa could have disrupted the delicate plant cover which was critical for keeping the soil alive and the landscape watered, “desertifying” the area much faster.

One of Van der Hoeven’s colleagues is Professor Millán, a 79-year-old Spanish meteorologist whose life’s work has been investigating the change in weather patterns off the Iberian coast and their relationship to the loss of wetlands.

MORE: Nothing Restores a River or Local Economy Like Removing a Dam

Millán, and in fact the director of Green Gold—with whom Van der Hoeven also collaborates—both arrived independently at the same conclusion about the impact of humans’ tinkering of the landscape. Essentially, if one chops down trees and degrades the ecosystem, rains will eventually disappear, since vegetation is necessary for holding water in the land, and returning it to the sky.

“Water begets water, soil is the womb, vegetation is the midwife,” goes Millán’s simple maxim, according to The Guardian.

Rain in the desert

So with the Sinai, Van der Hoeven aims to start with restoring the cycle of water. After the lake, he wants to work to return the surrounding area to wetlands to ensure the landscape can retain at least some water.

Next they want to take to the heights, 700 meters (2,100 feet) above sea level, where fog catchers can be employed to collect the moisture condensing at high altitudes.

RELATED: 12 Countries Have Built Roads Out of Plastic – And They Can Perform As Well or Better Than Asphalt

Next, using the billions of tons of lake sediment from Bardawil, terraces can be constructed for agriculture where steep hills and valleys prevent it. The sediment also contains a huge amount of organic material and can be used, in certain cases, to re-fertilize desolate earth as long as whatever is going to grow is tolerant of salt.

Then a unique kind of technology—a large drum of water turned into a sort of “vivarium,” would be deployed to the Sinai ecosystem under cover of greenhouses. Containing what looks like a pond, they would also use the sediment from the lake, while growing plants around them as the water component slowly evaporates, leaving the salt behind—dripping down into the sand for days and days.

After a while, the drums can be moved to a new location after the area becomes a stable growing environment. The process of greening would allow more localized moisture to enter the atmosphere, resulting in more rain for the region.

CHECK OUT: Spanish City is Squeezing Green Electricity From Leftover Oranges

“If vegetation comes back, you increase cover, you reduce temperature, you reduce solar reflection, you start creating a stable climate,” Van der Hoeven tells the Guardian. “If we want to do something about global warming, we have to do something about deserts.”

Deserts act like the color white in summer—they reflect heat, unfortunately right back into the atmosphere. Areas covered in vegetation use that heat to evaporate water and create clouds and rain.

The unique geological placement of the peninsula means it acts as a rain funnel, channeling moist air from the Mediterranean out to the Indian Ocean. A wetter, greener Sinai would instead absorb and trap some of that moisture, dispensing it in the form of rain across the Middle East and Africa.

READ: Formerly Vacant Lot in Milan Wins ‘Reinventing Cities’ Contest With Vineyard Atop Building With Public Sidewalk

Not only bringing boon to the farmers of the ancient and holy peninsula of Sinai, The Weather Makers are looking to improve the prospects of the entire region.

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Boys Who Play Video Games Linked With Lower Depression Risk, UK Shows Study

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Good News Network
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By ulricaloeb, CC license on Flickr

Boys who regularly played video games at age 11 were less likely to develop depressive symptoms three years later, finds a new study led by a University College London researcher.

By ulricaloeb, CC license on Flickr

The findings published in Psychological Medicine demonstrated that boys who played video games most days had 24% fewer depressive symptoms three years later, than boys who played video games less than once a month.

This effect was only significant among boys with low physical activity levels, so researchers assert this might suggest that less active boys could derive more enjoyment and social interaction from video games.

While their study cannot confirm if the relationship is causal, the researchers say there are some positive aspects of video games which could support mental health, such as problem-solving, and social, cooperative and engaging elements.

“While we cannot confirm whether playing video games actually improves mental health, it didn’t appear harmful in our study and may have some benefits,” said lead author, PhD student Aaron Kandola. “Particularly during the pandemic, video games have been an important social platform for young people.”

SEE ALSO: Study During Lockdown Shows Video Gaming–Even For Hours–Can Help Your Mental Health

“Screens allow us to engage in a wide range of activities. Guidelines and recommendations about screen time should be based on our understanding of how these different activities might influence mental health and whether that influence is meaningful,”

Kandola previously led studies finding that sedentary behavior (sitting still) appeared to increase the risk of depression and anxiety in adolescents.

To gain more insight into what drives that relationship, he and colleagues chose to investigate screen time as it is responsible for much of sedentary behavior in adolescents. Other studies have found mixed results, and many did not differentiate between different types of screen time, compare between genders, or follow such a large group of young people over multiple years.

The research team from UCL, Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, and the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute in Australia, reviewed data from 11,341 adolescents who are part of the Millennium Cohort Study, a nationally representative sample of young people who have been involved in research since they were born in the UK in 2000–2002.

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The study participants had all answered questions about their time spent on social media, playing video games, or using the internet, at age 11, and also answered questions about depressive symptoms, such as low mood, loss of pleasure and poor concentration, at age 14. The clinical questionnaire measures depressive symptoms and their severity on a spectrum, rather than providing a clinical diagnosis.

In the analysis, the research team accounted for other factors that might have explained the results, such as socioeconomic status, physical activity levels, reports of bullying, and prior emotional symptoms.

RELATED: Taking Up Hobbies Can Prevent—Or Reduce Symptoms of—Depression by One-Third

There may also be other explanations for the link between video games and depression, such as differences in social contact or parenting styles, which the researchers did not have data for.

“We need to reduce how much time children – and adults – spend sitting down, for their physical and mental health, but that doesn’t mean that screen use is inherently harmful.” adds Kandola.

Senior author Dr Mats Hallgren from Karolinska has conducted other studies in adults finding that mentally-active types of screen time, such as playing video games or working at a computer, might not affect depression risk in the way that more passive forms of screen time, like looking at social media, appear to do.

“The relationship between screen time and mental health is complex, and we still need more research to help understand it,” said Hallgren.

CHECK OUT: Johns Hopkins is Offering Free Online Course in Psychological First Aid

But, any initiatives to reduce young people’s screen time should be “targeted and nuanced,” he said. “Our research points to possible benefits of screen time; however, we should still encourage young people to be physically active and to break up extended periods of sitting with light physical activity.”

(SOURCE: University College London)

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“It does not astonish or make us angry that it takes a whole year to bring into the house 3 great white peonies…” – May Sarton

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “It does not astonish or make us angry that it takes a whole year to bring into the house 3 great white peonies.” – May Sarton

Photo: copyright GWC

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?

 

Top 20 Things We Want to Do on a Post-Covid Vacation – And Airline Change Fees Are Crucial

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Good News Network
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Peter Conlan

Lounging on the beach may have been the No.1 destination in the past, but after a year of much sitting around, it is set to play second fiddle for more active adventures.

Peter Conlan

A survey of 2,000 adults revealed 67 percent have spent too much of the past 12 months laying around doing nothing—as a result, if they’re given the chance to get away, more than a third want to avoid sunbathing and do something more adventurous instead.

Almost one third (32 percent) would like to see the Northern Lights, but the most popular holiday activity longed-for this year is exploring the countryside on a walking adventure.

More than half (56 percent) want to go somewhere on holiday where they can take photographs of stunning scenery, or would like to visit a new country. 29 percent of respondents have already drawn up a list of locations to visit while in lockdown, dreaming of the future.

The poll, by Icelandair, found that 37 percent of those surveyed have booked a trip already.

Most people, though, are still worried about booking airline tickets in case they need to cancel—something just 27 percent were ever worried about prior to Covid.

The ability to postpone a holiday without charge is now more important than the hotel, food, drink or attractions at the destination.

LOOK: Stunning ‘Bubble Hotel’ Under the Icelandic Stars is Truly the Perfect ‘Socially Distancing’ Destination

Being able to get a refund is as important as the weather, while being able to postpone without charge is now four times more important than it was before the pandemic.

Almost three quarters (72 percent) also said they will not book a holiday this year if there is a possibility that they can’t cancel it or postpone it without being charged.

“If you need to change your booking, we’re flexible,” said Bogi Nils, CEO of Icelandair. “You can switch the date of your travel without any additional change fees on top of fare differences, or you can cancel and receive a voucher valid for three years.

Most major US airlines have policies in place that will waive change fees for any new travel booked by March 30-31, 2021, including American, Delta, Frontier, Jet Blue, and United—and through April if you book with Air Canada or WestJet.

Overall, six in 10 of those polled by OnePoll admitted they didn’t fully appreciate how important it was to get away until the Covid outbreak curtailed freedoms last year.

RELATED: Good News on Epic Bike Trail Stretching Coast to Coast Across USA, as Cycling Popularity Soars During Pandemic

And more than two-thirds (69 percent) say the last twelve months have made them want to experience more in life.

THE TOP THINGS PEOPLE WANT TO DO ON A HOLIDAY POST-COVID
1. Walking in the countryside
2. Visit castles and other historic buildings
3. Beach lounging
4. See the Northern Lights
5. Swimming pool lounging
6. Boat trip
7. Visit museums
8. Whale watching
9. Visit a rainforest
10. Visit a theme park
11. Safari /exotic animal spotting
12. See a volcano
13. Climb a mountain
14. Watch a geyser erupt
15. Cycling
16. Zip wire
17. Rafting / Kayaking
18. Visit a desert
19. Cave exploration
20. Off-road driving

CHECK OUT: These 6 Cities and This State Will Pay You to Move There

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Software Exec Walks 12 Miles Every Day in D.C. to Pick Up Trash During Pandemic

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Caroline Miller

Billy Adams has found a lockdown ritual that not only benefits his health, but the mental health and beauty surrounding others in his beloved Washington, DC.

Billy Adams on his morning walk – Caroline Miller

Since June the software executive has been selecting a different 12-mile route every day, picking up just about any piece of garbage on it—in rain, snow, or sleet.

He even gets an empty bag from Starbucks at the half-way mark near Canal Road in Georgetown to continue his clean-up, depositing full bags of litter in public trash cans.

He sets off from his Maryland home just over the D.C. line at 8:30am and uses his hands to pick up the trash for three hours.

Adams told the Washington Post that the habit has been immensely satisfying. “When you see it beforehand, then you walk by it after and it’s all clean, that’s a good feeling.”

Employees at the M Street Starbucks call the 54-year-old “garbage guy,” and they often have a bag ready for him when he stops in to buy a coffee, always leaving a generous tip.

Store manager Ahmed Oukchir told the Post that because of Billy he also has become inspired to be more conscious of litter.

Caroline Miller on a walk with her brother

Billy’s sister Caroline Miller has gone on the walks her husband and says it has had a “contagious impact” on her, too.

“Billy is somebody who likes to do the right thing,” she told the Post. “If he sees trash on the ground, he can’t just walk past it.”

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Caroline, who was named a GNN Good News Ambassador in 2012, grew up with her brother in Bethesda, Maryland, adjacent to DC, and have deep roots here.

“It is especially important to our family because our great-great-great-grandfather was Jacob Karr, who owned the most popular watch store, within walking distance from the White House,” she told GNN. “Abraham Lincoln and all of the US presidents, from then until he retired in the early 1900s, were friendly with him and he tended to their watches.”

Caroline Miller

“Since D.C. is in his blood, I think it’s even more important to my brother that he lend a hand to beautifying the city.”

Although it is a one-man mission, Billy is thinking about organizing a weekend clean-up for Earth Day in April, so he can try to get others hooked on doing good—and feeling good, at the same time.

LOOK: When Man Got Sick of Trash and Crime, He Bought Buddha Statue for the Street—and Transformed the Neighborhood

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Federal Judge Blocks Further Oil And Gas Extraction on Ohio’s Only National Forest

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Wayne National Forest Ohio – Credit: Taylor McKinnon / Center for Biological Diversity

A federal judge blocked new oil and gas leasing and fracking in Ohio’s Wayne National Forest, a popular destination for outdoor recreation and the only National Forest located in the vast state.

Wayne National Forest Ohio – Credit: Taylor McKinnon / Center for Biological Diversityfos

The ruling rebuked the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for failing to consider threats to public health, endangered species, and watersheds before opening more than 40,000 acres of the forest to fracking last year.

Pending completion of new environmental reviews, the March 9 order blocks new leases, prohibits new drilling permits and surface disturbance on existing leases, and prohibits water withdrawals from the Little Muskingum River for already-approved drilling.

“This is great news for the future of Ohio’s only national forest,” said Taylor McKinnon, a senior campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity. “We’re grateful the judge recognized the damage fracking could do to this spectacular forest. The order will protect our climate, endangered wildlife and drinking water for millions of people.”

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U.S. District Judge Michael Watson said the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management had “demonstrated a disregard for the different types of impacts caused by fracking in the Forest. The agencies made decisions premised on a faulty foundation.”

“This is a victory for public health (and) outdoor recreation,” said Nathan Johnson, public lands director for the Ohio Environmental Council. “The Wayne is a public forest that we all own. Keeping its air and water clean, as well as its views intact, is a win that we can all celebrate.”

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

In May 2017 conservation groups sued the agencies over plans to permit fracking in the Wayne, saying federal officials had relied on an outdated plan and ignored significant environmental threats before approving the fracking.

The BLM’s leasing plan would industrialize Ohio’s only national forest through road-building, well pads and gas lines, the lawsuit said. This would destroy Indiana bat habitat, pollute watersheds and water supplies that support millions of people, and endanger other federally protected species in the area.

The Wayne National Forest is a patchwork of public land that covers over a quarter million acres of Appalachian foothills in southeastern Ohio, and much of the property is former coal-mining lands, where restoration has already been done to restore water quality and mitigate toxic minerals that seeped into lakes and rivers from the mines.

LOOK: Sanctuary Containing ‘Healthiest Coral Reefs in the World’ Just Tripled in Size Thanks to U.S. Government Protection

Currently, privately owned oil and natural gas rights underlie around 59% of the forest land, totaling about 144,103 acres. The USDA Forest Service is the managing agency when it comes to mineral leases, and, as of November 2018, there were 1,272 active vertical wells on the Wayne Forest properties—involving both federal and private mineral operations.

The ruling—along with a Biden administration moratorium on new oil and gas leasing on federal public lands—is a big win for conservation groups who fought a three year legal battle to protect the 40,000 acres in question.

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“There’s only one thing more precious than our time and that’s what we spend it on.” – Leo Christopher

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Quote of the Day: “There’s only one thing more precious than our time and that’s what we spend it on.” – attributed to Leo Christopher

Photo by: Chang Duong

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?

 

Oklahoma Goodwill Employee Finds $42,000 Hidden in Donated Clothing –And Her Integrity Pays Off

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Andrea with her boss – Goodwill Industries of Central Oklahoma

When a new worker at a charity shop found stacks of $100 bills stuffed inside two old sweaters she thought they must be fake.

The store associate at Goodwill Industries then realized they were absolutely real—and the cash totaled $42,000.

Andrea Lessing was in the back sorting clothes and looking for rips or stains when she saw the treasure, and the first thing she thought of was her six-year-old daughter.

“Her birthday is coming up in July, so I can actually give her an amazing birthday party,” she told KFOR, a local news station.

But Lessing says she believes in karma, and couldn’t imagine keeping the money for herself.

She reported the lost cash, and the shop in Norman, Oklahoma was able to track down the owner, thanks to some identifiable documentation that was bundled with the money inside the donation.

RELATED: Struggling Fisherman Finds Rare Melo Pearl Worth $320,000 While Walking on Beach

The owners, who had forgotten about the money when they donated the clothing gave Andrea $1,000, which made her break down and cry.

Andrea with her boss – Goodwill Industries of Central Oklahoma

“Since we gave her the reward on Thursday. I spoke to her yesterday, and she is still in shock—and awed by their generosity,” Lacey Lett, the Director of Communications at Goodwill Industries of Central Oklahoma, told GNN.

WATCH: The Lifesaving Moment a Man Topples Backward Off a Balcony—But a Bystander Catches His Foot

Reportedly, it’s not just the largest cash find in Oklahoma Goodwill history, it ranks among the top finds for Goodwill internationally—and the reward will help Andrea give her daughter an ‘amazing birthday’.

“I made the right decision,” Lessing said.

And, her belief that ‘if you do something good, then something good will come back to you’ turned out to as authentic and true as the currency she uncovered.

RESCUE: Trucker Hero Pulls Over When He Sees ‘Frantic’ Man Running Up Highway After Wreck Flings His Toddler into the Dark

WATCH the local news video from KFOR-TV below:

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

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

Here is your weekly horoscope…

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY – Week beginning March 26, 2021
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com

ARIES (March 21-April 19):
In the novel House of Leaves, the hero Johnny Truant describes his friend Lude as wanting “more money, better parties, and prettier girls.” But Johnny wants something different. What is it? He says, “I’m not even sure what to call it except I know it feels roomy and it’s drenched in sunlight and it’s weightless and I know it’s not cheap.” In my opinion, that declaration is far too imprecise! He’ll never get what he wants until he gets clearer about it. But his fantasy is a good start. It shows that he knows what the fulfillment of his yearning feels like. I suggest you get inspired by Johnny Truant’s approximation to conjure up one of your own. Gaze ahead a few years, and see if you can imagine what your best possible future feels like. Then describe it to yourself as precisely as possible.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
How distraught I was when I discovered that one of my favorite poets, Pablo Neruda, was an admirer of the murderous dictator Joseph Stalin. It broke my heart to know I could never again read his tender, lyrical poetry with unconditional appreciation. But that’s life: Some of our heroes and teachers disappoint us, and then it’s healthy to re-evaluate our relationships with them. Or maybe our own maturation leads us to realize that once-nurturing influences are no longer nurturing. I recommend that sometime soon, you take a personal inventory with these thoughts in mind. I suspect there may be new sources of inspiration headed your way. Get ready for them.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
Self-help author Steve Maraboli has useful advice for you to consider in the coming weeks. I hope you’ll meditate on what he says and take decisive action. He writes, “Incredible change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over instead of craving control over what you don’t.” To get started, Gemini, make a list of three things you do have power over and three things you wish you did but don’t have power over.

CANCER (June 21-July 22):
While he was alive, Cancerian author Franz Kafka burned 90% of everything he wrote. In a note to a friend before he died, he gave instructions to burn all the writing he would leave behind. Luckily, his friend disobeyed, and that’s why today we can read Kafka’s last three novels and a lot more of his stuff. Was his attitude toward his creations caused by the self-doubt that so many of us Cancerians are shadowed by? Was he, like a lot of us Crabs, excessively shy about sharing personal details from his life? In accordance with astrological omens, I urge you to at least temporarily transcend any Kafka-like tendencies you have. It’s time to shine brightly and boldly as you summon your full powers of self-expression.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
To create your horoscope, I’ve borrowed ideas from Leo-born author Cassiano Ricardo. He speaks of a longing “for all that is tall like pine trees, and all that is long like rivers, and all that is purple like dusk.” I think yearnings like those will be healthy and wise for you to cultivate in the coming weeks. According to my reading of the astrological omens, you need expansive influences that stretch your imagination and push you beyond your limitations. You will benefit from meditations and experiences that inspire you to outgrow overly small expectations.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Virgo actor and director Jean-Louis Barrault (1910–1994) aspired to “wake up a virgin each morning.” He wanted “to feel hungry for life,” as if he had been reborn once again. In order to encourage that constant renewal, he regarded going to sleep every night as “a small death.” I recommend his approach to you during the coming weeks. In my astrological opinion, the cosmic rhythms will be conspiring to regularly renew your desires: to render them pure, clean, raw, and strong. Cooperate with those cosmic rhythms!

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
Is there anything more gratifying than being listened to, understood, and seen for who you really are? I urge you to seek out that pleasure in abundance during the coming weeks. My reading of the astrological omens tells me you need the nurturing jolt that will come from being received and appreciated with extra potency. I hope you have allies who can provide that for you. If you don’t, search for allies who can. And in the meantime, consider engaging the services of a skillful psychotherapist or life coach or some other professional listener.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
“Blobs, spots, specks, smudges, cracks, defects, mistakes, accidents, exceptions, and irregularities are the windows to other worlds,” writes author Bob Miller. I would add that all those things, along with related phenomena like fissures, blemishes, stains, scars, blotches, muck, smears, dents, and imperfections, are often windows to very interesting parts of this seemingly regular old ordinary world—parts that might remain closed off from us without the help of those blobs and defects. I suggest you take full advantage of the opportunities they bring your way in the coming weeks.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
Innovative psychologist Carl Jung had a nuanced understanding of the energies at work in our deep psyche. He said our unconscious minds are “not only dark but also light; not only bestial, semi-human, and demonic, but also superhuman, spiritual, and, in the classical sense of the word, ‘divine.'” I bring this to your attention, Sagittarius, because now is a favorable time to get better acquainted with and more appreciative of your unconscious mind. For best results, you must not judge it for being so paradoxical. Don’t be annoyed that it’s so unruly and non-rational. Have fun with its fertility and playfulness and weirdness.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
The fantasy drama Game of Thrones appeared on TVs all over the world. But the audience that watched it in China got cheated out of a lot of essential action. Government censorship deleted many scenes, including appearances by dragons, which play a starring role in the story. As you can imagine, Chinese viewers had trouble following some of the plot points. Telling you about this, Capricorn, is my way of nudging you to make sure you don’t miss any of the developments going on in your own personal drama. Some may be hidden, as in China’s version of Game of Thrones. Others might be subtle or disguised or underestimated. Make it your crusade to know about everything.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
“Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind,” wrote author Rudyard Kipling. Yes, they are. I agree. They change minds, rouse passions, build identities, incite social change, inspire irrationality, and create worlds. This is always true, but it will be especially important for you to keep in mind during the coming weeks. The ways you use language will be key to your health and success. The language that you hear and read will also be key to your health and success. For best results, summon extra creativity and craftsmanship as you express yourself. Cultivate extra discernment as you choose what you absorb.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
Piscean linguist Anna Wierzbicka says the Russian expression Dusha naraspashku means “unbuttoned soul.” She continues, “The implication is that it is good, indeed wonderful, if a person’s ‘soul,’ which is the seat of emotions, is flung open in a spontaneous, generous, expansive, impetuous gesture, expressing full trust in other people and an innocent readiness for communion with them.” I wouldn’t recommend that you keep your soul unbuttoned 24/7/365, but in the coming weeks, I hope you’ll allocate more time than usual to keeping it unbuttoned.

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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Coldplay Adopts a Barge That Plucks Plastic Out of the River –Before it Flows to the Ocean

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The Ocean Cleanup project launched by a Dutch youth a decade ago to tackle the Pacific garbage patch has in recent years begun to fix its attention on the plastic from rivers flowing into the sea.

Now they have a little help from the English band whose blockbuster hit was ‘Fix You’.

The Interceptor – The Ocean Cleanup

The rock group, Coldplay, is sponsoring the newest ‘Interceptor’, one of the semi-autonomous water craft developed by The Ocean Cleanup to extract plastic from rivers before it enters the ocean.

The collaboration will widen the net for the nonprofit’s goal of launching an Interceptor in each of the world’s most polluted rivers—in order to “turn off the taps” and catch the plastic along the river’s course, mostly avoiding the much more difficult task of capturing it in the ocean.

“Without action, there could be more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050,” said Chris Martin and his bandmates. “We’re proud to sponsor Interceptor 005 which will catch thousands of tons of waste before it reaches the ocean.”

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The first Interceptors, which are solar-powered barges, were launched in 2019 in the Klang River in Kuala Lumpur—which is among the 50 worst rivers for pollution—and the Cengkareng Drain in Jakarta, to extract 220,000 pounds of trash (100,000 kilos) per day.

The third Interceptor to be deployed, is operating in the Rio Ozama in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The barges are internet-connected, allowing teams to gather performance and collection data—and the vessels can automatically notify local operators once the onboard dumpsters are full.

LOOK: Photo of Paralyzed Man Cleaning Plastic From India River Goes Viral – And He’s Showered With Gifts to Better His Life

Deploying The Interceptor in Rio Ozama, Santo Domingo – The Ocean Cleanup

“I’ve long admired the work of Coldplay. They are doing great things to promote a better environment, and they are world-renowned for these efforts (as well as their music), and the reach of their voice is immense,” said Boyan Slat, the CEO of The Ocean Cleanup, who launched the project while he was still a teen.

Santo Domingo in Dominican Republic – The Ocean Cleanup

Coldplay has agreed to fund the Interceptor nicknamed Neon Moon 1, which is currently being manufactured by The Ocean Cleanup’s partner, Konecranes, in their Malaysia facility, for deployment later in the spring of 2021 in that country.

From the vision of one teen, The Ocean Cleanup has grown to employ almost 100 engineers and researchers, and has plans for its Interceptor solutions to be placed in heavily polluting waterways worldwide, including in Vietnam, the United States, Jamaica, and Thailand.

RELATED: Hawaii Group Sets Record For Largest Haul of Plastic Removed From The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Who knows—maybe The Interceptor will also turn into a charity song on Coldplay’s next album.

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Max the Cockatoo is Known as a Cluckatoo – For His Flawless Chicken Impression

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Smiles are infectious when you see Max performing his chicken impression.

The 26-year-old Moluccan Cockatoo is known on his YouTube channel as the original Cluckatoo.

When Spring arrives in Canada, and Max is out on the patio in the warm sun, he is happy to express his joy with a good ‘Bok’.

Also called the Salmon-crested cockatoo, the large species is highly intelligent, and very showy with their trademark flamingo-colored crest. It is legal to breed the bird in captivity, but not to take them from the wild.

They can live for 80-100 years, so Max is likely to be clucking like a chicken for many decades to come.

Check out his YouTube channel, where you can see updates about this gorgeous bird and all his antics…

WATCH the Moluccan mimic, which is EGGS-actly what we needed today…

SHARE This Clucking-Good Imitation With Your Flock on Social Media…

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