Quote of the Day: “What you do today can improve all your tomorrows.” – Ralph Marston
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On this day 811 years ago, England’s King John put his seal to the Magna Carta. The historic document established the foundations of parliamentary democracy, human rights and the supremacy of law for rebellious English Barons demanding freedom and legal due process. Its importance isn’t only that the document itself reflected the emergence of English common law, but the scenario out of which it was born—local holders of wealth extracting concessions from a European crown head—reflects the importance of Europe in developing all modern societies. READ why that occurred… (1215)
An 11-year-old boy made a once-in-a-lifetime discovery after finding an ancient elephant tooth right on the beach.
The day of the big find, May 24, Charlie Orchard-Lisle was walking with his mother along East Lane beach in Bawdsey, a Suffolk coastal village in eastern England 75 miles from London, when he spotted the rock-like object on the shoreline.
The discovered tooth, which measures four inches in width, was confirmed as the upper left molar of an Anancus arvernensis.
The extinct mammal walked the Earth from the Late Miocene era to the Early Pleistocene, roughly 8.5–2 million years ago.
A six-ton relative of the African bush elephant, and originally mis-classified in 1828 as a Mastodon with straight, uncurved tusks), it reached a shoulder height of around 8ft.
“We were walking along and, ten minutes before, my son Charlie was saying how much he loves elephants,” Charlie’s mom Eleanor told SWNS news.
Then, they spotted something sticking out of the lapping waves.
“It must have been quite distinctive because it caught both our eyes, so we picked it up.
“We could tell it was something different. It had a different feel to it.
“It is quite incredible.
“I can’t believe you can find something so old on the beach.”
An image of the tooth was shared with Professor Adrian Lister, a research leader in paleontology at the Natural History Museum in London who confirmed its origin.
They believe the tooth may have been buried in the red crag cliff at Bawdsey and was flushed out by erosion.
MORE LUCKY DISCOVERIES:
• Three Boys Discover 30% of a Complete ‘Teen-rex’ Skeleton While Hiking
• Amateur Fossil Hunter Calls Her Shot, Finding a Giant Mammoth Tooth After Declaring She Would on Her Birthday
• 11-yo Uncovers Giant Ichthyosaur Fossil–the Largest Marine Reptile Ever Found
PLAN A TRIP TO A FOSSIL BEACH When You Share the Lucky-Find With Friends on Social Media…
Early warning signs of breast cancer could have been spotted years in advance using AI, suggests a new study that analyzed 88,963 mammograms performed during a 10-year period on over 31,000 patients.
The researchers showed that the latest artificial intelligence technology can provide an “early alert” for the disease up to six years before a diagnosis.
Swedish researchers tested three commercially available AI-based computer-assisted detection (AI-CAD) radiology systems on the mammogram data.
The findings, published in the journal Radiology, showed that cancer prediction scores issued by AI-CAD were elevated, on average, for people who were eventually diagnosed with breast cancer, while scores were low for those who remained cancer-free.
“Approximately 20% of breast cancer cases demonstrate mammographic signs that are already visible to AI around six years before diagnosis,” said senior co-author Professor Fredrik Strand, of Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm.
“Our study confirms the potential of AI to, in some cases, find signs of cancer in the mammograms much earlier than when radiologists detected it.”
AI-based systems have shown promise for predicting 5-year risk of breast cancer and identifying women at risk of “interval” cancers between regular screening mammograms, but Prof. Strand’s team looked at their potential to flag mammographic signs that were present up to 10 years (in advance), after collecting mammograms from volunteers aged 40 to 74 across Sweden.
After these volunteer screening exams, two radiologists analyzed each mammogram, which was scheduled every two years—taken between 2008 and 2019.
Across that period, 12,072 of the participants (38.5%) were diagnosed with cancer by radiologist readers.
The AI-CAD systems successfully identified many of those cancers at earlier screening points.
It achieved 90% “specificity” (able to distinguish between a true positive and a true negative result) in nearly 20% of participants six years before their recorded diagnosis, up to 25% of individuals four years before diagnosis and up to nearly 40% two years before diagnosis.
“This study aims to add to the growing literature regarding the application of AI in breast cancer screening and how it can help play a role in earlier detection of breast cancer,” said Strand.
SWEET CANCER PREVENTION? Manuka Honey Reduces Breast Cancer Cell Growth by 84% in Human Cells and Mice
“Analyzing the AI scores of screened individuals over time could provide insight into how early detectable changes arise, potentially allowing for earlier intervention.”
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A “princely grave” with Celtic connections has been found during construction in Germany.
Found in Bad Camburg in the German state of Hesse, the assemblage of gold, armaments, and the iron wagon fittings elevate the discovery to one which has but 2 comparable examples in the whole of the country.
This, say experts at the State Office for Monument Preservation, in the state capital of Wiesbaden, makes it an “absolute top” discovery.
“You only make such a find once in your archaeological career,” said district archaeologist Kai Mückenberger in a translated quote from Hessenschau, which first reported on the discovery, made during preparations for a solar panel installation near a stretch of the A3 highway in Bad Camburg.
Mückenberger was essentially a consultant archaeologist on the solar site, and had ordered a geomagnetic survey all chop-chop, expecting to find nothing. The results of the survey showed the outline of a rectangle within a circle. He tossed around a joke that they had found a “princely grave.”
In reality, he expected to find the outline of the remains of a building, but the crews called him up saying the earth-moving equipment had found metal—an iron spearhead.
At that point, Mückenberger got serious and brought a team out to the site which excavated heavy gold jewelry, amber, bronze and glass beads, a small knife, and the iron fittings of a chariot or wagon, including the hubcaps, axle, and bands which would have encircled the wooden wheels like tire tread.
MORE STORIES FROM UNDER THE SHOVEL: Norway’s Largest-Ever Trove of Viking Age Coins Is ‘Historic Find’ By Metal Detectors
Rather than pull the items out one-by-one, they removed them in a giant block of dirt to ensure it could be done with the best preservation means available. This is when they found another startling find: a beaked bronze jug for water or wine that has been determined to have been made by the Etruscans, a central-Italian tribe who inhabited the peninsula concurrently with the early Roman republic.
CELTIC GRAVES: Metal Detectives Unearth Ancient Dagger Decorated with Tiny Stars, Crescent Moons, and Geometric Patterns
One of the 3 golden rings weighed 5 ounces. One was meant for the finger and another for the arm.
Just two other of these “wagon burials” have been found before, and this one likely dates to the first half of the 5th century BCE, contemporary with the Hallstatt or La Tiene cultures, but not from the same geographic region. Instead, the finds have tentatively been ascribed to the Hunsrück-Eifel Celtic culture, which takes its name from two low-lying mountain ranges.
However, the archaeologists in Wiesbaden say no other gravesite is comparable in quality to this one.
SHARE This Career-Making Discovery In Hesse With Your Friends…
A few months ago the largest wildfire in Nebraska history burned a thousand square-miles of ranch land.
It burned every foot of grass on Mike and Kayla Wintz’s 11,000-acre ranch.
But when they and their neighbors faced the threat of losing their livelihoods, something remarkable happened.
Thousands of anonymous donors stepped up from across the U.S.
The Wintz ranch alone was gifted $80,000 worth of hay—from mostly anonymous donors.
“No one asked for this help,” reported Steve Hartman on CBS Evening News. “It just came…”
It came from thousands of farmers and ranchers and truck drivers, from as far away as South Carolina.
It came from the Nebraska Cattlemen Disaster Relief Fund, which raised over a million dollars, going directly to affected cattle owners. And, to cover the staggering fuel costs required to transport these hay conveys across vast Midwestern states, the South Dakota Cattlemen’s Foundation matched thousands of dollars in donations they raised from the public.
BLESSINGS AFTER DISASTER: Town Devastated by Wildfires Wins Half-a-Billion Christmas Lottery: ‘Something has fallen from the heavens’
Watch the heartwarming video from Steve Hartman, below…
SHARE THE AMERICAN SPIRIT of Generosity on Social Media…
Quote of the Day: “What a man takes in by contemplation, he pours out in love.” – Meister Eckhart
Photo by: HaPe Gera (CC license)
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
80 years ago today, sumptuous singer Nat King Cole recorded The Christmas Song, written by Mel Tormé and Bob Wells, for the first time. It is still today, lo-fi be darned, one of the most preferred versions of this icon of iconic yuletide tunes. While it’s a little early in the year for Christmas songs, YouTube has the man singing the song on his short-lived variety show, The Nat King Cole Show. READ more and watch the video… (1946)
A father and son broke 3 world records after spending a year cycling around the world.
George Kohler and his 23-year-old son Josh set off on their mammoth challenge on March 29th, 2025, from their home near Norwich in the UK.
In total, the duo traveled 18,000 miles and 14 months as they crossed Asia, Australia, South America, and Europe, arriving, as Ivan Goncharov wrote, to the right of their front door, having departed to the left.
When they arrived home, the all-conquering pair were presented with world record certificates for the fastest bicycle circumnavigation, the longest bicycle journey, and the most countries visited in a continuous bicycle journey, by a father and son.
Josh spoke with Southwest News Service in the UK about their trip.
“There were thousands of highlights on this trip,” he said.
“One standout moment is when we were cycling through a remote part of Turkey. We heard a shout on the hillside, and a shepherd was standing, beckoning us over. We walked up to him, and he offered to share his breakfast with us.”
“He had a pot on the campfire. We had eggs, bread and cheese, and we sat there. We wouldn’t speak Turkish, and he couldn’t speak English, but we had this incredible interaction with him.”
The Kohlers started long-distance cycling voyages when Josh was in High school, going the distance of the UK in 2021, and coast-to-coast in the US in 2022.
“We had to learn to get our bodies used to doing long cycles.”
2 years later, Josh proposed to his 57-year-old dad that they should cycle around the world. His dad, George, a chimney sweep, had a simple response: “Perfect, why not?” The pair were on their way.
From their home, the pair headed to South America, Australia, Asia, and Europe before arriving home after 400 days.
SON AND DAD DUOS: He Found His Dad’s 1930s Car at An Auction–and Got it Working Again (LOOK)
“We definitely had a full range of experience over the year,” Josh said. “Our bodies were tested day in day out, we were expecting the mental side of things to be tough as we anticipated long sprints.”
“One thing we weren’t prepared for was the emotional challenges, when you are with someone for so long, disagreements do happen frequently. We had one unwritten rule that we would never go to sleep on an argument.”
OTHER CIRCUMNAVIGATIONS: British Adventurer Sets Sail to Become First Person to Circumnavigate the Globe by Land, Air and Sea
The duo said there were many highlights on the way, whether it was having lunch with a local in Serbia or being welcomed by monks offering them food and drink.
“The final day was extremely emotional seeing friends and family,” said George. “People that I haven’t seen for years and years were there to welcome us.”
CYCLE This Story Over To Your Friends On Social Media…
In a story that will make your beak drop, a Canadian woman has received a series of ‘thank you’ presents from a whole murder of crows after she took the time to rescue one from a gutter.
As Leah Wilson walks down the street, the superstitious among the neighbors might draw their blinds. Her steps herald the beating of black wings, as the carrion birds follow her every move.
But Wilson is no witch, she’s a hero to their clan after she came to the rescue of a young crow who was stuck inside the roof gutter of a nearby house.
Wilson, a member of the Métis indigenous peoples, knew she had to do something, and as it just so happened there was a fire truck parked nearby.
“I was like, ‘Hey! You look like you want to save a crow today,’” Leah recalls to CTV with a laugh. The firefighters agreed, and brought the ladder over to reach the crow. Once the animal was free, they left it up to Wilson to take it to the wildlife veterinarian.
That’s just what she did, and the crow assured her it would never forget.
“He latched on to my finger and held on, that was life-changing,” she said, without knowing just how life-changing it would be. “I was going for a walk with my dog, [and] a crow flew down and dropped this beautiful, feathered bundle at my feet.”
That was the first of several little “thank you gifts” she received from the local murder.
Today, she is as described above: a crow-friend, and every time she goes out for a walk, the animals circle around her in what she described as the “highlight” of her day.
MORE STORIES LIKE THIS:
The best part is when the crow she rescued comes to say hi. He’s easy enough to spot thanks to the band on his leg from when he was released back into the wild.
Her Métis upbringing always gave her a sense of how important it is to have a relationship with the natural world—and what a relationship that’s turned out to be.
She’s part of the flock.
WATCH the story below…
SHARE This Amazing Connection With One Of The Natural World’s Smartest Creature…
The French Polynesian government recently announced it will fully protect 200,000 square miles of ocean, an area about twice as large as Arizona that’s teeming with ocean life.
Located near the Austral, Marquesas, and Western Society islands, this new marine preserve, called the Te Tai Nui a Hau Marine Protected Area, will take the total of the nation’s conserved ocean territory to around 540,500 square miles—twice the size of Texas.
Last year, French Polynesia fully protected a total of approximately 350,000 square miles around the Gambier and Society islands, while also designating several thousand miles of artisanal fishing zones.
Fishing in these zones is limited to single pole-and-line catch from boats less than 12 meters (39 feet) in length, allowing local people to continue fishing in traditional ways that sustain their community.
Across this new preserve network, there have been 3,088 square miles of artisanal fishing zones added in the waters surrounding the Austral Islands, and nearly 7,336 square miles around the Marquesas, covering coastal areas and nearby seamounts.
French Polynesia’s waters are home to exceptional marine biodiversity—including seabirds, sharks, whales, and species found nowhere else on Earth—and serve as important migration routes and breeding grounds for marine life.
Once the protections are implemented, 30% of French Polynesia’s waters— in total, an area twice the size of Texas—will be protected from all extractive activities, and other human uses will be limited.
The hope for French Polynesian President Moetai Brotherson is that the decision will serve as a model for large-scale ocean conservation rooted in local leadership and traditional stewardship while helping to meet the global goal of protecting at least 30% of the ocean by 2030 (known as “30 by 30”).
In a statement, the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy, one member of a large coalition that assisted the French Polynesian government in planning, financing, and executing the new reserve, wrote that the final announcement is just the culmination of more than a decade of work led by Polynesian communities and local leaders and was supported by partner organizations.
NOW HEAR ABOUT PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Papua New Guinea Sets Up Protected Ocean the Size of UK–Over 77,000 Square Miles
“Communities across the Austral and Marquesas islands have spent years shaping a collective vision for conserving their ocean that reflects both their cultural traditions and their future needs,” explained Donatien Tanret, who leads Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy’s work in French Polynesia.
“From the start, that vision included coastal protected zones around the islands and their seamounts, where artisanal fishing can continue for the local people who depend on it.”
Partners include the Becht Foundation, Bezos Earth Fund, Bloomberg Ocean Fund, Blue Marine Foundation, Blue Nature Alliance, Oceans 5, and the Wyss Foundation. These international philanthropic partners work with the government and local communities to support the establishment of long-term financing mechanisms, along with governance, scientific monitoring, and the capacities needed for the effective management of the marine protected areas.
MORE MARINE PROTECTIONS: Marine National Park Bigger Than Texas Created by Departing Chilean President Around Pacific Islands
“This announcement reflects French Polynesia’s commitment to protecting our ocean for future generations while supporting the communities that depend on it,” said Taivini Teai, French Polynesia’s Minister of Agriculture, Marine Resources, and Environment.
By combining large-scale conservation, traditional stewardship, and sustainable use, we aim to lead by example and demonstrate that ambitious ocean protection and local livelihoods can go hand in hand.”
CELEBRATE French Polynesia Reaching The 30 X 30 Goal With Massive Ocean Protections…
Our partner Rob Brezsny, whose latest book is Astrology Is Real: Revelations from My Life as an Oracle, provides his weekly wisdom to enlighten our thinking and motivate our mood. Rob’s Free Will Astrology, is a syndicated weekly column appearing in over a hundred publications. He is also the author of Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How All of Creation Is Conspiring To Shower You with Blessings. (A free preview of the book is available here.)
Here is your weekly horoscope…
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY – Week of June 13, 2026
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
“Dear Oracle: Why do we always have to start at the beginning? I’d much prefer just jumping into the middle of things. Right now, I would love to bypass all the tedious baby steps I’m being forced to take as I try to get some momentum going. Please slip me a few clues about how to fast-forward directly to the fun stuff. —Bored with the Groundwork.” Dear Bored: Your timing is perfect. The planetary omens say you are now authorized to vault over the preludes and prologues and dive right into the heart of the action.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
Restoration ecologists work to revive damaged prairies. They’ve discovered that seeds of many native plants can lie dormant in the soil for years, waiting for the right conditions to germinate. If they remove invasive species and restore the land’s natural cycle of controlled fire, wildflowers long absent from the landscape spring back to life. With this metaphor in mind, Cancerian, consider what dormant possibilities may lie buried in your own psyche. What seeds did you plant long ago and then forget? What dreams or talents are waiting for you to clear away the choking overgrowth and create space for them to emerge? Old potentials may be patient, not dead.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Better than any other sign, you understand that ego and generosity can be collaborators rather than enemies. Your charismatic radiance is often a public service. When you express your interesting beauty, you give others permission to tap into their own luminosity. The world always craves your unique flavor of audacious joy, and especially now. The rest of us need your intense insistence that flair and flamboyance are forms of resistance against the forces that would diminish life’s splendor.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Many people struggle with what could be called “imagined ugliness,” a condition clinicians refer to as body dysmorphic disorder. It usually involves fixating on a supposed physical defect, or even on a flaw that exists only in one’s mind. I suspect that almost everyone carries a trace of this tendency, including you and me. The good news, though, is that the current astrological climate is ideal for you to at least partially shatter its spell. You are poised to transform your self-image so vigorously that you begin to regard yourself as a flawless exemplar of quirky, one-of-a-kind beauty.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
The Golden Gate Bridge, which is a few miles from my home, is painted continuously. Painters start at one end, work their way across, and by the time they reach the other side, it’s time to start over. The job is never finished; maintenance is the permanent condition. Some people find this depressing, but I find it oddly liberating. It means the bridge doesn’t have to achieve some final, perfect state. It just has to be tended. Similarly, you don’t have to fix everything once and for all, Libra. The relationships, projects, and internal states you’re concerned about aren’t meant to reach completion. You shouldn’t worry about trying to finish what’s meant to be an ongoing practice. Just keep starting the cycle again.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Innovative theater director Viola Spolin was a Scorpio. She taught that the best scenes emerge when the actors avoid trying to control outcomes. Instead, they fully commit to the reality they’re creating together. Spontaneous responses are their gold standard. Let’s make this a keynote for you in the coming weeks. Your assignment is to give yourself heartily to improvisation. The most interesting magic will happen as you relax into the collaborative process, trusting it to guide you toward beauty and meanings none of you could have scripted alone.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
Musicologists distinguish between “perfect pitch” and “relative pitch.” A person with perfect pitch can sing or identify a specific note without hearing any other music beforehand. Relative pitch is the ability to recognize musical notes in relation to other notes. In the coming weeks, Sagittarius, relative pitch will be a more useful metaphor for you than perfect pitch. Don’t insist on perfect clarity about what’s right and wrong, beautiful and ugly, worthy and unworthy. Instead of obsessing on fixed standards, practice relational discernment. How does this choice feel compared to that one? How does a person behave in this context versus another? For you right now, truth lives in the intervals and connections.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
The best way to eliminate a bad habit is to replace it with a good one. Now is an excellent time to acquire more expertise in this art. Start by choosing a specific habit that drains your energy, time, or self-respect. Then identify what that habit is secretly trying to give you, like comfort, distraction, or a sense of control. Your mission is to find a healthier behavior that offers a similar payoff without the damage. For example, maybe you go online and binge-scroll through bad news because you imagine it soothes your anxiety. Instead of that, read an uplifting book or listen to serene music for a while. Be concrete: When the itchy habit hits, what exactly will you do as an alternative?
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
In 1905, 26-year-old Albert Einstein worked full-time as a clerk in a Swiss patent office. During his off-hours, he wrote four audacious papers that fundamentally changed how physics understood space, time, light, and matter. He accomplished his revolution without the sponsorship of a renowned university or laboratory. His example suggests that we can perhaps re-imagine and recreate the world even if we’re not supported by glamorous circumstances. I suspect this principle applies to you these days. Breakthrough insights and earth-shaking realizations may arrive while you’re doing ordinary tasks. Be alert for the flashes that arise in seemingly routine and modest situations.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
For linguists, “untranslatable” words are concepts that exist in one language but have no equivalent in others. One example is mono no aware, which in Japanese refers to the tender poignance and appreciation you feel in the presence of fleeting beauty, like cherry blossoms falling. I bring this to your attention, Pisces, because I suspect that you, too, are untranslatable right now. My advice is to forget about trying to get others to grasp what’s going on with you. Here’s a suggestion that might help: Find soulful artists and emotionally intelligent creatives who speak the language of your mystery.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
Many of you have a fraught relationship with discipline. You recognize you need it if you want a life rich with epic adventures. Yet you sometimes resist planning ahead or organizing your resources, fearing it might dampen your immediate pleasures. The problem is that when you skip the planning and organizing, the short-term fun you default to may turn out to be unsatisfying. That’s the challenging news. The encouraging news is that you’re now in a cycle when you can transform how you relate to discipline. I bet you can render some of those old patterns obsolete.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
Gemologists evaluate opals less for flawless uniformity than for their mesmerizing play‑of‑color. They study how light interacts with a stone’s microscopic internal structure to produce vivid, shifting hues. The most prized opals aren’t necessarily the most perfect in shape, but the ones whose internal pattern and rainbow-like displays are most vibrant, varied, and alive. This is a marvelous metaphor for you in the coming weeks. I hope you don’t obsess on consistency or smooth away your complications. Let the world see your play-of-color.
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
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Quote of the Day: “Each one of us has a story to tell, and the telling of that story is a spiritual act.” – Imago Dei Church
Photo by: Forja2 Mx
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
16 years ago today, the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa, containing particles of the asteroid 25143 Itokawa, which it landed on in November 2005, returned to Earth. Hayabusa was the first spacecraft designed to deliberately land on an asteroid and then take off again, and indeed was the first to ever do so. It was also the first one ever to bring back a sample of the asteroid it visited. READ what the samples contained… (2010)
At the end of a long day, a metal detector enthusiast in England unearthed a 16th-century ring with eight diamonds.
Stuart Jones uncovered the stunning “once in a lifetime find” in the village of Wormington, Gloucestershire.
“When I recovered the ring, I was absolutely overwhelmed with joy. I was over the moon.
“Everyone around me was congratulating me and taking photographs.
“Without any doubt, the ring is the best find I have ever made.
“Like many detectorists, I have always dreamed of finding something truly special, but I never imagined I would discover an item of this significance.
“I know I may never find anything that surpasses this discovery, but that is part of what makes it so special.”
The ring, which was examined by the British Museum, is expected to attract bids of up to $20,000 at auction (with Noonans of Mayfair conducting the sale on June 23). And all money earned at the auction will be shared equally with the landowner.
FABULOUS FIND: Despite Faulty Metal Detector, Treasure Hunter Unearths Largest Gold Nugget Ever Found in England
“Whatever happens at auction, finding the ring has already been an unforgettable experience and a moment that I will treasure for the rest of my life.”
Luckily, as he pulled the ring from the soil, one diamond came loose and fell into his hand. A second jewel was also missing—but he gathered the surrounding dirt and managed to find the missing stone.
“Early 17th century baroque tastes required grand rings to make an impression from a distance,” reported Noonans Jewelry Specialist Laura Smith, “groups of stones arranged in decorative patterns: rosettes, pansies, crosses, fleur-de-lys, etc.”
“This ring has a flowerhead bezel composed of a cluster of eight ‘hogback’ diamonds, which is very rare.
LUCKY BOY: The First Time a 10-Year-old Boy Uses His Birthday Metal Detector, He Unearths a Centuries-Old Sword
“The gold is testing as 19.2-carat, 80% pure gold.”
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A new energy-efficient desalination system produces fresh water without chemical additives and transforms leftover salts into useful materials.
Communities from California to the Middle East currently rely on desalination plants to convert ocean water to fresh water. But, common desalination techniques—such as reverse osmosis and thermal distillation—are energy-intensive, require chemical water treatment, and leave behind a concentrated saltwater byproduct called brine, which wreaks havoc on sea life if it’s deposited back into the ocean by raising the salt content and lowering oxygen levels.
Now, a novel approach developed at the University of Rochester offers a way to overcome these drawbacks. Their new solar-thermal desalination process does not leave behind brine and requires no chemical additives to pre-treat the water, according to the paper published in Light: Science & Applications.
The technology uses solar panels made of black metal etched with femtosecond lasers to make the surface super light-absorbing and super-wicking, extremely attractive to water.
The panels have a laser-treated active region that pulls a thin layer of water across the surface, absorbs nearly all solar radiation, distills the water, and deposits the leftover salts and minerals into the panel’s untreated sides, leaving the active region unclogged for continuous desalination.
A team led by senior scientist Chunlei Guo, a professor of optics and physics at the university, says other researchers have developed solar-thermal desalination techniques that only work well in lab experiments—using simulated seawater made of only water and sodium chloride. The real ocean is much more complex, and these systems tend to encounter problems when used in the field.
Unlike sodium chloride, many other components in seawater, such as magnesium- and calcium-based materials, crystallize in a crusty and non-porous fashion on the solar panel’s surface—and water can’t seep through anymore. This is the same phenomenon as your shower head clogging over time, except that seawater contains hundreds of times more salts than your tap water.
To keep their solar panel surface from gumming up, Guo’s team etched the black metal’s grooves so the various salts and minerals in ocean water would simply slough off. They also leveraged a physical phenomenon java-lovers have encountered for centuries: the coffee ring effect.
“If you drop coffee on a surface, eventually the water evaporates, and there’s a ring left at the outer edge that is the concentrated coffee particles,” says Prof. Guo. “We use that same principle to advance the salts to the passive region.”
Testing their solar-thermal desalination technique using samples of water from the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans, Guo and his team were able to make the surface self-cleaning.
It extracted freshwater and directed the remaining salts to where they could be collected without reducing the panel’s efficiency.
Another distinct advantage is that instead of leaving behind brine that must be disposed of or processed, it extracts nearly 100 percent of the salts in solid form. This could not only produce an abundant supply of table salt, but it could also be used to extract more precious minerals, including lithium, which helps power electric vehicles and electronics.
BREAKTHROUGH: Batteries That Use Sodium Instead of Lithium Could Be Low-Cost Rival to Tesla’s
“Mining lithium from the earth has proven to be very taxing from an energy and environmental standpoint, so pulling lithium directly from saltwater could be a very important future route,” says Guo.
In a related paper in the Journal of Materials Chemistry, Guo and his colleagues showed how they can use the same super-wicking solar panels to separate lithium from the rest of other salts in desalination.
Embedding nanoparticles made of hydrogen titanate in the tiny grooves of the black metal surface isolates the lithium from other salts and minerals.
Using water samples from Great Salt Lake, the researchers extracted about 50 percent of the lithium from the salts left behind by the desalination process.
Guo sees the technology as inherently scalable, capable of improving global access to drinking water while building a more sustainable supply of precious minerals.
“Mining lithium from the earth has proven to be very taxing from an energy and environmental standpoint, so pulling lithium directly from saltwater could be a very important future route.”
RESOURCE WONDER: Lithium Discovery in Crater in Nevada Could Be Biggest Deposit Ever Found
See how the process works in the university video, below…
(The work was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Worldwide Universities Network.)
A tour boat joined the search for a dog that had floated three miles out to sea in a kayak.
After two hours of searching, they spotted the inflatable boat on the horizon but couldn’t see if the pooch was still aboard. As tension mounted, they young men captured the moment on video when they confirmed that large black pup was safe.
Bruce the Alsatian was playing in the waves when his owner put him in an inflatable boat to swim beside him.
But a gust of wind dragged the kayak away from the shore of Northumberland, in North East England—and Bruce was suddenly washed out to sea.
His panicking owner raised the alarm and coast guard crews from the nearby town of Seahouses scrambled to search for him last Sunday afternoon.
Video from the two-man crew of Serenity Farne Islands Boat Tours shows the moment Captain Jimmy Reid spotted the kayak floating in the North Sea.
“My emotions definitely got the better of me when I finally spotted Bruce inside the boat,” he told SWNS news.
“I had a heart-wrenching fear the dog was going to go in the water and stay there.
“When we actually got him on board and knew he was safe and knew the hard bit was over, we were both ecstatic.”
AMAZING RESCUE: 18 Rescue Workers Toil for 6 Hours to Save Dog Trapped Underground (Watch Her Joyful Release)
The crew leapt into action after hearing the alert come through their radio as they made their way back after a tour of the Farne Islands.
Bruce’s owner had desperately tried to swim after the boat as it was blown out to sea, but had been forced to turn back.
“Bruce did the right thing by turning round,” Jimmy said. “It could easily have been a multi-casualty thing if he had kept going.
“When we found the boat we tried to get a harness around Bruce but it just slipped off and he fell into the water.
“Luckily my crewman Aaron reached down and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and hauled him on board.”
CLEVER GIRL: Grandmother Gets Help From Her Dog While Gardening: She Points and He Digs
Bruce was hypothermic but the crew wrapped him in towels to warm him up before sailing back to the shore where he was reunited with his relieved owner.
Watch the rescue below…
SHARE BRUCE’S GOOD NEWS With Dog Lovers On Social Media…
The skies over New York City turned red, white, and blue on Tuesday as France launched Mission #Liberté250 to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary—and to honor the enduring alliance between sister nations.
The flyover by the French Air Force’s precision aerobatics team—the Patrouille de France—kicks off a historic month-long tour along the East Coast in a tribute to 250 years of French-American friendship.
The official social media page of the Embassy of France in New York shared video and photos on Facebook, thrilling anyone who missed the spectacle from the riverbanks of the Hudson.
“What a symbol,” said French President Emmanuel Macron. “250 years of shared history.”
That history goes much further back than the gift of a bronze Lady Liberty from Paris in July 4, 1884, to commemorate the centennial of U.S. independence.
France, in fact, was the primary reason the Declaration of Independence was written and signed 250 years ago in 1776. The document was fundamentally designed as a ‘call to arms’ for France’s King Louis XVI, signaling that the colonies were permanently breaking from Britain.
King Louis XVI made it clear they would not openly intervene in a civil war between Britain and her colonies, and had no interest in backing a rebellion that might be temporary and end in a peaceful reconciliation, leaving France exposed to British wrath.
Thomas Paine publicized this exact geopolitical reality in his January 1776 bestseller Common Sense, arguing that France and Spain would never lend aid until a manifesto of independence was dispatched to foreign courts. So, the Continental Congress had to formally declare themselves a separate, sovereign nation.
By issuing the Declaration on July 4, Congress transformed their movement from an illegal domestic insurrection into a legitimate war between sovereign states.
But France had already been actively making the quiet, monumental moves that ensured the American Revolution survived its infancy. Before the colonies ever signed the Declaration, France was setting up the covert supply chains that kept George Washington’s army alive:
May 2, 1776: King Louis XVI officially authorized one million livres to purchase munitions for the Americans.
June, 1776: The French government backed a playwright’s idea to establish a fictitious trading firm—a ‘front company’ that allowed France to secretly channel gunpowder, muskets, tents, and uniforms to the Continental Army while maintaining official neutrality to avoid immediate war with Britain.
So critical was France’s secret aid that an estimated 90% of American troops at the pivotal first Battle of Saratoga carried French firearms and were entirely dependent on French gunpowder. Without the logistical support shipped overseas 250 years ago this summer, the revolution likely would have collapsed. (See the calendar of events for Liberté250 at the bottom…)
The Marquis de Lafayette began working with George Washington in 1777, four years before the British surrender at Yorktown. The 19-year-old French aristocrat immediately impressed Washington with his unusual humility; unlike other foreign officers who demanded high pay and immediate command, Lafayette offered to serve without pay and volunteered to start as a basic staff member.
In his very first combat experience under Washington, Lafayette was shot in the leg while trying to rally retreating American soldiers in the 1777 Battle of Brandywine. Washington was deeply moved by the young Frenchman’s bravery and ordered his personal army surgeons to care for Lafayette as if he were his own son. Later that year, the Frenchman stayed by Washington’s side during the brutal winter at Valley Forge, sharing the same harsh, freezing conditions as the regular troops, which cemented a lifelong father-son relationship between the two men.
16 months later, with Washington’s blessing, Lafayette returned to France as a military hero—and lobbied the French king for massive reinforcements. He sailed back to America in 1780 and told Washington the ultimate good news—a French expeditionary force of 6,000 soldiers under General Rochambeau was on its way to fight under Washington’s direct command.
This deep, four-year foundation of trust is exactly why Washington bestowed upon a 23-year-old Lafayette the independent command of Virginia in 1781, setting the stage for a blockade that outmaneuvered British Lord Cornwallis, trapping him in Yorktown for the final victory.
Outnumbered nearly 4-to-1, Lafayette used a “cat-and-mouse” strategy, retreating north to Fredericksburg to preserve his forces while teasing Lord Cornwallis into chasing him deeper into the Virginia wilderness.
Mistakenly believing Lafayette’s army was broken, Cornwallis marched his troops to the port of Yorktown to establish a naval base for reinforcements by sea. But. Lafayette quickly moved his forces south, sealing off the land exits of the Yorktown peninsula and trapping Cornwallis against the water—sending a dispatch to Gen. Washington: “The British army is cornered.”
In October of 1781, Washington arrived along with French Gen. Rochambeau and the French fleet to launch the Siege of Yorktown. Cut off from land—by Lafayette’s troops—and by sea—thanks to French ships—Cornwallis formally surrendered, effectively winning the war for American independence.
And the Patrouille de France jets will be flying in formation over that very spot next Monday…
RELATED TO THE REVOLUTION:
• This Year Is the 250th Anniversary of the First Battle of the American Revolution, But it Ended in a Standoff
• Perfectly Preserved 250-Year-old Cherries Found in George Washington’s Cellar at Mount Vernon
Check out other Liberté250 events and flyovers scheduled for the next month below… (Note: New events may pop up on their website.)
SHOW YOUR GRATITUDE By Sharing The Special History on Social Media…
Quote of the Day: “Overthinking is your imagination misused… If you can overthink the worst, why can’t you overthink the best?” – Jennifer Cohen
Photo by: Nathan Dumlao
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250 years ago today, Virginia’s colonial legislature became the first to adopt a Bill of Rights. Known as the “Virginia Declaration of Rights,” it formed the basis and foundation of government in Virginia at the time, and a slightly updated version may still be seen in Virginia’s Constitution, making it legally in effect to this day. READ more, such as who wrote it… (1776)
