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Cam Newton is Once Again Volunteering to Feed Hundreds of Underprivileged Kids for Thanksgiving

By
McKinley Corbley
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North Carolina football legend Cam Newton is preparing to serve up much more than passes this week.

Newton, who is the quarterback for the Carolina Panthers, is rallying to serve Thanksgiving meals to more than 1,300 underprivileged children in Charlotte.

This isn’t the first time that Newton has gone out of his way to feed the less fortunate; this week’s “Cam’s Thanksgiving Jam” will be the eighth event held by the Cam Newton Foundation.

Newton will be partnering with his family members and more than 80 volunteers from JP Morgan and Harris Teeter to serve up the food. Additionally, all of the children’s families will be given a secondary Thanksgiving feast for them to make at home.

 

The event will be held at the Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina’s Kids Café Program in Charlotte.

The organization, which runs 40 different café sites across the Charlotte area, is dedicated to serving free nutritious meals and snacks to children throughout the year—and Newton says that this year’s Thanksgiving Jam is expected to be the “biggest one yet”.

(WATCH last year’s footage of the event below)

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Los Angeles is Giving Out Free Trees for Yards and Neighborhoods; Here’s How to Get up to 7

By
McKinley Corbley
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If you’ve been dreaming of a greener space for your Los Angeles home, then have no fear—the city is giving away free saplings to locals.

As a part of the city’s Green New Deal, legislators are aiming to plant at least 90,000 new trees over the course of the next two years. Residents are encouraged to help them reach their greenery goal by applying for up to seven free trees for their qualifying yards or community spaces.

Groups of school staffers, neighbors, and small business owners are also encouraged to apply for free trees to plant on their school campuses or shared street spaces, provided they all agree to the responsibility of caring for the tree during its first few years of life.

Participants can choose from about two dozen different drought-resistant tree species listed on the city’s website.

WATCH: Man Succeeds Where Government Fails—He Planted a Forest in the Middle of a Cold Desert

Once a tree is selected, the recipient is expected to sign an agreement stating that they will water the sapling for the first five years of its life. City officials say that the saplings will likely only need to be watered once a week or less, but the first few years of a tree’s life are the most important years of growth.

“A family can sit at their computer in their PJs, pick out a tree online and have it delivered to their yard,” said L.A.’s first forest officer, Rachel Malarich, according to The Los Angeles Times. “All the work is done for them up to the actual planting. But don’t worry. The trees come with stakes, ties and fertilizer pellets, along with easy-to-follow instructions on how to plant them.”

If you want to apply for your free trees, check out the City Plants website.

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Stray Dog Found Keeping Litter of Newborn Kittens Warm Amidst Frigid Temperatures On Canadian Road

By
McKinley Corbley
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A stray dog is being hailed as a hero after she was found protecting a litter of 5-week-old kittens from frigid Canadian temperatures last week.

A passing motorist in Chatham-Kent, Ontario spotted Serenity the dog curled up on the side of the road. Upon stopping to check up on the pup, the Good Samaritan found that Serenity was curled up around five newborn kittens.

It is quite possible that if Serenity had not safeguarded the kittens until the driver stopped, they would have remained hidden on the side of the road—and with daytime temperatures in the city averaging around 42º Fahrenheit (7º Celsius), the cold could have proved to be fatal.

WATCH: Humble Man Walks Almost Entire Perimeter of Mexico Saving Hundreds of Sick and Injured Dogs

After the Good Samaritan called the Pet and Wildlife Rescue, the pup and her kittens were whisked away for evaluation and deemed to be in good health. The kittens are now staying with a foster family until they are old enough to be adopted.

Since the Pet and Wildlife Rescue posted about Serenity’s story on social media, many users have begged the organization to adopt out the pup and kittens as a group package.

The rescuers later made a follow-up post about how they try and get canines out of caged shelter environments and into their forever homes as soon as possible—and the kittens still require months of growth until they are ready to be adopted.

LOOK: 6-Legged Puppy Given the Perfect Forever Home After She Was Adopted By Bullied Boy

Regardless, Serenity’s story has already won the hearts of dozens of potential adopters; and once she is properly spayed on December 3rd, she will be ready to head to her forever home.

If you are interested in adopting Serenity, you can visit the Pet and Wildlife Rescue website.

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“At times, our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.” – Albert Schweitzer

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “At times, our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.” – Albert Schweitzer

Photo: by Stewart Black – CC license on Flickr, cropped

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?

 

Before Tree Gets Cut Down, Buddhist Monastery Writes Touching Notice to the Fir And All the Wildlife Living in it

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Good News Network
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A tree that has grown on a street corner in Berkeley, California for one hundred years was scheduled to be cut down, but a Buddhist monastery that had been its neighbor for a quarter century gave it a touching farewell ceremony, and wrote a notice for all the wildlife that would be affected.

The Douglas Fir planted on Grant and Bancroft Streets was in poor health and its gangly limbs, any of which might have fallen unexpectedly, were endangering pedestrians.

Knowing the tree was going to be felled, Heng Sure, who is the Reverend at the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery penned a tribute that was shared to Facebook by a friend of one of the neighbors.

“To the Grand and Nobel Douglas Fir on Grant and Bancroft Streets and to all beings living in this tree: birds, animals, insects, spirits, and others:

We respectfully inform you that due to your poor health and taking into consideration the safety of the community, we will need to remove you on Monday, November 18, 2019. Mindful of your century of life and grateful for the shelter that you have selflessly provided to all, we wish your spirit to move on.

All beings who have made their home in this tree, please find other lodgings by Monday. We wish you no harm, and we apologize for the inconvenience this will bring to you and your families. We hope that you will find another place to live without difficulty and that you and your descendants will flourish and prosper.”

Julia Goerlitz of Richmond, CA posted a photo of the notice with gratitude, saying “Thank you for this respectful notice to the tree, it’s inhabitants and neighbors! How many times in my life have I been shocked and horrified to suddenly find an old friend being unceremoniously removed without any acknowledgement of its years of service and gifts.”

John Coveney, who has lived under the shade of the tree for half of his lifetime (30 years), mourned the loss but understood the necessity.

“It’s a very unconventional conifer, growing with its limbs akimbo, a perpetual dance of reaching for the sky… but the needles are sparser, the sap drips more, and in past years a large limb has come crashing down in a storm.”

“It will leave a hole in the sky for sure,” John says.

But also leave a gap in his heart.

Photo by John Coveney, from his garden

“I think of the many years it shaded our patio, the moonlight through its limbs like a Japanese drawing as we took our evening hot tub, the sounds it made in a storm.”

RELATED: See All the Good News Stories About Trees on GNN

Julia told GNN, “The letter touched such a deep cultural need that we have to honor our connections to the earth by more openly and directly expressing our respect and reverence for all of its living beings.”

Rev. Heng Sure, photo from his blog on Berkeley Buddhist Monastery website

Rev. Heng Sure held a private ceremony for the tree last Sunday morning with a dozen or so neighbors who wanted to pay their respects. He lives half the year in Queensland, Australia, and left the neighborhood monastery—which is the site of the Institute for World Religions—a couple of days after the ceremony.

Photo by John Coveney

LOOK: Photographer Spends 14 Years Taking Beautiful Shots of Earth’s Oldest Trees

As for the fir centurion that lived on a fertile plain sloping towards the San Francisco bay, because it had not grown in the forest—and had the sun and sky all to itself—it was able to live a full and expressive life.

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People Would Rather Give—and Receive—Handmade or Heartfelt Gifts Rather Than Something From a Store

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Good News Network
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If you want to make a lasting impression when giving someone a gift for the holidays, you may want to steer clear of mainstream retail stores.

According to a new survey, a majority of Americans would rather receive something with a personal touch than an expensive item this holiday season.

The results, which found that 62% of Americans prefer gifts that come from the heart and feel more personal, revealed that the holidays are more about sentimentality than lavish, expensive gifts.

In the survey of 2,000 Americans, conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Vistaprint, it was also revealed that nearly every type of generic present takes a backseat to gifts perceived as “personalized.”

WATCH: Uber Driver Surprises Fast Food Worker With New Clothes After Hearing About Her Christmas Wish

Nearly double the number of respondents would rather receive a heartfelt gift over something more generic worth $100. Even gift cards, long-heralded as the “choose your own adventure” of gift-giving, were found to be second-fiddle to something with a more personal touch, as only 14% of survey respondents said they’d take one over a personalized gift.

Two-thirds (66%) of the respondents said they’d be much more likely to remember this type of gift over something more generic and store-bought. Another 58% of respondents said they’d be much more likely to tell others about the gift if it was more personal, too.

More than half (55%) also said they keep personalized gifts much longer than generic, store-bought ones—with the average respondent saying they keep them for a full year longer and nearly 40% saying they would keep it forever.

CHECK OUT: Dying 86-Year-old Bought 14 Years Worth of Christmas Gifts for His 2-Year-old Neighbor

But it’s not just receiving a personal gift that people enjoy—it’s also giving. 68 percent of the respondents said they actually derive more satisfaction from giving someone a  personalized gift than something generic.

The top reasons cited were: it will be remembered, is a keepsake, is unique, and the bonding that would occur over memories.

Nearly half of the survey respondents said they’re eager to give more personalized gifts because they are cheaper.

If you feel too financially strapped to confidently plunge into the holiday season, here are some of our favorite stories about heartfelt gifts—and the sweet impact they had on the recipients:

1. ‘Best Boyfriend Ever’ Fills Anniversary Gift—a Prescription of ‘Love Pills’—With Tiny Notes

2. Child With ‘Nothing to Give’ Sacrifices the ‘Best Part of Her Breakfast’ as Gift for Her Teacher

3. When Duchess Meghan Accepts Macaroni Necklace Gift From Young Fan, He is Flooded With Orders

4. Grieving Mother Given Christmas Present of a Lifetime Thanks to Internet Strangers

5. Norway Wanted to Give Finland a Mountain For Its Birthday

6. JetBlue Delivered Gift-Wrapped People to Their Loved Ones for Christmas

7. Poland Once Gave America a Birthday Card That Was Signed By 5.5 Million Polish People

8. Hospital Knits ‘Mr. Rogers’ Sweaters for All the Newborns in Honor of World Kindness Day

9. Hundreds of Strangers Rally to Grant 4-Year-old Cancer Survivor’s Birthday Wish for ‘100 Bumblebees’

10. Watch Town Surprise Boy Who is Allergic to Sunlight by Turning ‘Nighttime into Daytime’

11. Little Boy Empties Piggy Bank For Mom Who Had Just Been Robbed

12. 48 Years After Reading the Christmas Card That Got Him Through the Vietnam War, He Finally Got to Meet the Sender

Be Sure And Pass On The Handy Holiday Survey Results To Your Gift-Giving Friends On Social Media…

Revolutionary New Arm Cast is Waterproof, Breathable, and Itch-Free

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Good News Network
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Cast21 — SWNS

Engineers in Chicago have designed a futuristic sleeve that could make itchy, foul-smelling, uncomfortable plaster casts a thing of the past.

Their startup company, Cast21, has created a waterproof, lightweight, and breathable alternative that can be worn while bathing, exercising, and even swimming in the ocean.

The patented design is constructed from a wide mesh sleeve filled with two liquid resins which are molded into the correct position for each patient—and it is even available in a range of vibrant colors.

CHECK OUT: People With Diabetes May One Day Be Monitoring Glucose With an Earring

Patients sporting traditional plaster or fiberglass casts are unable to clean underneath the molded brace, making the skin susceptible to rot and infection. When it is time to remove the hardened bandages, wearers are also forced to watch a doctor remove their casts using a circular saw.

“The majority of fractures happen in children, adolescents and the elderly,” said Cast21’s VP of engineering Veronica Hogg. “Those saws are very loud and all this debris flies off and it’s very messy, it can be extremely frightening. The cast saw also presents a risk of burns to the patient.

“Our product does not require that at all. It’s designed so that a physician can take clinical shears, snip through the tabs and pull it open easily. It was designed to completely eliminate the use of a cast saw and make the healing process far more pleasant for the patient.”

The device is also faster to apply than traditional casts. Physicians start by measuring the damaged limb using a flexible measuring tape. Once they’ve selected the correct size, they slide a flexible, slightly padded, sleeve onto their patient’s arm.

Using a patented liquid pack, the physician then mixes a duo of liquid resins and pours them into the empty sleeve through a valved nozzle.

RELATED: Researchers Create AI System That Can Predict Epileptic Seizures One Hour Head of Time With 99.6% Accuracy

After the sleeve is full, it takes three minutes for the liquid to turn into a malleable gel. The doctor then molds the product to fit the patient’s limb, and waits an additional five to seven minutes for it to completely harden.

“Another bonus is that no electricity or water is needed to apply our cast, so it’s very portable,” says the 30-year-old engineer.

There is reportedly no pain associated with the device’s hardening, and the exothermic heat it produces could even be beneficial.

“It feels soothing,” she added. “It reaches about the same temperature as a hot tub.”

While Cast21 hopes to make a splash in the field of orthopedic technology, the innovation is still a work in progress. So far the company only has a forearm model designed in a medium size—but they hope to expand their sizing and create casts for the lower legs in the near future.

“The idea is to prove that this technology works… right now, we are past the prototype stage and have a fully functioning model in place for the forearm,” said Hogg. “We hope that this technology can span across the entire body. We are looking forward to having a lower limb model for ankle fractures soon.

“We have this radical notion that you can enjoy your healing experience. You don’t need to be restrained from daily activities. I’m from Colorado and I like to go hiking, and the equipment needed to administer our cast is so small and lightweight that hikers and climbers could carry it with them in their backpacks (as a first aid kit).

“It also has potential for use in the military and for at-home first aid. 3D printed casts can be very expensive, and the turnaround time is very slow. Our design is almost instant and very portable.”

Waterproof, 3D-printed casts are already on the market around the US and Europe, but they can cost hundreds of dollars, and patients can be left waiting days or weeks for the cast to be printed and delivered to them. There is currently no price point associated with Cast21’s product, but the aim is to make it as accessible as possible.

“We want it to be competitive, and reachable to a large population. We don’t want this to be a luxury product. We are still conducting research in price sensitivity, and the final cost to the patients will be depending on their insurance and doctor.

“Right now, we can treat what’s known as ‘distal radial fractures’ or DR fractures; that’s a catch-all term for any fracture of the radius that occurs close to the wrist.

“We are hoping, with more data and feedback from physicians, that they would feel comfortable using this technology after a surgery was required. We are interested in expanding the pilot use of our product in clinics. So we would love for anyone interested to reach out to us for more information.”

Whether you are a doctor or patient, use the Contact form at the bottom of the website’s homepage.

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Kristen Bell is Using Her Instagram Page to Help Send Thousands of Gifts to Teachers in Need

By
McKinley Corbley
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With more than 12 million followers on Instagram, actress Kristen Bell has been using her celebrity status to help teachers in need.

Every week for the last six months, Bell has been sharing a teacher’s story on Instagram for a project she calls #FeatureTeacherFriday.

View this post on Instagram

It’s #FeaturedTeacherFriday 📚❤️!! Brooke emailed me to nominate her friend of 25 years, Emily. She told me that when they set up Emily’s classroom this year, she had little beyond tables and chairs and bought the rest of her supplies herself. SO! Let’s send Emily some love and support! Here’s a little about her: “I’m a first year kindergarten teacher at a small Title I school in Genesee County in Flint, MI. Being a Title I school means that a majority of our students live below the federal poverty line. Some of our families struggle to have their basic needs met. Although most of our students reside in the city of Flint, our school is located in a neighboring town. They ride the bus to school, with the earliest pickup being 5:58am and the latest stop being close to 5:30pm. These amazing kiddos spend a majority of their waking hours at school, or traveling to and from school. This is just one of the many reasons that it is so important to make my classroom feel like a home away from home for my students. We call our classroom our “house” and we are all family. Our rules and routines are centered around being good to each other and supporting each other the way families should. Our mission at Woodland Park Academy is to “Create Relationships to Change the World.” For me, fostering these relationships means giving 100 hugs a day, checking in on older students on my lunch, telling students every day that I love them, and listening when they have something to say. It means never losing sight of how even the smallest act of kindness or understanding may change someone’s life. Our school is small and our teachers have some of the lowest paid salaries in our area. Being a first year teacher in an almost empty classroom has been challenging. However, everyday we try to fill our classroom with curiosity, excitement, and love! Please know that any donations received will directly impact the lives of my little learners and I am forever grateful for the support!!” If you feel inspired to help, her wishlist will be in my bio! 🧠🙏🏻📚❤️

A post shared by kristen bell (@kristenanniebell) on

 

For every one of the posts, Bell highlights the teacher’s need for school supplies and asks her followers to help out—and her call to action has proven to be extremely effective.

One elementary school teacher from Belmont, North Carolina was inundated with packages after she was featured on Bell’s Instagram back in May.

WATCH: Watching Kristen Bell Cheer Up Hurricane Irma Evacuees Will Melt Your Heart

“I’ve received over a couple hundred items so far, and they are still trickling in every day,” Riggs told WCNC reporters the very same week. “I even got a gift from the UK and Zimbabwe!”

More recently, Bell featured a first grade teacher from Flint, Michigan named Emily Mayberry.

Within a week of appearing on Bell’s social media page, she experienced the same relief: she was flooded with gifts, packages, and supplies from her Amazon wishlist.

LOOK: Barefoot Teacher Pictured Running Ahead of Tornado to Warn Families in Carpool Lane

“The generosity of others is overwhelming,” wrote the school on Facebook. “Gratitude is the quality of feeling and experiencing thankfulness and appreciation. We are beyond thankful and appreciative to Kristen Bell and her #FeaturedTeacherFriday for their outpouring of love, support and dedication by enriching and changing the lives of our students through their generous donations.”

If you want to nominate yourself or a teacher to be featured on Bell’s Instagram, you can send an email to [email protected]. Or, you may be inspired to help a teacher who has not been featured, by going to Donors Choose and surprising an educator with a donation at the nonprofit’s website.

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“It is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.” – Charles Darwin (The Origin of Species published 160 years ago today)

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “It is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.” – Charles Darwin, Descent of Man (160 years ago, On The Origin of Species was published)

Photo: by duckmackay – CC license on Flickr, cropped

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?

 

Researchers Develop Basis for Oral Anti-Rabies Treatment That Could One Day Cull the Disease Entirely

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Good News Network
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Australian researchers have found a way to stop the rabies virus by shutting down the body’s immune defense against it. In doing so, they have solved a key scientific puzzle and have laid the foundation for the development of new oral anti-rabies vaccines.

Rabies kills an estimated 60,000 people a year, most of them in developing countries, overwhelmingly through dog bites.

Dr. Greg Moseley, from the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI), and Associate Professor Paul Gooley, from the Bio21 Institute at the University of Melbourne, were senior authors in the study published last week in Cell Reports.

“It’s been known for a long time that many viruses target the human protein STAT1 and related proteins to shut down the host’s immune defenses, and it’s also assumed that this is very important for diseases,” said Dr. Moseley, a long-term rabies researcher.

RELATED: Alzheimer’s Vaccine That Uses the Body’s Immune System Succeeds in Breakthrough Trials

However, it was not known exactly how P-protein—the main “immune antagonist” of lyssaviruses including the rabies virus—takes hold of STAT1, due to a lack of direct structural data on STAT1 complexes with viral proteins.

“The challenge was to produce the key proteins on the viral and host sides in a test tube and keep them stable so we could interrogate the interaction directly; this hadn’t been done before, at least for the full-size human protein,” Moseley said.

The researchers then brought the two proteins together and, using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, showed the precise regions where the viral protein sticks onto STAT1 and holds onto it to keep it away from locations in the cell where it needs to be to activate the immune response.

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“We were able to find new regions and new sites for mutations and so could target these in a virus, completely preventing it from being able to grab hold of STAT1,” said Associate Professor Gooley, an expert in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

To the researchers’ knowledge, this was the first direct structural analysis of binding of full sized STAT1 to a viral protein, even though many viruses such as measles and Hendra target this protein.

Using a “wild” strain of rabies virus, collaborators at the Pasteur Institute in France showed that by disabling this binding they could strongly weaken even a highly pathogenic virus.

MORE: On a Hunch, Doctor Gives HPV Vaccine to Advanced Skin Cancer Patient and Dozens of Tumors Disappear

The findings of their five-year study are the subject of a recently lodged international patent.

A global drive is underway to find better ways to counter rabies, which is caused by the rabies virus and also other lyssaviruses including an Australian bat virus. Methods such as culling dogs have not worked to control rabies and while mass vaccination is effective, catching and injecting animals is problematic, Dr. Moseley said.

“The development of a new safe and highly-effective rabies vaccine that can be given orally or as ‘baits’ would be a major step forward,” he said.

Gooley added: “I’m not a virologist, but I’m excited to have been involved in a project that could lead to a safer oral vaccine for rabies to eliminate it, especially in developing countries. Like Greg, I’m a discovery scientist, driven by curiosity. I enjoy solving scientific problems,” he said.

“The state-of-the-art technological tools and methods used in the study could also be applied more broadly to counter other viruses that target STAT proteins.”

Reprinted from Monash University

Treat Your Friends To The Good News By Sharing It To Social Media — File photo by Wonderlane, CC

Indonesia Looks to its Past to Solve Modern Energy Troubles

By
Andy Corbley
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As a nation made up of 17,000 islands, one of Indonesia’s most challenging problems in the 21st century has been modernizing her electric grid.

But now on the island of Siberut, some electricity-starved hamlets are sustainably developing their own energy by relying on a material that has been part of their lives for thousands of years: bamboo.

According to Jaya Wahono, CEO of Clean Power Indonesia (CPI) there are around 50,000 villages that don’t have reliable access to electricity. But in 1,200 households in 3 villages on the remote Mentawai Islands where CPI has set up their test bio-electric plants, people are enjoying reliable power for the first time ever.

The Center for International Forestry Research continues saying that “bamboo harvesting provides jobs, and also allows farmers to diversify their income streams, reducing their vulnerability to crop failure and helping them adapt to climate change”.

An Ancient Technology

For the peoples of the Indo-Pacific, bamboo can truly be called the tree of life.

Young bamboo shoots are a local staple. Various structures like scaffolding are made of bamboo to protect them from earthquakes, the fibers can be woven together to make everything from clothing to baskets, and dry or dead bamboo is a ready source of firewood. Indigenous Indo-Pacific communities use bamboo for everything—including making spears, rafts, and even pipes.

RELATED: Toronto Garbage Trucks Will Soon Be Powered by Biogas From the Very Food Scraps That They Collect

According to early modeling on the viability and cost-benefit of these bio-electric power plants, merely 750 acres (300 hectres) of bamboo forest are needed to power one plant that provides 700 KW—the equivalent of 48 gallons per day of the expensive and unreliable diesel fuel many villages use currently.

Bamboo > Palm Oil

Biomass-energy production in Indonesia has had some success, but the main crop used until now has been palm oil. Though palm oil has contributed significantly to the economy of nations in the Indo-Pacific where the trees can grow best, the destructive effects of their cultivation are well-documented.

Bamboo grows well on land that has been degraded over time—especially peripheral land on the edge of roads and fields—and requires minimal water or fertilizer input.

MORE: New Power Plant Turns Waste into Energy—and Doubles as a Ski Slope and Climbing Wall

Rather than clear-cutting virgin tropical rainforest as has been generally required of palm oil plantations, local bamboo thrives alongside other crops in forestry and agroforestry systems, without overtaking them. Furthermore, bamboo grows fast; really, really, really fast. Some species can grow up to three feet a day (one meter); and as such there’s no need to chop whole forests down and start again when it’s harvest time.

Requiring brief trimming every season, bamboo can actually become more productive while preventing soil erosion, and ensuring wildlife habitat as well as energy production.

Looking Forward

Indonesia’s 2045 pledge for electrifying the country involves tripling the power output for their citizens and providing energy for the last 10% of the country that doesn’t have regular access to electricity.

CHECK OUT: First Fully Rechargeable Carbon Dioxide Battery is Seven Times More Efficient Than Lithium Ion

According to the cost-benefit-analysis from Indonesia Defense University, every $1 million investment by CPI in bamboo bioelectric plants will see 100% returns in 16 years, and 65% net earnings by the Indonesia national deadline of 2045.

While nations around the world plan how to equip their infrastructure for the changing climate, Indonesia might have found their path into the future by looking back into the past.

Power Up With Positivity By Sharing The Good News To Social Media – File photo by Joey Zanotti, CC

Humpback Whale Population Bounces Back From Near-Extinction—From Just 450, to Over 25,000

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Good News Network
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Photo by Christopher Michel, CC license

Conservationists are rejoicing after new research showed that whales in the South Atlantic have rebounded from the brink of extinction.

Intense pressure from the whaling industry in the early 1900s saw the western South Atlantic population of humpbacks diminish to only 450 whales, after approximately 25,000 of the mammals were hunted within 12 years.

Protections were put in place in the 1960s after scientists noticed worldwide that populations were declining. In the mid-1980s, the International Whaling Commission issued a moratorium on all commercial whaling, offering further safeguards for the struggling population.

A new study co-authored by Grant Adams, John Best and André Punt from the University of Washington’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences revealed that the species’ population (Megaptera novaeangliae) has rebounded to 25,000. Researchers believe this new estimate is now close to pre-whaling numbers.

RELATED: Hope on Horizon for Escaped ‘Russian Spy Whale‘ After Video of Its Rugby Skills Goes Viral

“We were pleasantly surprised by the comeback; previous studies hadn’t suggested that humpback whales in this region were doing this well,” Best told Good News Network in an email.

The study, published last month in the journal Royal Society Open Science, refutes a previous assessment conducted by the International Whaling Commission between 2006 and 2015 which indicated the population had only recovered to about 30% of its pre-exploitation numbers. Since that assessment was completed, new data has come to light, providing more accurate information on catches, genetics, and life-history.

Photo by Christopher Michel, CC license

LOOK: This Woman and Her Pet Otters Have Spent the Last 40 Years Protecting the Species From Extinction in England

“Accounting for pre-modern whaling and struck-and-lost rates where whales were shot or harpooned but escaped and later died, made us realize the population was more productive than we previously believed,” said Adams, a UW doctoral student who helped construct the new model.

The study incorporated detailed records from the whaling industry at the outset of commercial exploitation, while current population estimates are made from a combination of air- and ship-based surveys, along with advanced modeling techniques.

The authors anticipate that the model built for this study can be used to determine population recovery in other species in more detail as well.

MORE: Bison Get 22,000 Acres of Additional Prairie Land to Roam Free – Watch The Spectacular Moment They Were Reintroduced After 150 Years

“We believe that transparency in science is important,” said Adams. “The software we wrote for this project is available to the public and anyone can reproduce our findings.”

Lead author Alex Zerbini of the UW’s Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean stressed the importance of providing population assessments without biases, but says these findings come as good news— an example of how an endangered species can come back from near extinction.

“Wildlife populations can recover from exploitation if proper management is applied,” said Zerbini, who completed this work at the NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s Marine Mammal Laboratory.

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The study also looks at how the revival of South Atlantic humpbacks may have ecosystem-wide impacts. Whales compete with other predators, like penguins and seals, for krill as their primary food source. Krill populations may further be impacted by warming waters due to climate changes, compressing their range closer to the poles.

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After ‘Mountain Santa’ Dad Spent 42 Years Giving Away Gifts to Poor Families, His Son Decides to Do the Same

By
McKinley Corbley
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For 42 Christmas seasons, a man named Mike Howard would dress up as Santa Claus and spend the holiday delivering thousands of gifts to some of the poorest families in Kentucky.

After Howard lost his battle against cancer and passed away last year, his son decided to honor his father’s legacy by taking over the persona of ‘Mountain Santa’ — and continuing the holiday tradition in their beloved Harlan County.

Jordan has been wrapping and decorating Christmas gifts in his workshop near (the aptly-named) Santa Lane since October. With his ongoing fundraising efforts, he believes he will have about 4,000 presents to dole out over the holidays.

“I’d say we got over 1,000 right now—and it’s just midway through,” he told WYMT in the interview below. “It’s a feeling that you can’t describe. You don’t think that a community would come together like they have to keep doing this, but it’s just awesome. It’s just amazing.”

Jordan and his crew of community elves are aiming to embark on their first gift delivery run on December 14th.

(WATCH the heartwarming news coverage below) – Photo by WYMT

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“Waking up to a blanket of snow is like a morning lullaby, a soft dreamlike state that is almost magical.” – Nancy Hatch Woodward

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “Waking up to a blanket of snow is like a morning lullaby, a soft dreamlike state that is almost magical.” – Nancy Hatch Woodward

Photo: by Corey Templeton – CC license on Flickr, cropped

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Cameroon Man Uses Wasted Plastic Bottles to Build Canoes for Fishermen in Need

By
McKinley Corbley
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Photo by Madiba and Nature
Photo by Madiba and Nature

An innovative young man from Cameroon has been cleaning up pollution in his city by turning plastic bottles into boats.

Ismaël Essome Ebone was first inspired to build his “EcoBoats” as a student back in 2011. He had just taken shelter from a thunderstorm blowing through his neighborhood when he saw several plastic bottles floating by on some passing floodwaters.

He then built a boat from plastic bottles collected from around the town and waited to test it until another storm blew in. To the astonishment of the fishermen watching from the shore, Ebone’s boat worked like a dream.

LOOK: More and More People Are Swapping Out Plastic Straws for Coconut Leaves Thanks to Café’s Facebook Post

He then invested all of his money into launching his nonprofit Madiba & Nature: a charity dedicated to collecting plastic waste from around the region and turning it into boats for ecotourism and fishermen in need.

Thanks to the success of his venture, the Cameroonian organization recently installed the nation’s first ever EcoBin for collecting, sorting, and recycling waste materials.

“The EcoBin makes it easier to collect plastic bottles in a smart way and avoid polluting rivers and the ocean in Kribi and Douala!” reads the nonprofit’s Facebook page. “From plastic waste to EcoBoat and EcoBin, the revolution is on the way.”

(WATCH the 2017 news coverage below)

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Austrian Government to Turn Hitler’s Birth Home into Police Station to Deter Neo-Nazi Pilgrims

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McKinley Corbley
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After a grueling decades-long legal battle, the birthplace of Adolf Hitler will soon be turned into a police station to repel potential neo-Nazi visitors.

The house, which has belonged to the family of Gerlinde Pommer for several generations, has been a subject of controversy for the Austrian government not only because of its dark historical context, but also because Pommer has refused to sell the building outright without a certain amount of financial compensation.

The Interior Ministry reportedly purchased the lease in 1972 in order to ensure that the building could be rented appropriately—but since Pommer also refused to renovate the space, it was particularly difficult to find tenants.

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Despite how Nazi support has waned over the years, police were also still forced to keep a close eye on the space in order to deter Nazi vandalism, pilgrimage, or interference.

This week, however, the Austrian Supreme Court ruled that Pommer would be compensated for the yellow house in Braunau am Inn with $908,000 in payment.

Wolfgang Peschorn, the interior minister of Austria, said that the government will now be holding an architectural competition for the future design of the building, which is marked by a memorial stone reading: “For peace, freedom and democracy. Never again fascism. Millions dead are a warning.”

WATCH: World’s Largest Holocaust Archive is Now Making Their Records Available to Everyone on the Internet

Until the winner of the competition is announced in 2020, designers from across Europe are encouraged to submit their plans for transforming the space.

“The future use of the house by the police should send an unmistakable signal that the role of this building as a memorial to the Nazis has been permanently revoked,” Wolfgang Peschorn, the interior minister of Austria, said in a statement reported by The New York Times.

Be Sure And Share The News With Your Friends On Social Media — Photo by Anton Kurt, CC

Bagel Shop Manager Nonchalantly Drives for Seven Hours So He Can Return Customer’s Car Keys

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McKinley Corbley
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The manager of a New York bagel shop is being hailed for going above and beyond the call of duty to help a customer in need.

Diana Chong had left her car engine running as she stopped at Bagels 101 in Long Island for some breakfast last week. She had been preparing for a three-and-a-half-hour drive to visit some friends in Pennsylvania.

Upon arriving at her friend’s house, however, she realized she had forgotten her car keys on the counter of the bagel shop.

Because her car has an electronic fob, Chong can drive her car without possessing the key—but without the fob, the car won’t turn back on.

RELATED: When Young Waffle House Worker Was Left Alone to Run Entire Restaurant, Empathetic Customers Jump In to Help

Chong called Bagels 101 and spoke to shop manager Vinny Proscia about her dilemma. When Proscia learned that she had indeed left her keys on the counter, he nonchalantly offered to drive them to her friends house in Pennsylvania.

Despite being forced to drive in rush hour traffic, Proscia hopped in his car and headed to Pennsylvania. Not only did he happily hand off the keys to an awestruck Chong several hours later, he immediately turned around and headed home so he could work the next morning.

“That is what I was always taught: if I am able to help — help,” he told Inside Edition.

(WATCH the news coverage below)

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Discovery of Brain Circuit That Controls Compulsive Drinking Offers Hope for Alcoholism Cure

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Good News Network
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Although alcohol use is ubiquitous in modern society, only a portion of individuals develop alcohol use disorders or addiction. Yet, scientists have not understood why some individuals are prone to develop drinking problems, while others are not.

Now, Salk Institute researchers have discovered a brain circuit that controls alcohol drinking behavior in mice, and can be used as a biomarker for predicting the development of compulsive drinking later on. Furthermore, they were able to increase and also decrease rates of compulsive drinking simply by manipulating the brain circuit.

The findings were published in Science earlier this week, and they could potentially have implications for understanding human binge drinking and addiction in the future.

“I hope this will be a landmark study, as we’ve found (for the first time) a brain circuit that can accurately predict which mice will develop compulsive alcohol drinking weeks before the behavior starts,” says Kay Tye, a professor in the Systems Neurobiology Laboratory. “This research bridges the gap between circuit analysis and alcohol/addiction research, and provides a first glimpse at how representations of compulsive alcohol drinking develop across time in the brain.”

WATCH: ‘Sober Bars’ Are Giving More and More Recovering Alcoholics a Social Place for Fun Without Booze

The National Institutes of Health defines alcohol use disorder as a chronic brain disease in which an individual drinks compulsively, often with accompanying negative emotions. Previous research has focused on examining the brain after a drinking disorder develops. Tye’s team sought to discover the brain circuits that are responsible for a predisposition for compulsive drinking to develop in the first place, which had not been previously studied.

“We initially sought to understand how the brain is altered by binge drinking to drive compulsive alcohol consumption,” says Cody Siciliano, first author and assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University. “In the process, we stumbled across a surprising finding where we were actually able to predict which animals would become compulsive based on neural activity during the very first time they drank.”

In this study, the researchers created a test called a binge-induced compulsion task (BICT) to examine how susceptibility toward alcohol consumption interacts with experience to produce compulsive drinking in mice. The BICT allowed the researchers to examine alcohol consumption as well as consumption with negative consequences, such as a bitter taste added to the alcohol. Through a series of tests, the scientists observed that the mice could be sorted into three groups: low drinkers, high drinkers and compulsive drinkers. Unlike the first two groups, the compulsive drinkers showed insensitivity to negative consequences.

RELATED: Apples, Tea, and Moderation—The 3 Ingredients for a Long Life

The researchers then used an imaging technique called microendoscopic single-cell resolution calcium imaging to chart the cells and brain regions of interest prior to drinking, during drinking and after drinking alcohol. Specifically, they looked at neuron activity in two regions involved in behavioral control and responding to adverse events: the medial prefrontal cortex and the periaqueductal gray matter, respectively.

They found that the development of compulsive alcohol drinking was related to neural communication patterns between the two brain regions, and was a biomarker for predicting future compulsive drinking.

Further, the researchers used optogenetics to control the activity of the neural pathway using light. By turning the brain circuit on or off, the scientists were able to either increase compulsive alcohol drinking or reduce it.

MORE: Give Yourself a ‘Dry January’–You’ll Sleep Better, Save Money, and Lose Weight

“Now, we can look into the brain and find activity patterns that predict if mice will become compulsive drinkers in the future, before the compulsion develops,” says Tye. “We do not know if this brain circuit is specific to alcohol or if the same circuit is involved in multiple different compulsive behaviors such as those related to other substances of abuse or natural rewards, so that is something we need to investigate.”

Next, the scientists plan to sequence these cortical-brainstem neurons in order to identify targets that could be used for therapeutics.

Reprinted from the Salk Institute

(WATCH the explanatory video below) – File photo by M_Shipp22, CC

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Another Police Department Starts Collecting Canned Food in Lieu of Parking Ticket Fines

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Good News Network
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Rather than opening up your wallet to pay off a parking ticket, this Ohio police department is asking people to pay off their fines with canned food donations.

This is not the first time that police departments have used parking ticket fees to help fund important community initiatives. In addition to several North American law enforcement teams collecting donations for teachers, animals, and holiday toy drives, the Lexington Police Department opted to accept canned food for parking tickets back in 2017.

Now, the Bay Village Police Department is partnering with the Bay Food Ministry to collect food donations until December 25th.

RELATED: Kroger Donates $500,000 Facility to Rival Grocery Store So Community Won’t Be Left Without a Supermarket

According to the department’s Facebook page, the Bay Food Ministry was responsible for donating 47,392 pounds of food last year alone.

The department is accepting up to $25 worth of non-perishable food items for each individual parking violation—and they hope their “Food for Fines” initiative will help inspire other police departments to launch similar charity drives in their own cities.

“There is a regular need for cereal, cans of tuna or chicken, canned soup, and toilet paper,” wrote the department. “If you would like to donate (without the parking ticket!) donations will be accepted in the lobby of the police department 24/7.”

Serve Up Some Positivity By Sharing The Good News To Social Media — File photo by Charleston’s TheDigitel, CC; Salvation Army USA West, CC

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.” – Helen Keller

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.” – Helen Keller

Photo: by Michell Zappa – CC license on Flickr, cropped

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?

 

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