126 years ago today, FC Barcelona was founded by a combination of Spanish, Swiss, and English footballers. It has grown to be perhaps the most iconic football club on Earth, with a die-hardest fan base, a mountain of trophies and awards, and a memory bank that contains the on-field artistry of many of the greatest players in the history of the sport. The club today is the fourth-most valuable sports club on Earth, but despite the riches is supporter-owned. READ some notable facts about the club… (1899)
AI-Guided Robot Plants ‘Baby Corals’ Across the Great Barrier Reef
At the Australian Institute of Marine Science, artificial intelligence is being leveraged to help restore coral reefs after recent bleaching events.
Following the autumn spawning season on the Great Barrier Reef, AIMS scientists are looking to give the corals a helping hand by dropping coral larvae down onto degraded reef segments.
But in an effort that would be “near impossible” to achieve with human decision making and labor alone, a robotic assistant called the Deployment Guidance System (DGS) scans the seafloor and determines the best place for a coral to spawn before dropping small ceramic coral analogues down to within 3 feet of the targeted area.
“The system is not so much one technology as many, brought together in a workflow that improves the yield for our coral seeding efforts,” explains Dr. Ben Moshirian, the project engineer behind the DGS. “The aim is to ensure coral seeding devices are accurately and safely deployed in pre-specified locations.”
Coral seeding has become an urgently targeted science-based practice around the world, with the last 20 years seeing marine scientists finally figure out how to time spawning events, capture coral larvae, and breed them in aquarium tanks.
The ceramic analogues are specially designed to offer protection to juvenile coral while they grow to adulthood, and the system releases the devices from an AIMS vessel at the optimal moment using a deep-learning algorithm informed by years of oceanographic and ecological observations by scientists.
AUSTRALIAN MARINE INNOVATION: Bite-Proof Wetsuit Fabric Almost Entirely Prevents Shark Bite Flesh Wounds
As coral seeding deployments roll out, and the understanding of it evolves, so will the decisions of the DGS to reflect the latest and best knowledge.
“This technology is not about machines replacing humans. It is about humans working with machines, to give our science impact at a scale which was difficult to achieve previously,” Dr. Moshirian said.
CORALY STORIES: Scientists Discover ‘World’s Largest’ Coral –the Size of 5 Tennis Courts
AIMS sees the eventual future of the DGS as being mounted onboard autonomous vessels that could seed coral day and night. Another potential being explored is whether the rather bulky system could make its way onto the boats piloted for tourists, divers, or by Traditional owners.
It would in effect give everyone who loves and relies on the reefs the opportunity to continuously aid in their restoration.
WATCH the system in action below…
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Couple Converts Their Home into ‘Hedgehog Haven’ to Rehabilitate Over 500 Spiky Critters
From Scotland comes the story of a couple who have dedicated their hearts and homes to an often helpless critter.
Andy and Sharon Longhurst have helped heal and rehabilitate over 500 European hedgehogs over nearly 3 years, and though they aren’t veterinarians, they can’t help but help when someone brings them a hedgehog.
Called the Burntisland Hedgehog Haven, the Longhursts began in 2023 in the upstairs room in their house, where they were allowed to care for up to 7 hedgehogs without a license in Scotland.
But they quickly realized the need to expand their capacity after word got out there was somewhere to bring an injured hedgehog. Not long after they started, they had to convert their garage.
Following two years of fundraising their own money, they’ve built a treatment ward in their garden, installed an ICU and over 40 rehab cages, as well as taken on 18 volunteers, established 3 rescue centers across Scotland, and even set up an ambulance service.
“Hedgehogs were listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List in 2024 as they have declined between 30-75% in rural areas since the year 2000,” Mrs. Longhurst said. The animals are slow, brown, and have poor eyesight, making them unfortunately vulnerable targets for vehicle strikes and other hazards.
“We were out in the car one day in 2022 and saw a hedgehog out in the day collapsed on a grass verge,” Mr. Longhurst said. “We contacted the SSPCA and they weren’t able to collect, so we drove the hedgehog all the way to the SSPCA Wildlife Center—which was a 50 mile round trip.”
“We leant that there was a guy up in Wormit near St. Andrews that had been doing hedgehog rescue for 25-plus years and was looking for someone to take it over due to ill health,” he said, explaining how they got started. “We went and had a chat with Sandy Boyd and he gave us valuable information and gave some equipment to get us started.”
Parents to three children, the Longhursts were shocked at how quickly the 7 animal-limit was breached.
“If there’s a hedgehog out there that needs help and it’s in pain, I can’t say no, we have to help it,” said Sharon. “We always say we have to draw a line, we cannot take any more but then you get that phone call and we’re like ‘come on, bring it in.”
HELPING ANIMALS IN NEED: 700 Cats Rescued After TikTok User Finds a Texas Tabby–and Rescues a Sanctuary in Trouble
That saw them convert their garage, which had previously served as a playroom for the children, into the second of three eventual wards at the rescue center. The couple later fundraised to build a structure in their garden where the third ward is located.
Andy and Sharon can now care for up to 40 hedgehogs at any one time and have a team of volunteers to help cleaning, weighing, and checking the hedgehogs on a daily basis.
Part of their mission is also to educate the public on how to create a safe space in their own garden. They’ve rescued hedgehogs from practically every malady imaginable, from vehicle strikes to fly larvae infestations, infections, wounds from dogs, wounds from gardening tools, and even one fellow whose spikes got tangled in a soccer net. If they need antibiotics or an x-ray, they’ll send them off to the vet, as they’re not certified for that level of care.
MORE SAINTLY VOLUNTEERS: 90-year-old Who Has Saved Over 10,000 Animals at Sanctuary Has No Plans to Retire
For those who know Scottish geography, their hospital and care covers Edinburgh, The Lothian’s, and Fife, and as far out as Berwick, and Falkirk.
The pair were awarded the BBC Make A Difference Award Highly Commended in the Animal Category last week and recently featured on Channel 5 News as Heroes of The Week.
Last year they also won the ‘Animal All Star’ award out of the whole of the UK, and received a mention in Parliament.
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1,500 Year-Old Reindeer Trap and Hunting Equipment Uncovered in the Ice of Norway’s Mountains
A hiker in Norway discovered a one-of-a-kind wild reindeer trap that Iron age inhabitants would have used to catch their dinner en masse.
Alongside the large wooden trap was a trove of hunting supplies and other artifacts, revealing a wealth of information about the culture and organization of early Norwegian society in the far north.
Dating to between 500 BCE and 500 CE, the Norwegian Iron age was characterized by a settlement of various fjords by wealthy individuals and an expansion in the organized hunting of wild reindeer.
Consisting of two parallel fences made of many cut wooden logs, their appearance above an ice sheet startled a local hiker named Helge Titland as he was trekking on the Aurlandsfjellet Plateau high in the mountains of Norway’s Vestland County in 2024.
The age of the newly-defrosted wood and the piles of reindeer antlers gave Titland the impression of antiquity, and so he called the Museum of Bergen to come investigate.
Excavations revealed that the reindeer kill trap aided hunters by funneling the animals through a narrow predictable passage where they could be shot at with arrows. Nearby, excavations revealed piles of reindeer antlers, an iron spear head, arrows, a reindeer-antler brooch, and other artifacts.
Øystein Skår, an archaeologist with Vestland County, said in a statement regarding the discovery that the kill trap is the first wooden mass-capture facility ever found in the ice in Norway—and potentially all of Europe.
Archaeology at altitude in Norway is not the same as elsewhere. Freezing temperatures, ice sheets, and year ’round snow fall means that some ancient artifacts remain remarkably preserved. Melting ice allows for their collection, but should they not be found, carbon-based substances like wood will decay rapidly in the open air.
This trove was fortunately found and collected quickly after its defrosting. The quality of preservation is clear in the discovery of a wooden boat oar with intricate details—as clear as if they were made just in the last few decades.
MORE NORDIC ARCHAEOLOGY:
- Archaeologists Found a Perfectly Preserved 1,500 Year-old Arrow Inside a Glacier
- Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers Heard the Elks Painted on a Cliff ‘Talking’ – (LISTEN)
- 2 Viking Swords Buried Upright May Have Been a Guide to Odin and Valhalla – Discovered By Road Crew
The Aurlandsfjellet Plateau sits some 4,600 feet above sea level, and so the presence of the boat oar was a head scratcher.
As to why the trap was abandoned with the items, the researchers at the University of Bergen hypothesize that a cooler-than-normal period could have resulted in thicker snowfalls which buried the trap beyond recovery.
The artifacts may have been left there by hunters who had the intention to return and use them for hunting, but couldn’t before the whole site was eventually buried by ice.
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Boy with Rare Genetic Disorder Amazes Doctors After World-First Gene Therapy
The first child in history has successfully been treated with a new genetic therapy for an ultra-rare developmental defect called Hunter syndrome.
Several years in the making, Oliver Chu became the first in the world to receive the stem cell-based treatment in February, and 3 months later seemed to be a normal child again, meeting important milestones and playing without supervision.
Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, which oversaw the trial of Oliver and 4 other patients, says that children with severe Hunter syndrome cannot properly break down complex sugar molecules and have widespread symptoms including rapid and progressive learning and memory problems, heart and lung dysfunction, hyperactivity and behavioral problems, bone and joint malformations and hearing impairment.
They cannot break down the sugars because their genetic code was formed with a defect: the gene that codes for the production of an enzyme called iduronate-2-sulfatase (IDS) doesn’t work properly.
Professor Brian Pigger, professor of cell and gene therapy at the University of Manchester, developed a method of replacing the faulty gene with a functioning copy, called autologous hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) gene therapy.
In December, Oliver Chu, from California, arrived at Royal Manchester for the first stage of the procedure. The 3-year-old had his blood cycled in a machine to extract the hematopoietic stem cells he produces naturally. These were then sent off to a laboratory at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, where a functioning copy of the defective gene is inserted into a virus and placed inside the stem cells.
In February, mother Jingru cradled Oliver in his hospital bed as he received an injection of 125 million modified cells twice in the space of 2 hours. It was a momentous day that the young boy was completely oblivious to.
After a few days, Oliver flew back to California to reunite with his older brother Skyler, who also has the disease, and his father Ricky.
Hunter syndrome affects almost exclusively boys, and then only 1 in 100,000 live births. A major challenge in the disease that can often be fatal is that treatment methods can’t cross the blood-brain barrier, as the major manifestation of the inability to break down sugars occurs in the brain.
One commercially available drug called Elaprase can slow the effects, but can’t cross the blood brain barrier. It costs as much as a house for a year’s prescription. Another treatment has been to give regular infusions of the missing enzyme, just like a diabetic would take infusions of insulin.
CONQUERING RARE DISEASES: There Was No Treatment for His Son’s Rare Disease, so Dad Moves Mountains to Make One for Kids Worldwide
In May of this year, BBC reports that Oliver’s development has become remarkably normal. He’s talking all the time, and been able to stop the enzyme infusions. He runs around like any other 3-year-old, utilizing a newly-exploded vocabulary, and demonstrates genuine inquisitiveness.
“Every time we talk about it I want to cry because it’s just so amazing,” his mother Jingru told the BBC.
“We can see he’s improving, he’s learning, he’s got new words and new skills and he’s moving around much more easily,” said Professor Simon Jones, who ran the trial that saw Oliver and four other boys receive the gene therapy. “We need to be careful and not get carried away in the excitement of all this, but things are as good as they could be at this point in time.”
MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: UPDATE Long-Term Follow-up in Babies Born with ‘Bubble Boy Disease’ Still Seem Cured
Unfortunately for Skyler, who also has Hunter syndrome, he’s too old to receive his younger brother’s treatment. The 5-year-old receives infusions like Oliver used to, it allows him to regain some physical development normalcy, but the infusions can’t cross the blood-brain barrier.
The treatment window in the trial was 3 months to 1 year of age. It was originally believed that Oliver was too old, but a battery of tests concluded there was still a window where the therapy might reverse the genetic defect in the brain as well as the body. Ricky is hopeful the treatment will prove successful, prompting further innovation into how it might help treat older children like Skyler.
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“The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
Quote of the Day: “The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
Image by: Katya Azimova
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
Good News in History, November 28
Happy 82nd Birthday to singer-songwriter and composer Randy Newman. Best known for his distinctive voice and film scores for 8 Pixar films—as well as Ragtime, Meet the Parents, and The Natural—he was hailed as the greatest songwriter alive by Paul McCartney. His singles included, ‘Short People’, ‘I Love L.A.’, ‘Feels Like Home’ (Bonnie Raitt), and ‘Mama Told Me Not To Come’ (Three Dog Night). READ about his hits… (1943)
Scorpion Venom May Provide the Next Breast Cancer Breakthrough
Scientists in Brazil are currently testing to see if the venom of an Amazonian scorpion could be used to poison breast cancer tumors.
Researchers at the University of São Paulo’s Preto School of Pharmaceutical Sciences (FCFRP-USP) have long worked to clone and express proteins from rattlesnake and scorpion venom with hopes of transforming these powerful compounds into medicines.
Recently, their work identified that venom of the scorpion Brotheas amazonicus appears to attack breast cancer cells in a way similar to a widely used chemotherapy medication.
These early findings were generated through a collaboration with scientists from the National Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA) and the Amazonas State University (UEA).
“Through bioprospecting, we were able to identify a molecule in the species of this Amazonian scorpion that is similar to that found in the venoms of other scorpions and that acts against breast cancer cells,” said Eliane Candiani Arantes, a professor at FCFRP-USP and the coordinator of the project.
Arantes and her team identified two neurotoxins in scorpion venom with immunosuppressive effects. Working with collaborators at INPA and UEA, they found a peptide named BamazScplp1 in the venom of Brotheas amazonicus that appears to have anti-tumor potential.
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Laboratory tests showed that the peptide’s impact on breast cancer cells was comparable to paclitaxel, a commonly prescribed chemotherapy treatment. It primarily triggers necrosis, a form of cell death previously associated with molecules from other scorpion species.
Arantes and her team have isolated other components of venoms from scorpions and from snakes that have been used to help develop other clinical applications, including an internal wound sealant that mimics the body’s natural clotting and scaffolding processes. It’s undergoing trials for use in nerve repair, bone healing, and restoring movement following spinal cord injury.
Next time you see a scorpion, and think it a nasty creepy crawly that will send you to the hospital, show a bit of grace; they might help save a woman’s life some day.
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Uruguay Achieves 99% Green Energy After Seeking the Lowest Price for Consumers
One of the most stable and prosperous South American countries has managed to virtually zero-out fossil fuel use and transition almost entirely to renewable energy—by not focusing on environmental goals.
The great folly of politics is believing that anything can be divorced from economics, and that within those economics, established laws are flexible.
In a strategy that acknowledges both of these maxims, Uruguay has, according to Forbes, divorced its energy mix from fossil fuels while saving money, reducing costs, and creating thousands of jobs.
“Climate policies fail when they are disconnected from economics. The transition works when it saves money and creates jobs,” said Ramon Méndez Galain, the country’s former energy minister who oversaw the energy transition.
Like most countries, Uruguay has no fossil fuel resources to speak of. It had long balanced a desperate demand on its hydropower capacity with imported coal, oil, and natural gas. Having enjoyed admirable and enviably-stable economic growth rates that’ve seen the country of 3.5 million people reach a GDP of $80 billion, the government has long chosen to subsidize fossil fuel production and importation to power this development and expansion.
However, as Méndez Galain told Forbes’ Ken Silverstein in an interview, the nation faced a dilemma of rapidly increasing demand, with blackouts beginning to become worryingly common in parts of the country.
In the 2010s, the government concluded that relying on fossil fuel imports was becoming unsustainable economically, and a conversation about renewables was brewing in the halls of power.
Méndez Galain, who was a particle physicist by education and had no experience in the energy sector, eventually managed to take charge of the energy ministry and implement a plan that survived through 5 administrations and which today has the whole world taking notice.
It wasn’t that hard, though. Uruguay needed capacity at low cost, and so after removing existing biases and subsidies for fossil fuel projects, the government opened up utility contracts to greater competition and at longer-term periods. The contracts were not awarded according to emissions-cutting promises, but how low the cost for installation and provision would be.
More players could then enter the energy market, bringing with them ideas and innovations, and eventually some $6 billion in renewables investments from companies eager to win the long-term contracts. The longer durations promised predictable ROI to perspective investors, who quickly signed on.
SOUTH AMERICAN PROGRESS: A Nation That’s 90% Rainforest Announces New Protections for Over 25 Million Acres
50,000 or so jobs were created in the engineering and energy sectors throughout the transition, some 3% of the country’s total workforce. Power now costs 20% less than before.
The energy mix had to be dynamic, as the country doesn’t boast eternal blusters or sunshine. It has average solar and wind potential, but a strained existing hydropower industry. Méndez Galain saw this combination backed up with a substantial biomass sector which generates 15% of all the country’s electricity. In fact, solar, which in so much of the world is the go-to renewable platform, is merely a gap filler.
MORE RENEWABLE NATIONS: Incredible 60% of Europe’s Electricity Was Powered by Clean Energy in the First Two Months of 2024
Some 1-3% of the country’s supply of electricity comes from natural gas in periods where hydropower, which supplies almost half of the country’s power, is strained.
Méndez Galain stressed that no nation can ignore economic forces and laws when planning its energy mix, and that if any administrations were looking to copy the “Uruguay model” the first step is get the economics right. The environmental benefits will come as an afterthought.
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Two People from Minnesota Who Met in the Hospital After Waking up from Comas Are Getting Married
Everyone knows love works in mysterious ways; but rarely more mysterious than in the story of Zach and Isabelle.
Partners in life and partners in podcasting, it was 7 years ago that the two Minnesotans were partners of a distinctly less pleasant kind.
At 18, Zach Zarembinski was rushed to Regions Hospital in St. Paul in a coma after suffering a traumatic brain injury on the high school football field. At 16, Isabelle Richards arrived 9 days later in a coma after a car crash on her way to a grocery store job.
There they lay, shattered, unconscious, and together. Alongside them, their mothers feared the worst, having been told by the medical staff to prepare for the same. But they supported each other.
“I remember she was laying there. She had shards of glass still in her hair and she was unconscious,” Esther Wilzbacher, Richard’s mother, recalled.
“Isabel had to have her right skull piece removed. Zach had to have his left skull piece removed.”
Despite the doctor’s warnings, it wasn’t to be the end of Zach’s journey, and the footballer woke up. Days later when he was ready, he came downstairs for a hospital news conference which was broadcast in Richard’s room, where her father and aunt saw it and suggested they go down to speak with the teen.
Wilzbacher said that Zarembinski told her that her daughter would be fine, and sure enough, she was. After Richards woke up and recovered, the mothers organized a dinner together.
“Said a couple kind words to Isabelle and that was it for six years,” Zarembinski told Boyd Huppert at KARE 11 News’ “Land of 10,000 Stories.”
But 6 years later, the mothers organized a reunion of sorts.
A Facebook friend request, a first date, a year of dates, and then… another hospital news conference.
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- Pierced by Cupid’s Sedan, Woman Forgives and Marries Motorist Who Accidentally Ran Her Over
- Adoption Approved for Couple with Spina Bifida who Lovingly Adopt Daughter With Same Condition
In Regions Hospital, at the same spot where Zarembinski gave a conference as a teen, the pair of TBI survivors recorded a special episode of their podcast Hope in Healing.
After reading out Joel 2:25 and John 10:10, Zarembinski asked Richards to marry her, and the hospital staff that had ensured they both survived erupted into applause as she said yes.
Partners in comatose, partners podcasting, and now, partners for life. Mysterious ways.
WATCH the story below…
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John Oliver Sells His Bob Ross Painting Raises Record $1.5 Million for Public Television
GNN reported recently that a Los Angeles auction house recently handled the sale of three paintings by the famous TV artist Bob Ross, with the proceeds of over $600,000 going to fund public television and radio.
Inspired by the effort, HBO’s comedy news host John Oliver announced that he too had an original Ross that he would auction for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
On the last episode of the most recent season of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, the British-born TV host revealed an auction catalogue called “John Oliver’s Junk” headlined by Cabin at Sunset, which Ross painted in season 10 of his show The Joy of Painting.
It managed to set a new auction record for a Bob Ross painting of $1,035,000 after 35 bids.
“We’ve actually accumulated a bunch of weird artifacts on this show over the years that we could definitely auction off to raise some much needed money,” Oliver said on last week’s show. “I am proud to announce last week tonight’s first ever auction in aid of public media.”
The proceeds from the sales of Cabin at Sunset and 34 other items totaled $1.5 million which has been transferred to the Public Media Bridge Fund which helps support stations and programs in need of funding.
Most of the items included show memorabilia, including a pair of golden sneakers Oliver promised to wear almost decade ago if former FIFA President Sep Blatter resigned, a cabbage that Oliver married in a segment on AI-generated art, and a jockstrap worn by Russel Crowe.
A pair of VIP tickets to a live show taping caught over $110,000.
OTHER STORIES TO INSPIRE: Thousands in Donations Pour into Animal Shelter Where Jon Stewart Adopted His Beloved Dog That Just Passed Away
While the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a GSE that funds public radio and television in America, was receiving over $1 billion of its budget from the government, anyone who watches PBS or listens to NPR notes the frequency with which they run pledge drives. This along with other for-profit productions generates substantial revenue that helps keep the CBP operational.
It was the idea of Bob Ross Inc., the company that manages the painter’s likeness and property, to hold the auction in support of public television, something which he loved so much.
“I think this actually would have been Bob’s idea,” said Joan Kowalski, president of Bob Ross Inc. “And when I think about that, it makes me very proud.”
TELEVISION STORIES: Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom Returns to Modern Screens With Hopeful Stories of Wildlife Problems Solved
Home in the Valley, (1993) Cliffside, (1990) and Winter’s Peace (1993) were priced to start at Bonham’s auctioneers at between $25,000 – $30,000, but all three quickly exploded in action.
The first brought $229,100, the second $114,800, and Winter’s Peace went for a staggering $318,000.
WATCH the segment below…
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“There is one day that is ours. Thanksgiving Day is the one day that is purely American.” – O. Henry
Quote of the Day: “There is one day that is ours. Thanksgiving Day is the one day that is purely American.” – O. Henry
(Happy Thanksgiving to all our readers—in the US and around the globe!)
Photo by: Davey Gravy for Unsplash+
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
Good News in History, November 27
Happy Birthday to Bill Nye “The Science Guy” who turns 70 today. Nye, a science educator, comedian, and author is best known as the host of the PBS children’s science show, Bill Nye the Science Guy. Nye abandoned a career in mechanical engineering to pursue sketch comedy, writing and performing for the local sketch television show Almost Live!, where he regularly conducted wacky scientific experiments, setting the stage for his famous television persona. WATCH the scientist, who always wears a bow tie, explain how he became The Science Guy… (1955)
The News Media Over-Reports Homicides By 4,300% in the US, Shows New Study
For almost 30 years, GNN has been busting global media’s 24-hour gloom and doom cycle with the premise that bad news doesn’t have to sell, and good news isn’t rare at all.
A case-in-point for this outlet’s publishing mission is a study recently released on Our World in Data that showed how bad news events like murder and terrorism are extraordinarily over-covered by American media.
For example, homicide receives approximately 4,300% more media coverage than its share of deaths across the American population every year.
Put differently, if every death in America was reported on, news stories on homicides would be fewer in number by a factor of 43.
According to the study the same is true for terrorism—by a staggering 18,000 percent.
Relying on Media Cloud, an open-access platform for media analysis, the team behind the study analyzed news headlines covering the 12 most-common causes of death in America, plus homicide, drug overdoses, and terrorism, as these were perceived by the authors to receive an outsized share of media coverage.
The team then gathered news stories from three of the largest news outlets in America: the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the news website of Fox News. Their criteria was set to ensure the stories focused on these causes of death as the topic, rather than in passing.
“Heart disease and cancer accounted for 56% of deaths among these 15 causes, but together they received just 7% of the media coverage,” the study team, consisting of Hannah Ritchie, Tuna Acisu, and Edouard Mathieu, found and wrote in their presentation.
“Rare—but dramatic—events such as homicides and terrorism received more than half of all media coverage,” despite together representing less than 1% of all deaths in America.
Drug overdoses were also overrepresented—by 4-times their share of mortality events in the American population. Suicide was overrepresented by 80%.
“Nearly six-in-ten Americans still see international terrorism as a critical threat to the United States, despite the domestic impact on the US being relatively low for two decades,” the authors write. Indeed, terrorism killed just 16 Americans last year, about half the number of Americans killed in elevator accidents. If you’re not thinking twice about climbing into a rickety elevator, than you probably shouldn’t overly worry about terrorism.
BREAK THE BAD NEWS CYCLE: Instead of ‘We Are What We Eat,’ the Science of Kindness Says ‘We Are What We See’ in Daily Life
It doesn’t appear to be down to a conspiracy in media, but rather because American reporters are just following the absolute basics of ‘storytelling’. Heart disease and cardiovascular events kill 2,000 Americans every day, so the headline would be the same as yesterday’s and the day before that, with little variation.
A dramatic event like a plane crash or a gun battle in an American downtown area, has eye-witnesses, dramatic recounting, and enough individual details to make a story.
MORE POSITIVE HEADLINES: Five Top Headlines that Showcase the World’s Progress in the Climate Fight
Ritchie, Acisu, and Mathieu write that the vast majority of news consumers cite a motivation to be better informed, and to keep track of what’s happening in the world, as the reasons for their attention to the news.
Even though it’s clear that the number of news stories on a topic doesn’t actually reflect the overall state of a society, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking it does, and feel depressed because you’re led to believe life is full of malicious, despairing savagery.
SHARE This Perspective Shifting News With Your Friends On Social Media…
10th Grader Saves Stepfather’s Life with His Newly-Learned CPR Skills Taught in Schools
Less than a year after Anthony Killinger attended a CPR course in his school gymnasium, his mother was at the door of his bedroom saying she thought her husband was dead.
Running downstairs, Killinger found his stepfather, Mike Reese, unconscious on the ground making a snoring sound.
With a prayer to God to “take the wheel,” the Lancaster teen executed what he had been taught.
“I call 911 and the dude on the phone is telling me start doing CPR. I did it for like 8 minutes and then he started breathing again,” Killinger told WIVB 4 in Buffalo. “I had to check his pulse, but it kept fading.”
Those 8 minutes prolonged not only Reese’s life, but his brain, as cardiac arrest deprives the brain of oxygen rich blood, often leading to neurological tissue damage. The EMS arrived to relieve Killinger, and later told him that the quick-thinking saved his stepfather’s life.
“The doctor said it’s like a 9% chance to just survive cardiac arrest,” Killinger said. “Then it’s another thing to survive and have no brain damage. It was crazy that he survived and didn’t have anything.”
Reese underwent open-heart surgery back in 2018. This time, his stay in the hospital was a little shorter: just a week, before he was released with a defibrillator implant. Killinger’s house baseball team coach, stepdad and stepson are best friends, and the moment they reunited in the hospital was pretty emotional, the teen said.
CPR HEROES: A Stranger Delivered CPR for 20 Minutes to Save a Montreal Man –Then Vanished
WIVB spoke also to Reese, who said that he was dealing happily with fatigue—a common after effect of cardiac arrest—all while thanking God that Killinger went to bat for him at his most desperate hour.
CPR courses are often given out at events, at schools, or routinely in fire stations for free. Learning it can save a life in any place at any moment, as GNN has reported over and over and over again.
WATCH the story below from WIVB 4 news…
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Tribe Releases Native Elk Back onto 17,000 Sacred Sierra Nevada Acres
A California Indian nation celebrated the return of 17,000 acres of ancestral lands by releasing several of the region’s native Tule elk to roam the hills again for the first time in decades.
The Tule River Indian Tribe elders and community members gathered around the large steel transport containers and watched the animals scurry off into the foothills of the southwestern Sierra Nevada in a ceremony sweet closure decades in the making.
The 17,030 acres are made up of former ranch properties that connect the Tule River Tribe’s existing reservation with a large block of US Forest Service land that connects with Giant Sequoia National Monument in Sequoia National Forest.
By turning the land, known as the Yowlumne Hills, over to the tribe, a substantial conservation corridor for animals including these Tule elk will be established.
“The tribe is very invested in doing a lot of these kind of key species reintroductions, not only for their members, but also for the health and wellbeing of the ecosystem,” Geneva E. B. Thompson, deputy secretary for tribal affairs at the California Natural Resources Agency, told SFGATE by phone, adding that the tribe also reintroduced beavers to the South Fork Tule River last year.
The Tule elk is the smallest elk subspecies of North America, with males topping out at around 550 pounds and females at 425 pounds. They are a conservation success story, as overhunting reduced their population in California’s Central Valley marshlands to just a single breeding pair as far as we know. Conservation action has seen their numbers grow to 4,000, and they can be seen in many California reservations and parks.
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The Tule tribe partnered with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to reintroduce the elk, with the animals brought in from another managed population.
The California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) loved the idea of the land-back program, as it allows the Tule Tribe to steward the area and its animals, protect them from wildfires, and preserve the integrity of important regional watersheds. The agency’s Tribal Nature-Based Solutions program saw 1,000 acres of historic land returned to the Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel in San Diego County earlier this year for the same purposes.
TRIBAL LAND RETURNING: Yurok Tribe Celebrates Again as Ancestral Homelands are Returned–in Wake of Historic Dam Removal
“This land return demonstrates the very essence of tribal land restoration, which expands access to essential food and medicinal resources,” Tule River Tribal Council Chairman Lester R. Nieto Jr. said in a CNRA press release.
“It also supports the ongoing preservation of cultural sites, deepens environmental stewardship, and restores wildlife reintroduction efforts. The Tribe envisions this land located in the Yowlumne Hills as a place to gather, heal, and simply be, for members of the Tule River Indian Tribe.”
WATCH the elk run off into the hills…
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Always Smiling Amphibian Featured on Mexican Money Is So Cute it’s Being Hoarded and Never Spent
It’s always interesting to see what images states put on their money.
Mexico recently redesigned its 50 peso note with the image of a perpetually smiling amphibian found only in the country called the axolotl, and it’s become so well loved it’s being hoarded.
Thomas Graeme at the Guardian brought the story to light that a report from the Mexican government detailed how some $150 million worth of 50 peso notes are out of circulation at any given time.
The reason, he wrote on Friday, was simple: they loved the design, which featured an emblazonment of “Gorda,” an axolotl that lived at a Mexico City museum. The note was so well done, it actually won Note of the Year at the International Bank Note Society. Only 12% of surveyed hoarders said they hoarded a copy of every Mexican note; people were far more likely to keep just the axolotl note, a little like the $2.00 bill in the US.
That was in 2021, and some first edition banknotes are now trading at 100-times their roughly $3.00 value.
The axolotl is one of those animals that just defies convention. This salamander never loses its gills, remaining aquatic its whole life unlike other salamanders. It also has the potential to regrow any extremity, a property that’s being investigated for use in future human medicine.
MORE ON THE AXOLOTL: Perpetually-Smiling Endangered Amphibian Now Thrives in Artificial Wetlands in Mexico City
It lived in the lakes around what is today Mexico City, and when the Spaniards drained the lake of Tenochtitlan to build the new capital, it instantly made the salamanders, shaped with a perpetual smile on their face like a dolphin or golden retriever, endangered.
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“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
Quote of the Day: “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
Photo by: Getty Images for Unsplash+
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Good News in History, November 26
104 years ago today, Rued Langgaard’s “Music of the Spheres” (Sfærernes Musik) premiered at Konzerthaus in Karlsruhe, Germany. Replicating a variety of outer spatial senses through the careful and considered multi-movement work, it includes several methods of orchestral composition well ahead of its time. Several of the movements project the sense of vast space and distance, particularly through the positioning of a small, secondary orchestra off stage. READ more about the work, and listen to it… (1921)
Egypt Becomes 26th Country to Eliminate Leading Cause of Infectious Blindness with Triumph Over Trachoma
Egypt has become the 26th country to eliminate trachoma as a public health concern, building on a steady string of triumphs over tropical diseases.
Having eliminated lymphatic filariasis, malaria, and now trachoma in the last 30 years, Egypt has emerged as a continental leader in the control and eradication of neglected tropical diseases.
Trachoma, caused by the bacteria Chlamydia trachomatis, is the world’s leading cause of infectious blindness, and has been documented in Egypt for over 3,000 years.
Public health efforts to address its burden began in the early 20th century, when pioneering ophthalmologist Arthur Ferguson MacCallan established Egypt’s first mobile and permanent eye hospitals and laid the groundwork for organized trachoma control globally. Yet by the 1980s, it still blinded many adults and affected over half of all children in some Nile Delta communities.
Since 2002, the Ministry of Health and Population of Egypt, in partnership with the World Health Organization and other national and international stakeholders, has pursued trachoma elimination through the WHO-endorsed SAFE strategy, which represents Surgery for trichiasis, Antibiotics to clear the causative organism, Facial cleanliness and Environmental improvement.
Between 2015 and 2025, extensive mapping and surveillance across all 27 of Egypt’s governorates showed steady reductions in the proportion of children aged 1–9 years affected by active (inflammatory) trachoma, and no significant burden of the blinding complications of trachoma in adults.
Both indicators are now below WHO elimination prevalence thresholds nationwide. In 2024, Egypt integrated trachoma surveillance into its national electronic disease reporting system, which should facilitate rapid response to any future cases.
“Egypt’s elimination of trachoma as a public health problem underscores the nation’s sustained commitment to equitable healthcare delivery and the transformative impact of initiatives such as Haya Karima, which have expanded access to safe water, sanitation, and primary care services in rural communities,” said Professor Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health and Population.
“This achievement is a collective triumph for Egypt’s health workers, communities, and partners who collaborated to eradicate this ancient disease.”
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The country became the seventh in the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean region to eliminate trachoma as a public health concern, defined as 1 in 1,000 adults with trichiasis. The region includes the Near and Middle East as far as Pakistan, the Arabian Peninsula, and North Africa, including Morocco and and Somalia.
“This milestone adds to Egypt’s strong track record in eliminating communicable diseases, including polio, measles, rubella, and most recently malaria. It demonstrates what can be achieved when political commitment, strong partnerships and years of sustained public health efforts, led by the Ministry of Health and Population, come together towards a shared vision,” said Dr. Nima Abid, WHO Representative to Egypt.
“Egypt’s achievement serves as an inspiring example for other countries in the Region and beyond.”
MORE DISEASE CONTROL VICTORIES: First African Nation to Eliminate River Blindness Treated Millions with Ivermectin to Achieve Great Success
Following Egypt’s success, trachoma remains a public health problem in 30 countries and is responsible for the blindness or visual impairment of about 1.9 million people. Blindness from trachoma is difficult to reverse. Based on April 2025 data, 103 million people live in trachoma endemic areas and are at risk of trachoma blindness.
Yet even devastatingly poor countries—such as Togo, Papua New Guinea, and Mauritania, can, and in fact already have, achieved what Egypt has.
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