This simple procedure has had a dramatic impact on women who have had to repeatedly suffer the heartbreak of miscarriage.
Many miscarriages and premature births are caused by weakened cervixes. The surgical solution is a simple but effective operation called a cervical cerclage procedure – or a cervical stitch.
The procedure works by sewing a number of stitches – also known as a “suture” – into and around the cervix in order to strengthen it against the physical stresses of early pregnancy. The suture is then removed prior to birth, once the risk of a miscarriage has passed; and the surgery doesn’t even leave a scar.
For the women who elect to have the surgery, about 90% of them are finally able to carry their baby full term.
“The procedure itself works really, really good,” Dr. Sanjeev Kumar, a specialist of Gynecologic Oncology, told WMC News. “It provides a lot of hope for these women as they have a really good shot at achieving pregnancy that will last.”
The medical procedure was recently made available through the Baptist Medical Group in Memphis, Tennessee, and it has already become a saving grace for women facing possible miscarriage.
Mother-to-be Andranika Arnett, says she is finally hopeful about her pregnancy after she opted to have the procedure in October. After enduring four miscarriages due to a weakened cervix, Arnett had reached a low point, wondering if she’d ever be able to successfully bear a child – but now, she is confident that everything will go to plan.
“Since I have had this surgery, nothing can keep me down,” Arnett told the news outlet. “Nothing is stressing me out. I am happy about this.”
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Some of the biggest outdoor recreational groups have recently announced that they are forming a new coalition that will take action against climate change in order to save ski slopes from rising temperatures.
Climate change is a threat to the outdoor recreation industry and the $887 billion it contributes annually to the U.S. economy. The industry’s businesses, customers and the nearly 150 million Americans who participate in outdoor activities each year are dependent on a stable climate and have a vested interest in being part of climate solutions.
The Outdoor Business Climate Partnership is the first-ever broad collaboration among these trade groups. The coalition will join forces to support the passage of comprehensive, bipartisan climate legislation in Congress, the adoption of market-based policies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and decarbonization of the grid through state and utility level initiatives.
The alliance was formed by the Outdoor Industry Association (OIA), Snowsports Industries America (SIA) and the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) at the start of February as a means of providing leadership on advocacy and inspire meaningful action on climate change across the outdoor business sector.
“Over the last decade, we’ve led the way in developing tool sets to reduce the environmental impacts of the products we sell,” said Amy Roberts, OIA Executive Director. “These efforts have been adopted by major retailers and brands in the outdoor industry. In tandem, we use our industry’s unified voice to support impactful policies at the state and federal level.
“Our efforts can be magnified by coming together with these other associations to collaborate and bring a stronger voice to the table in hopes of amplifying our impact in addressing this global issue.”
Some of the group’s key goals include raising awareness among policy-makers on the potential impacts of climate change on the outdoor recreation industry and stress the urgency and need for passage of comprehensive and bipartisan climate legislation; providing their members with education, tools and programs to reduce carbon emissions in their operations and green their supply chains; and supporting research and funding for adaptation and restoration measures that will protect outdoor recreation.
SIA’s President, Nick Sargent said: “As three associations representing outdoor retailers, brands, suppliers, and resorts across the country, we share a common desire to see progress on climate and are joining hands to amplify our impact. This kind of bold collaboration and commitment is what’s needed now if we’re going to effectively tackle this urgent issue.”
Kelly Pawlak, NSAA President and CEO, added: “An ‘all hands on deck’ approach is essential in meeting a challenge as significant as climate change, and together we‘ll have a stronger voice to drive change inside and outside of the outdoor recreation industry.”
Be Sure And Share The Good News With Your Friends On Social Media – Photo by Robinseed, CC
You might not expect an IHOP waitress to be a championship fighter, but that is exactly the case for Tori Nelson.
42-year-old Nelson from Sterling, Virginia is a women’s 11-time world champion of boxing. Her impressive record includes seventeen wins, two losses, and three draws – and her fighting career is only made more impressive by the fact that she fights and trains in between mothering her two kids, taking care of her own mother, and working as an IHOP waitress to boot.
Nelson’s introduction to the boxing world occurred almost by happenstance. She joined LA Boxing in 2007 as a means of losing weight after her two pregnancies, and it was then that Nelson suddenly discovered she was a fighter.
“You get into it by accident, you just end up there, and then all of a sudden, this is what you’re made to do. You find out your purpose,” she told The Washington Post.
It was at LA Boxing she met one of her coaches, Craig Fladagar. Fladagar admittedly didn’t think much of Nelson at first, due to her sedentary lifestyle –but after seeing her fight, however, his eyes were opened. “[Nelson] came at her with a force and a fury and just beat [her opponent] around the ring.”
Soon after beginning her career, Fladagar lost the gym, so he and Nelson trained in his best friend’s garage, even though they had to make room in the space every day. Nelson’s kids were there with her too as they got homework help from her new boxing family.
Despite this rough start, Nelson’s career came to fruition on the heels of a newfound respect for women’s boxing’s. In the 1990s women’s boxing was still considered a sideshow with the fighters being forced to wear scanty costumes. Now, however, it is considered much more of a serious sport.
Just as women’s boxing moves forward, so does Nelson – there is no end in sight for her either. She continues to fight women who are 20 years her junior or three weight classes above her and holds her own with a solid win or a hard-fought defeat. Whenever she is asked about when she will retire, she shrugs it off with vague statements of “next fight” or “next year.”
(WATCH the Tori “Sho-Nuff” Nelson documentary below)
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A post shared by EGG GANG ? (@world_record_egg) on
The internet once again displayed its bizarre sense of humor in January when more than 52 million people joined forces to like a photo of an egg on Instagram – and it has now turned into an endearing initiative to raise awareness for mental health.
The “World Record Egg” Instagram account sought to break the world record for the most-liked photo on the social media platform by dethroning Kylie Jenner’s birth announcement post as the title holder with over 18 million likes.
The account published a photo of an egg with the caption: “Let’s set a world record together and get the most liked post on Instagram. Beating the current world record held by Kylie Jenner (18 million)! We got this.” says Buzzoid.
Just nine days after it was published, it cracked the record – and for a time, no one knew who was the mastermind behind the eggstremely popular post until a 29-year-old creative advertising agent named Chris Godfrey finally came forward as the account’s creator.
When asked by The New York Times about why he chose an egg as the record-breaking Instagram subject, he simply said: “An egg has no gender, race or religion. An egg is an egg, it’s universal.”
Though the entire campaign could seem like another example of the internet’s absurdity, Godfrey is now using “Eugene the World Record Egg” to spread messages of positivity. The egg was recently featured in a mental health commercial that was produced by Hulu and aired during the Super Bowl. In the ad, Eugene can be seen cracking and breaking into pieces. After reassembling itself, Eugene tells its fans: “The pressure of social media is getting to me. If you’re struggling, too, talk to someone.”
The commercial then directed viewers to a website that was created in partnership with the nonprofit Mental Health America, featuring dozens of mental health websites and resources for various countries around the world.
Despite how he accidentally became the creator of a bizarre international icon, Godfrey says that he hopes the egg’s newfound fame will continue to serve its devoted fans.
“It’s not really about me,” he told The Times. “It’s just about the egg and sort of where we can take it and what we can do with it. It’s a fluke that [it] caught the world’s attention, [but] it’s what you do with that attention that counts.”
(WATCH the endearing mental health awareness promo below)
Quote of the Day: “When you’re down on your luck and you’ve lost all your dreams there’s nothing like a campfire …” – Tom Waits
Photo: by Joe Jacob
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Several bee hive products offer their own value as a medicinal treatment, though many people know only about the value of honey—with a sizable portion of Americans just familiar with the commercial plastic bear on the grocery store shelf. These other materials produced by bees can be used as bastions to improve all manner of ailments, from auto-immune disfunction to microbial infections.
In this podcast, guest Carly Stein shares her experience as founder of Beekeeper’s Naturals, moving between the economic hives of Wall Street to the quiet hives in her backyard—spilling the beans about all things bee. In detailing the therapeutics behind multiple hive products, such as honey and propolis, Carly provides a scientifically-oriented guide for those looking for holistic medicines. She explains why it’s important to buy local, and how we need to keep bees thriving in our ecosystem.
The Host: At the forefront of functional medicine, Chris Kresser, M.S., L.Ac is a globally recognized leader in the fields of ancestral health, Paleo nutrition, and integrative medicine. He is the co-director of California Center for Functional Medicine, and author of the New York Times best-selling author of The Paleo Cure.
The Podcast: Revolution Health Radio features Kresser interrogating all manner of guests on a variety of topics. His favorite pastime is debunking common medical myths, but frequently invites guests, like Carly Stein, whose work interests him.
LISTEN to the podcast below… (Photo by Allagash Brewing, CC License)
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Instead of being angry at his son’s bully, this man approached the boy with compassion – and now, they are all enjoying the wonderful results. Hear our Good News Guru tell the inspiring story on the radio in Los Angeles—during the February 8, 2019 Ellen K. Morning Show on KOST-103.5.
Even though it may seem like people will try and find a reason for disagreement, these two kids in North Carolina agreed that showing respect for the American flag was an important thing to do – and they were not the only ones who thought so.
Last week, the Roseboro Fire Department of North Carolina posted a picture to their Facebook page depicting the two kids putting their hands over their hearts as firefighters raised the flag.
According to the post, the kids had been riding a scooter and a hoverboard down the road when they paused, put their hands to their chests, and made the pledge of allegiance as the U.S flag was being raised to full staff.
An officer quickly took a picture of the heartwarming gesture and asked for permission to post it to social media, which was promptly given by the two kids.
Though this little piece of land was only expected to survive for a few months, scientists are “giddy” over what they are discovering on one of the “world’s youngest island.”
Known by locals as Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai (HTHH), the island formed in the South Pacific kingdom of Tonga following a volcanic eruption in 2014.
Although many islands are formed as a result of submarine volcanic eruptions, only 3 of them have lasted more than a few months over the course of the last 150 years.
“In this case, the ash seemed to have a chemical reaction with the seawater that allowed it to solidify more than it usually would,” volcanologist Jess Phoenix told BBC.
Having only observed the small island via satellite, a team of researchers from NASA and the Sea Education Association set out in October to study the rock formations, erosion patterns, and wildlife.
Phoenix called the island’s durability a “big deal”, saying: “We’ve only had one chance to see an island like this since we had modern satellite imagery. It’s a fascinating volcano.”
Dan Slayback / NASA
Not only is the island enduring longer than expected, the 3-year-old stretch of ashy terrain is now nurturing pink-flowered plants, barn owls, and a breeding ground for tern birds.
“We were all like giddy school children,” Slayback said in a NASA blog post. “There’s no map of the new land.”
The stability of the new island is simultaneously what drew scientists to study it and allowed them to visit. Typically, increased rates of erosion leave only remnants of these volcanic ash islands behind – but researchers say that the HTHH could exist for another 30 years.
This gives scientists like Dan Slayback and his team a rare chance to better understand how these islands form and what leads to their dissolution. Furthermore, the island reportedly provides a kind of template for studying island formations and conditions on Mars.
“Everything we learn about what we see on Mars is based on the experience of interpreting Earth phenomena,” said Jim Garvin, chief scientist of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “We think there were eruptions on Mars at a time when there were areas of persistent surface water. We may be able to use this new island and its evolution as a way of testing whether any of those represented an oceanic environment or ephemeral lake environment.”
Dan Slayback / NASA
One of their more notable discoveries was a light-colored, sticky clay mud that left Slayback’s team bewildered as to how it got there.
“We didn’t really know what it was and I’m still a little baffled of where it’s coming from,” said Slayback.
Upon leaving the HTHH, much had been left unexplored, such as the topography of the surrounding ocean floor, and the role of hydrothermal vents in volcanic ash solidification – but Slayback is already planning a return visit to the island next year.
“It really surprised me how valuable it was to be there in person for some of this,” said Slayback. “It just really makes it obvious to you what is going on with the landscape.”
(WATCH the fascinating 2017 NASA video below)
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One man’s trash is another man’s treasure – but Amarildo Silva is turning other people’s trash into cute little beds for animals on and off the streets.
Silva, who lives in Campina Grande, Brazil, first got the idea for the recycled animal beds when he noticed how many stray dogs used tires as shelter on the street.
When he is not tidying up the streets for his eco-friendly business, he volunteers by helping abandoned animals and mentoring young students at local public schools.
If you would like to learn more about Silva’s business, you can either visit the Cãominhas Pets Instagram or Facebook page for more information.
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Quote of the Day: “Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along.” – Rumi
Photo: by David Leicken, CC license via Flickr
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This installment of the Science of Kindness is reprinted with permission from Envision Kindness.
In addition to being a physician, I am also a scientist – someone who likes to understand how things work and loves doing experiments that ask (and answer) these questions.
In this session, I am going to dive into Envision Kindness’ own research, which focuses on defining how images of kindness affect people. Short answer? These images potently inspire large increases in joy, hope, love, gratitude, and compassion, much more than even pretty pictures like puppies in a basket or a beautiful landscape. My aim for this lesson? To convince you, the reader, to rebalance your visual diet and improve it by adding more pictures of kindness. Your sense of joy and connection could change markedly.
Doing experiments allows for discovery—the pursuit of the truth; because if we understand the truth, we can better make sense of, and benefit from, our world. I’ve been doing experiments for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, maybe 9 years old, I was taking clocks apart to see how they worked (my parents were less than thrilled when I couldn’t put them back together).
After my son Jesse and I set out on the road to build Envision Kindness, Jesse was a strong proponent of measuring people’s responses to images of kindness. We already knew that we (and other people) felt good after looking at pictures of kindness – a warm, relaxed, and uplifted feeling.
We also knew that other scientists – some of whom were described in the second installment of the Science of Kindness — had shown that a few minutes of a video about kindness caused significant changes in people, including how they felt and their willingness to volunteer. So we decided to measure the response not to a single video, but to several still photographs of acts of kindness and compare them to other types of images.
I have done a lot of research on people—although it has always been in human metabolism or physiology. Since this was about psychology, we designed a study with the help of our scientific advisors that asked how people responded to a variety of types of images.
The images we studied included “negative” images—those of violence, destruction, and neglect; “neutral” images—hammers, towels, or doorknobs; and “positive” or pretty images—puppies in a basket, bunnies, flowers, etc. These three types of images were from a standard set that psychologists have used for years.
The last type of photo we used was images of kindness. Examples of these included a woman in distress on a dark stairwell being comforted by a police officer and a young man with a shaven head looking up from a sea of shaven heads.
This young man was going for chemotherapy and his friends shaved their heads in support – Josh Meltzer / Envision Kindness
Before they saw any of the images, every one of the 400 participants completed questionnaires on how they were feeling. All were feeling pretty happy at the beginning of the study. They were then each assigned to look at images in one of the groups—so 100 people saw negative images, 100 neutral, etc. After seeing one type of image, they again completed the questionnaires on how they felt.
The negative images did exactly what they had been shown to do before, and it was really impressive how quickly and dramatically the negative images affected the participants. People reported marked increases in sadness, fear, and anxiety and decreases in joy, optimism, gratitude, etc.
The “neutral” images didn’t do much of anything, which made sense. The “positive” or pretty images—the usual go to images for people who may be sad—like puppies in a basket—did make people feel more happy, more optimistic, or more grateful. Positive images increased their reports of feeling love or trust. These responses were consistent with what has been observed before, which is great.
What was really interesting was that the 100 people who saw the images of kindness experienced roughly twice as much joy, optimism, and gratitude than the 100 people who saw the positive images. Double the effect on self-reported love and trust and a bunch of other measured emotions and states.
I have looked at a lot of data in my scientific career and these results impressed me. Although they are not yet published in peer-reviewed literature, they are consistent with (and expand upon) what had been observed by others.
So why would people respond to these kindness images more than pretty pictures? Especially when the images weren’t pretty—each had a problem or challenge to meet and someone trying to help, but not necessarily being able to fix their problem.
Maybe it’s because these images touched on real life situations that people could relate to. They had emotion associated with them, rather than just being cute or beautiful. Or maybe it is because at birth we are already “programmed” or “equipped” to recognize these scenes and respond to them. Or some combination. I welcome suggestions from our readers.
Altogether, the results suggest that images like these can help people a lot. As part of Envision’s work, we are using the images from our large portfolio and combining them into unique presentations to amplify the responses further. Our goal: to inspire people as much as we can by stirring the inborn quality of kindness and compassion. This, in turn, allows for connection to one another (and ourselves) through our shared humanity. When people feel connected to others, joy, love, optimism, and compassion flow much more naturally. From that, as connection, collaboration, and cooperation are all strengthened, more of all of these good things manifest.
Just think of the possibilities.
Interested in learning more about the science of kindness and its role in your life? Visit EnvisionKindness.org to learn more.
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You may have already heard of goat yoga, but if you live in England, you can now attend alpaca yoga classes too.
Rosebud Alpacas has become the first place in Britain to offer yoga classes in a field full of fuzzy alpacas.
The tiny farm is located in the rolling English countryside of Devon. The owners, Nick and Lucy Aylett, say that the sanctuary has been hailed as the perfect place for calming exercise – so they decided to run their yoga classes in the same field where they keep their alpacas.
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They say their alpaca yoga classes are a “unique experience” which are “great for mind, body and soul”.
“The alpacas live outside and the chickens are protected by the alpaca herd who are quick to alert everyone to any unwelcome visitors,” added Nick – although he says that they also want their land “to be an inviting place for others to come and enjoy.”
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The pair say all their animals are “raised ethically with freedom of choice, their welfare being paramount”.
In addition to the alpaca yoga, the farm also offers alpaca walking, alpaca picnics, alpaca art sessions, and a special “alpaca connection” package.
The alpaca connection session is where guests are guided in meditations and have the opportunity to “walk amongst the herd in mindful observation”.
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“The farm is our home and is a very special place that we would really love other people to enjoy too,” says Nick. “It’s a place where people can come to escape, take time out from technology and busy lives, a chance to spend time connecting with the land, the animals and each other.
“Our dream is for this place to also be a sanctuary for people to come and feel at home as well.”
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This 7-year-old boy was lucky that his elementary school teacher was in the right place at the right time last week – otherwise, his father may have been in big trouble.
Cameron Simoncic, a second-grader at Ellen Woodside Elementary in Greenville, South Carolina, had just returned home from a day of school when he found his dad had fallen unconscious on their kitchen floor.
The episode was a result of his dad’s diabetes, and Cameron knew that he had to call for help.
When he tried to use his father’s phone, however, he got locked out because he did not know the password. Cameron ran to his neighbor’s house, but no one was home.
The trepidatious youngster then grabbed his bike and started pedaling down the highway in hopes of reaching his grandmother’s house.
Meanwhile, elementary school teacher Keller Sutherland told WSPA that she had been having a lousy day. Upon questioning her career decisions, she had left school earlier than usual and started driving home when she saw a boy riding his bike through traffic.
Her instincts told her to turn her car around and check on the boy – and she was stunned to find that the youngster was actually a former student of hers: Cameron.
Cameron told Sutherland about his predicament and she did her best to keep him calm. Once paramedics were called to the scene, Cameron gave them directions to his house so they could help his father.
Thanks to emergency responders delivering the necessary injections to Cameron’s dad, his blood sugar levels quickly returned to normal – and Sutherland says the whole experience renewed her faith in her profession.
“There’s no doubt that God placed me where he did when he needed me,” Sutherland told WSPA.
(WATCH the WSPA News coverage below) – Photo by WSPA
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Legislators from both sides of the aisle are rejoicing in the sweeping bipartisan approval of the biggest public lands package of the decade.
Earlier this week, the Senate passed a 662-page measure that will designate over 1.3 million acres as nationally-protected wilderness and create four new national monuments honoring Civil Rights and Union heroes.
The bill was passed in a 92-8 vote, and White House officials have divulged that the president has agreed to sign it, according to The Washington Post.
The S. 47 legislation includes a provision that will ensure the federal government fulfills its decades-old promise to provide allotments to Alaska Natives who served in the Vietnam War. Another provision will ban mining practices on more than 370,000 acres of land surrounding two national parks.
The bill also expands the boundaries of six national parks, including Death Valley and the Mojave; it will allow elementary schoolers in fourth grade or below to visit parks with their families for free; and it will offer various protections against damming and pollution for roughly 620 miles of rivers.
“We have worked for months on a bipartisan, bicameral basis to truly negotiate every single word in this bill — literally down to one one-tenth of a mile for [a] certain designation,” said Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who is also the Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairwoman and co-author of the bill.
Additionally, the legislation includes a notable provision that will permanently reauthorize a program that finances these conservation efforts by diverting money generated from off-shore drilling projects, which is expected to save taxpayers over $9 million.
In the past, the program – known as the Land and Water Conservation Fund, has been “described as one of the country’s most important conservation programs.” Over the course of the last five decades since its creation, it has supported more than 42,000 state and local projects throughout the United States.
The LWCF has also been described as a key component of the nation’s booming outdoor recreational economy, which generates over $887 billion in annual consumer spending and supports 7.6 million American jobs.
Congress failed to reauthorize the program in September, which was the second described as one of the country’s most important conservation programs – but thanks to S.47, the fund is now permanently authorized so that it can continue to support public parks and recreation spaces.
“Today marks an overdue but critical victory for America’s most important conservation funding program and for protecting our wild lands,” said Jamie Williams, President of the Wilderness Society. “It’s encouraging to see the new Congress immediately moving bipartisan legislation that conserves our land and water for today and for future generations.”
Be Sure And Share The Good News With Your Friends On Social Media; And On The Other Side Of The Aisle – File photo by Phaedra, CC
This 9-year-old boy is now cancer-free after undergoing a cutting-edge stem cell transplant that used a donated umbilical cord.
Jenson Wright was first diagnosed with lymphoma in November 2013 when he was just 4 years old.
The brave youngster managed to beat the deadly disease following several rounds of chemotherapy, but the cancer returned for a second time and medics discovered he was now battling acute myeloid leukemia – and the cancer was more aggressive than ever, spreading to 70% of Jenson’s body.
Jenson, who is from Penketh, England, underwent two more rounds of chemotherapy, but unfortunately, it didn’t work as they had hoped.
The only remaining option for the youngster was a life-saving stem cell transplant using an umbilical cord from Texas which had been stored in a freezer for an unknown amount of time.
After he underwent the operation in December 2016, doctors were shocked to find that he had incredibly responded to the treatment in just five days.
More than two years after the transplant, Jenson has now been told he is completely cured of cancer.
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His 46-year-old mum Carolyn said: “It came completely out the blue, it was a complete shock. It was quite emotional when they said it because you never expect to hear those words when you’ve been going through so much.
“Jenson took it in his stride – he was quite blasé about it really. I don’t think the severity of the illness he had has ever really hit him,” she added. “We’re quite fortunate because he was so young at the time he was diagnosed, so he didn’t really understand it like an adult would.
“It’s always in the back of your mind, wondering what the tests they’re doing are going to find. That’s why it was such a shock when they said he was cured, and that they didn’t want to see him again – it’s a bit surreal really. He can just be like any other child again now.”
Jenson’s cancer battle started when his mum noticed a swelling on the side of his face in the rear-view mirror while driving.
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Upon taking a closer look, she realized the swelling was actually a hard lump and she immediately took him to the hospital. After various tests and X-rays, they were told to bring Jenson back for an urgent biopsy.
When the results came back, he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common form of childhood cancer, minutes after he had started school.
Jenson started treatment straight away and underwent nine months of intensive chemotherapy. He lost his hair, his face and body were swollen, he was constantly hungry, and he experienced angry mood swings.
Now that the stem cell treatment has cured his cancer, however, Jenson has been going “from strength to strength”.
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“The early stages of the treatment were quite hard to comprehend, and quite difficult for us emotionally,” said Carolyn. “Without the transplant we would be in a completely different situation – that saved him.”
A 2013 study that was published in the scientific journal Blood says: “Umbilical cord blood is an alternative … stem cell source for patients with hematologic diseases who can be cured by allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation.
“Initially, umbilical cord blood transplantation was limited to children, given the low cell dose infused. Both related and unrelated cord blood transplants have been performed with high rates of success for a variety of hematologic disorders and … diseases in the pediatric setting.”
Another article from Lancaster University says that pregnant women should talk to a medical professional about donating their umbilical cords so that it can save other kids like Jenson.
“We will never get to find out who the donor was, but by donating it, they’ve given life to somebody else,” said Carolyn. “In the last two years, we’ve managed to get our lives back to some normality.”
Jenson, his dad, mom, and 18-year-old older brother recently had a family meal to celebrate the news that the youngster is now free from cancer.
“He’s actually got different DNA now because of the stem cell transplant – he’s basically been reborn again,” she pondered. “Now it’s just a case of getting our heads around the fact that this part of our lives is over, and hopefully we won’t have to revisit it again. We can just enjoy our future.”
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Quote of the Day: “Socrates used to nickname the opinions of the multitude ‘Ghouls’, bogies to terrify children.” – Marcus Aurelius
Photo: by James Cridland, CC license, via Flickr
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As a means of rewarding her hardworking students, this middle school teacher gave them the chance to experience the joy of painting – all while they were dressed as Bob Ross.
Brady Sloane is an eighth grade art teacher at Madison Middle School in Abilene, Texas. She teaches 48 students between two pre-Advanced Placement classes, and the majority of her pupils are low-income.
Sloane recently began to notice that a lot of the kids were stressed out over their workload, and she wondered how she could reward her students for their hard work and offer them a break from the stress – and that’s when she got the idea to draw some inspiration from the artistic zen master himself: Bob Ross.
Sloane decided to host a Bob Ross flash mob for her students. Thanks to a successful fundraiser on Donors Choose, she was able to raise $500 to buy enough paints for four dozen students. Not only that, she and the students whipped up four dozen Bob Ross costumes.
“When my students were told about this project, they were so excited, we immediately began putting together costumes and sourcing wigs,” says Sloane.
Last week, their efforts came to fruition when Sloane set up a projector in the school auditorium and screened an episode of Ross’s beloved television show. With palettes in hand, the students used music stands as makeshift easels so they could peacefully paint their stress away and create happy little accidents of their own.
“The day of the event was amazing,” says Sloane. “Students came in, got their wigs on and got to work! They worked so hard and had great focus… they are always great workers and do well in my class, but I was so proud of them!”
(WATCH the news coverage below) – Photo by KRBC
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The world is literally a greener place than it was 20 years ago, and the data from NASA satellites has revealed a counterintuitive source for much of this new foliage: China and India.
This surprising new study shows that the two emerging countries with the world’s biggest populations are leading the improvement in greening on land. The effect stems mainly from ambitious tree planting programs in China and intensive agriculture in both countries. In 2017 alone, India broke its own world record for the most trees planted after volunteers gathered to plant 66 million saplings in just 12 hours.
The greening phenomenon was first detected by researchers using satellite data in the mid-1990s, but they did not know whether human activity was one of its chief, direct causes.
This new insight was made possible by a nearly 20-year-long data record from a NASA instrument orbiting the Earth on two satellites. It’s called the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS, and its high-resolution data provides very accurate information, helping researchers work out details of what’s happening with Earth’s vegetation, down to the level of 500 meters, or about 1,600 feet, on the ground.
Taken all together, the greening of the planet over the last two decades represents an increase in leaf area on plants and trees equivalent to the area covered by all the Amazon rainforests. There are now more than two million square miles of extra green leaf area per year, compared to the early 2000s – which amounts to a 5% increase.
“China and India account for one-third of the greening, but contain only 9% of the planet’s land area covered in vegetation – a surprising finding, considering the general notion of land degradation in populous countries from overexploitation,” said Chi Chen of the Department of Earth and Environment at Boston University and lead author of the study. https://all-free-films.net/moneyslot/
An advantage of the MODIS satellite sensor is the intensive coverage it provides, both in space and time: MODIS has captured as many as four shots of every place on Earth, every day for the last 20 years.
“This long-term data lets us dig deeper,” said Rama Nemani, a research scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center and a co-author of the new work. “When the greening of the Earth was first observed, we thought it was due to a warmer, wetter climate and fertilization from the added carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, leading to more leaf growth in northern forests, for instance. Now, with the MODIS data that lets us understand the phenomenon at really small scales, we see that humans are also contributing.”
China’s outsized contribution to the global greening trend comes in large part (42%) from programs to conserve and expand forests. These were developed in an effort to reduce the effects of soil erosion, air pollution and climate change. Another 32% there – and 82% of the greening seen in India – comes from intensive cultivation of food crops.
The land area used to grow crops – more than 770,000 square miles – is comparable in China and India and it has not changed much since the early 2000s; yet these regions have greatly increased both their annual total green leaf area and their food production. This was achieved through multiple cropping practices, where a field is replanted to produce another harvest several times a year. Production of grains, vegetables, fruits, and more have increased by about 35-40% since 2000 to feed their large populations.
How the greening trend may change in the future depends on numerous factors, both on a global scale and the local human level. For example, increased food production in India is facilitated by groundwater irrigation. If the groundwater is depleted, this trend may change.
“But, now that we know direct human influence is a key driver of the greening Earth, we need to factor this into our climate models,” Nemani said. “This will help scientists make better predictions about the behavior of different Earth systems, which will help countries make better decisions about how and when to take action.” LOOK: 700 Acres of Massive 1,000-Year-old Redwoods Are Being Turned into a Public Park
The researchers point out that the gain in greenness seen around the world, which is dominated by India and China, does not offset the damage from loss of natural vegetation in tropical regions, such as Brazil and Indonesia. The consequences for sustainability and biodiversity in those ecosystems remain, but overall, Nemani sees a positive message in the new findings.
“Once people realize there’s a problem, they tend to fix it,” he said. “In the 70s and 80s in India and China, the situation around vegetation loss wasn’t good; in the 90s, people realized it; and today things have improved. Humans are incredibly resilient. That’s what we see in the satellite data.”
A super-fit amateur cyclist pedaled his way up the toughest stage of the Tour de France – and he did it all without a seat on his bicycle.
Rob Holden managed to climb roughly 13 miles (21.5 kilometers) up Mont Ventoux – the notorious stage in the world’s most famous cycling race – in an impressive two hours, despite not being able to sit down the entire way.
The 52-year-old Englishman from Teddington, Surrey, is no stranger to the mountain, having cycled the same stage in 2013 on a heavy Boris Bike, but he says that this was his hardest challenge.
“There’s debate in the cycling community as to whether it’s better to sit or to stand when cycling uphill,” said Holden. “I had the conversation with my friends and we couldn’t settle on an answer, so we decided to test it out.”
Unlike his previous challenges, Holden used a carbon-fiber road bike instead of a heavy hire cycle in order to get up the French mountain.
“It was really strange at first, cycling without a seat,” says Holden. “Thankfully the crossbar was flush where the seat goes, otherwise I might have had a nasty surprise had I sat down accidentally.”
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It took just two hours for the exploring geologist to get from the bottom of the mountain in the Provence village of Bedoin to the top, saying: “I took the same path up from when I was riding the Boris Bike.
“It wasn’t a race and I didn’t have a specific completion time in mind – I just wanted to do an endurance challenge,” he added. “It’s the longest and most iconic climb on Le Tour.
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“For a few years there has been debate about whether you should stand or sit when climbing. Chris Froome sits when he climbs whereas Alberto Contador stands. Some say you should sit but I wanted to test the limits of my own endurance uphill.”
Holden reckons he might be the first person to have ever attempted the massive feat without a seat.
“I might be the first to have tried it – I couldn’t find anything online about other people taking on the same challenge.
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Holden completed the challenge with pals Matt Winstone and filmmaker Ian Laurie. Winstone, who was apparently the logistics expert behind the initiative, said: “We had plans to present him with a seat when he got to the top, but we forgot.
“The original plan was for Rob to cycle down again, because freewheeling all the way down is the fun bit, but he was so tired that he didn’t want to.
“We wanted to present him with a saddle in a presentation box, but we couldn’t find one so didn’t bother in the end.”
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Holden and his mates took on the challenge back in October in order to raise money for several prostate cancer charities.
“It was a lovely day at the bottom – around 25 degrees (Celsius),” says the cyclist. “But at the top it was only about seven degrees. It was really cold and I was absolutely drained. It was definitely the toughest challenge I’ve ever done.
“I’m not sure how I’m going to top it – but, then again, I’m not sure whether I want to,” he added.
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