Quote of the Day: “Time passes irrevocably.” – Virgil
Photo by: Jeremy Bishop
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Good News in History, March 28
116 years ago today, Henri Fabre became the first man to fly a seaplane. Called the Fabre Hydravion, it was the first craft ever to take off from water under its own power. Powered by a French-made Gnome Omega rotary engine driving a two-bladed Chauvière propeller, it successfully took off and flew for a distance of about 500 metres (1,600 ft) and landed on the water in Bouches-du-Rhône. READ more about this pioneering aviator and his invention… (1910)
Animals are Streaming into 400 Children’s Hospitals From San Diego Zoo’s Dedicated 24-hour Channel
For most kids, you can’t beat a trip to the zoo.
And for those unfortunate kids whose immune systems are too weak to endure such an excursion, they now have the chance to experience it from their hospital beds.
That’s thanks to a clever partnership involving the San Diego Zoo’s 24/7 streaming service, one that brings the sights and sounds, if not the smells, of the zoo directly to them.
The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance’s Wildlife Explorers Channel streams around-the-clock animal encounters and educational programming in hospitals, bringing the joy of the zoo into patient rooms.
What started locally at Rady Children’s Hospital and the Ronald McDonald House Charities of San Diego has grown into a global network now reaching more than 400 hospitals and medical facilities across 48 states and 12 countries besides, with an estimated 25 million viewers annually.
The channel features wildlife filming from across the globe, but also close encounters and presentations with the zoo’s animals, 24/7 wildlife cameras in the zoo enclosures, and other tailormade educational programming.
“Many of our patients have weakened immune systems, so they’re unable to go to places like the zoo and the channel has brought the zoo to them,” said Margaret Fitzgerald, Manager of the Hematology and Oncology Unit at Rady Children’s Hospital.
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“It has had a huge impact, on our patients. I do recall one time there was a little girl who was about 3 and her mom had to go to work, and she was sad because her mom had to go, but then we turned on the zoo channel and she just lit up!”
The program has also expanded beyond hospitals to senior centers and clinics, and in 2023, tablets preloaded with the channel’s content were delivered to a children’s hospital and school in Ukraine, further expanding access globally.
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Virunga National Park Sees Hundreds of Elephants Return and Rare Gorilla Twins Born During Hopeful Year
Things are looking up in DR Congo’s Virunga Mountains, where recently scores of elephants have been returning across the border following a reduction in militia violence.
Also this spring, there have been 9 healthy births recorded among the mountain gorillas, including rare twins which a ranger officer called “a very encouraging sign.”
On the elephants, there was once thousands of African bush elephants that roamed freely between Virunga National Park in Congo and Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda.
But since mountains, jungles, and borderlands are some of the most commonly-utilized areas for violent rebel groups around the world, and since Virunga consists of all three, the area has suffered from DR Congo’s decades-long violent insurgency which poached the elephants to sustain themselves.
In recent years, however, 480 elephants from the Ugandan side have been documented traveling back into Virunga, bringing with them the natural ecosystem engineering that only the world’s largest terrestrial animal can do.
“For years I haven’t seen any animals when I flew over this area—just rebels,” said Anthony Caere, a Belgian anti-poaching helicopter pilot at Virunga National Park.
“Now not only are we seeing the elephants, which is an unbelievable sight from above, but we’re noticing the impact of such a big herd on the park. They’re restoring everything back to what it was 50 years ago and doing so much faster than we could have imagined. If the elephants continue to stay here in these numbers, this place will look totally different in just a few years.”
In particular, the elephants’ massive bulk and massive appetites are cutting trails through the forest, scything back invasive shrubs, and expanding clearings. The area is beginning to look like a “forested savannah” again, and there have been sightings of buffalo, Ugandan kob, warthogs, topi, and even a pair of lions.
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Virunga is the oldest national park on the continent, and plays host to extraordinary biodiversity. Receiving millions in aid money from Re:Wild, Global Wildlife Conservation, the EU, and other organizations including from a fund established by Hollywood A-lister Leonardo DiCaprio, it has been able to successfully scale back poaching and implement development programs to try and steer impoverished locals away from illegal agriculture, poaching, or militia life.
It’s not only elephants that have benefitted from this stability, but the area’s famous mountain gorillas. A female in the largest gorilla family group in the park, the 59-member-strong Bageni family, was recently observed to have given birth to twins, who are now two months old.
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Jacques Katutu, head of gorilla monitoring, said they are developing well, and that their mother is managing the demands of two babies, which is uncommon among gorillas.
“The five births recorded since the start of 2026, including twins in the Bageni family, are a very encouraging sign,” Mr. Katutu said in a statement. “Behind every confirmed birth is the patient and dedicated work of our community trackers. Present in the field every day, often under challenging conditions, they are the first to witness these extraordinary moments.”
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24 New Species Including a New Family of Amphipods Identified in Deep Sea Survey
A recent international survey of a deep sea zone near Mexico turned up 24 species of shrimp-like animals called amphipods, including a whole new taxonomic family, called Mirabestiidae.
The survey took place in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) between Hawaii and Mexico, where a fractious seabed can range in depth from 10,000 to 20,000 feet.
Over 10,000 species of amphipods have been described by science, yet they’re such a diverse order of animals, an expedition such as this can still scoop out handfuls of new ones—and in all different colors too.
“To find a new superfamily is incredibly exciting, and very rarely happens so this is a discovery we will all remember,” said Dr. Tammy Horton of the UK’s National Oceanographic Center (NOC) in Southampton.
“With more than 90% of species in the CCZ still unnamed, each species described is a vital step towards improving our understanding of this fascinating ecosystem.”
The NOC was joined by partners and aspiring scientists from all across Europe, as well as New Zealand and Canada, for a weeks-long taxonomy workshop organized at the University of Lodz, Poland, led by Dr. Anna Jażdżewska.
The expedition and workshop were organized under the International Seabed Authority’s Sustainable Seabed Knowledge Initiative (SSKI) which aims to describe 1,000 new species by the end of the decade in order to possess a better understanding of deep-seabed biodiversity when making decisions about deep-sea mining.
“The team’s findings provide information that is crucial for future conservation and policy decisions, and it highlights how important it is for this work to continue,” Dr. Jażdżewska said in a statement.
Stretching 1.7 million square miles across the eastern Pacific Ocean, the CCZ was discovered by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1954. It’s been an extremely well-surveyed area of the deep seabed, though that in itself isn’t saying much, and indeed 42% of all known deep sea species were first described in the CCZ.
The expedition uncovered a new family, called Mirabestiidae, and even a new superfamily Mirabestioidea, revealing completely new evolutionary branches. Two new genera were also discovered: Mirabestia and Pseudolepechinella.
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For readers who lack a mental flowchart of taxonomy hierarchies, one famous family from above sea level is Felidae, containing all cats wild and domestic. Felidae is nested inside of the superorder Feliformia, which in addition to all the cats, contains civets, hyena, mongoose, and the curious fossa of Madagascar.
Two genera nested inside the family Felidae are Panthera, containing the tiger and the lion, and Lynx.
MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: New Caledonia Bans ‘Dangerous’ Seabed Mining for Half a Century in the South Pacific
In the CCZ, students and professors alike reveled in pulling up one new species after another, before taking them back to a frigid Poland for analysis.
Creatures were named in honor of both Horton and Jażdżewska, the organizers of the expedition and workshop, while others named species after relatives, impressions from the experience, and even a video game character that one of the amphipods resembled.
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New Drug Could Change Lives of Kids with Resistant Epilepsy, Patient Trials Concluded
A phase 2 clinical trial in England has demonstrated smashing success in improving the conditions of children with a rare form of treatment-resistant epilepsy called Dravet syndrome.
Believed to affect 3,000 children in England, it’s just one out of hundreds of forms of genetic epilepsy that have no pharmacological options.
Scientists not involved with the study said the success of the drug, called Zorevunersen, shows that pharmaceuticals can work to improve the lives of patients with these epilepsies, giving it a chance to spur innovation toward other treatments and cures.
The trial involved 81 children between the ages of 2 and 18 that suffered up to 18 seizures a month resulting from Dravet syndrome. Zorevunersen was given in 3 doses at Great Ormond Street Hospital, where the trial was co-organized by University College London.
After 1 dose, monthly seizures were reduced by 50%. After 3 doses, that improved to 80%. The drug was well-tolerated by all 81 patients, with no significant side effects reported.
Additionally, this reduction in seizures led to real improvements in life quality for the patients. Being children, it led to improved development outcomes, particularly with motor skills and communication. It also improved their markers for “coping” with Dravet syndrome.
The trail was led by Helen Cross, director and professor of childhood epilepsy at the UCL Institute of Child Health, and consultant pediatric neurologist at Great Ormond.
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“I regularly see patients with hard-to-treat genetic epilepsies, who can have multiple seizures a week,” said Professor Cross. “Many are unable to do anything independently for themselves; they require around the clock care and are at high risk of sudden expected death in epilepsy.”
She’s hopeful that Zorevunersen “could help children with Dravet syndrome lead much healthier and happier lives,” and in pursuit of that end, is organizing a phase 3 trail that will study the drug over a much longer period of time to control for potentially serious side effects.
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“There are now over 800 genetic epilepsies that need therapeutics similar to Zorevunersen,” the uninvolved Dr. Alfredo Gonzalez-Sulser from the Institute for Neuroscience and Cardiovascular Research, University of Edinburgh, told the Guardian.
“This sets a clear path to achieve effective interventions for these severe life-altering diseases for both patients and carers.”
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“The usefulness of a cup is in its emptiness.” – Lao Tzu
Quote of the Day: “The usefulness of a cup is in its emptiness.” – Lao Tzu (Laozi), in the Tao Te Ching
Photo by: Sixteen Miles Out
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, March 27
2,222 years ago today, the Decree of Memphis, proclaiming the rule of the King of Ptolemaic Egypt, Ptolemy V, was carved in three languages on black sandstone blocks around the kingdom. The top two scripts were Egyptian hieroglyphics and Demotic, but the bottom third was ancient Greek. The block today is known as the “Rosetta Stone” and was instrumental to scholarly efforts to translate Egyptian hieroglyphics on the walls and sides of countless temples, coffins, and other objects, opening fully the window onto the great civilization’s long history. READ more about this famous object… (196 BCE)
Tiny 28-Inch Pony Is Now thriving After Being so Sick He Couldn’t Stand
From central England comes the feel good story of a tiny pony rescued from disease whose winning and warming hearts of visitors at the rescue center where he was nursed back to health.
Last March, Pickle the 9-month-old Shetland Pony was found critically ill after the nonprofit World Horse Welfare responded to an animal welfare call.
Pickle was then so weak, he could barely stand and hardly breathe, and later tests revealed he was suffering from several diseases, including strangles, equine flu, and salmonella.
Charlotte Melvin works as a field officer at World Horse Welfare, and she was part of the team that first encountered Pickle in his sorry state.
“He very nearly didn’t make it, but eventually turned a corner and started to recover,” she told the country’s Southwest News Service. “The team worked so hard to nurse him back to health and his vet said she’s never known a pony to test positive for salmonella as many times as he did.”
According to other team members, he was so small when he was first found that one person was able to carry him to the horse trailer on their own.
Pickle was then taken for ‘immediate and intensive’ treatment at a private holding yard, where he was nursed back to health.
All grown up to a mighty 28-inches tall, Pickle is winning the hearts of visitors at Penny Farm Rescue and Rehoming Center where he is living until a permanent home can be found.
After completing a two-week quarantine period, the 114-pound pony, was able to join the other horses and ponies in the main yard at Penny Farm where he immediately began to charm everyone and everything around him.
“I went and collected him with one of my colleagues and it was just incredible to see how bright he’d become,” Melvin said. “The contrast from that tiny foal who was too weak to stand and could barely breathe was extraordinary.”
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“At a year old, Pickle is still only a teeny seven ‘hands’ high (28 inches) so it’s no surprise that our visitors fall in love with him as soon as they set eyes on him,” said Adam Cummins, Penny Farm Center Manager.
“There’s going to be a long list of people wanting to rehome him when he’s ready, but that’s a long way off yet. For now, he’s enjoying being a happy young pony playing with his friends—he’s got a lot of fun to catch up on after being so ill at such a young age.”
Pickle has since made a best friend in his stablemate, a pony called Cheddar, with whom he enjoys grazing and playing in the field.
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Pickle is so tiny that the Penny Farm team struggled to find a bridle small enough for him, but World Horse Welfare’s corporate partners LeMieux kindly stepped in, supplying him with a customized piece.
Staff at the farm have said Pickle will be available for transfer for permanent pastures once he’s completed his rehabilitation, which will be later this year.
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Scientists Were Wrong About How Fast Solar Panels Degrade – They May Last Twice as Long
A huge scientific survey of over 1 million German solar installations has revealed a surprising statistic: their potential to degrade year by year has been significantly exaggerated.
Previous models have overestimated the rate of degradation in a solar installation’s ability to generate power by between 20% to 50% according to this new survey.
“Back of the envelope,” the authors admit, “the estimated cost of degradation would decrease, compared to previous findings, by about €638 million per year to maintain installed capacity in 2040.”
Germany has been steaming forward with green energy installation for 20 years. Having decommissioned many of its coal power plants, and controversially eliminated its entire nuclear fleet as well, the country has installed some 60 gigawatts just of solar capacity since 2006.
A common criticism of solar is that photovoltaic panels—like all electrical hardware—lose efficiency over time, and, being exposed to the elements 365 days a year, frost, heat, wind, and dust beat them down such that the power you expected to receive when you built the solar installation isn’t what you are receiving a decade after.
The survey, conducted by scientists from Brandenburg University of Technology alongside a collaborator from University College London, involved around 1.25 million large and small solar installations across Germany, totaling 34 gigawatts of capacity. At 16 years, the study period was longer than any other examination, while the study period accounted for newer generations of solar panels.
The authors found annual degradation rates of 0.52–0.61%, roughly half the average reported in prior studies, which also had limitations of smaller sample sizes (the largest other survey of this kind was with 4,200 installations) and shorter study durations averaging between 2 and 7 years.
Other key findings support the value of large-scale solar installations. Degradation rates slow as the PV panels age. In other words, new PV panels lose capacity faster than older ones. Additionally, larger installations like solar farms degrade slower than smaller ones like rooftop arrays.
“That is important because it suggests that utility-scale PV cannot simply be treated as a scaled-up version of rooftop solar,” said lead author Peitro Melo, speaking with PV Magazine. “Reliability and maintenance strategies have a measurably different impact on outcomes.”
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Frost, extreme heat, and air pollution affect PV panels differently at different stages of their lifespan. Extreme heat tends to reduce the efficiency of older panels more than newer ones, even though for frost and air pollution, it’s the opposite.
“This is a positive result for the solar industry, from households who have bought systems up to investors in megaprojects. Lower degradation means greater output and revenue over a project’s lifetime.”
GERMAN NEWS:
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Another way to summarize the team’s findings is that this new and more accurately-estimated degradation rate for PV systems translates to a 4.8% reduction in the levelized cost of electricity from solar panels. This means that, in order to maintain nameplate power production across the entire German fleet, 2.3 gigawatts of PV panels would have to be installed every year, while under previous assumptions, replacement rates have reached as high as 4.5 gigawatts.
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Diver Finds Crusader Sword in the Same Place He Found a Crusader Sword 5 Years Ago
In 2021 GNN reported that a man diving off the Israeli coast discovered a sword from the Crusader period.
All locked up in shells and sand, it looked like it could have been forged in mythical Atlantis, and even half-buried on the seabed, diver Shlomi Katzin couldn’t have mistaken its shape.
Now, incredibly, Katzin has found another sword—equally barnacled—while swimming not far from where he found the first one. Quite the thrust of luck.
The sword, which is believed to date back to the 12th century, was transferred to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and to researchers from the Department of Maritime Civilizations at the University of Haifa, where Katzin is a student of maritime archeology.
Once there, the experts hoping to examine it got the idea to use a CT scanner at a nearby hospital. With it, they could directly image what remained of the sword beneath the barnacles without risking damage to the artifact.
The scan results found that little of the iron blade still existed, and that it likely wasn’t produced in the Levant—but rather in Europe, making it and the sword from 2021 all but certain to have belonged to soldiers on campaign in the Holy Hand, perhaps during one of the Crusades.
Launched between the 10th and 13th centuries, Europeans made three ultimately-unsuccessful attempts to capture the Holy Land from the Arabs who controlled it.
Katzin was swimming in an area known to contain historic shipwrecks when he spotted a group of people with metal detectors. Thinking them to be looters, he chased with away and happened to notice the sword at the same time, sticking vertically out of the sand.
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He then contacted Professor Debbie Zwickel at Haifa Univ. who got special permission from the IAA to remove the sword to prevent looting or further damage from the environment.
“This is an extremely rare find that sheds light on the Crusader presence on the country’s coasts,” Professor Zwickel said.
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“Only a handful of similar swords from the Crusader period are known in Israel to date, and this discovery contributes greatly to our understanding of the use of naval anchorages and the lives of warriors during this period.”
Smithsonian Magazine reported in 2021 that while the Muslim armies during the time of the Crusades built fortifications on the coasts, only the Europeans were known to have traveled by sea.
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Marine National Park Bigger Than Texas Created by Departing Chilean President Around Pacific Islands
Just days before he left office, former Chilean President Gabriel Boric signed into law protections for the remote Juan Fernández Archipelago and a gargantuan swath of the surrounding sea.
The protections connect the archipelago with the existing Nazca-Desventuradas marine parks, and total 386,000 square miles, an area the size of Venezuela amounting to 50% of Chile’s territorial waters.
This huge marine protected area, home to whales, dolphins, turtles, spiny lobsters, octopus, a vast underwater mountain chain, sea turtles, numerous sea birds, and the Juan Fernández fur seal, is now the third-largest piece of conserved seascape in the world.
Under several administrations, Chile has been a strong supporter of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework since its inception. Around 180,000 square miles of ocean was already protected in this area, and the islanders of Juan Fernández joined with national and international NGOs to campaign for broader protections.
“This commitment reflects the heart of our community,” stated Pablo Manríquez Angulo, mayor of the archipelago’s Robinson Crusoe Island. “Expanding marine protections is not only about conserving biodiversity, it’s about safeguarding our culture, our traditions, and the future of our children.”
THE LARGEST NEW MARINE PARKS:
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- ‘Huge Environmental Win’: Australia to Protect 52% of its Oceans, More Than Any Other Country
In 11th of March this year, Boric left office suffering from consistent low approval ratings throughout his tenure. The creation of the new united marine park around Juan Fernández Archipelago is a strong political legacy to leave behind.
“The community of Juan Fernández, President Gabriel Boric and the Chilean government are to be hugely congratulated for this legal designation,” said Dan Crockett, Executive Director of Blue Marine Foundation, who helped advance the new park protections.
“As the world advances towards 2030, fully protected areas of this scale are critically important.”
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Good News in History, March 26
51 years ago today, the Biological Weapons Convention, (BWC) entered into force. It’s considered to have established a strong global norm against biological weapons reflected in the treaty’s preamble, which states that the use of biological weapons would be “repugnant to the conscience of mankind.” It is also demonstrated by the fact that not a single state today declares to possess or seek biological weapons, or asserts that their use in war is legitimate, and today, only Israel, Chad, Eritrea, and 5 small island nations have not signed the agreement. READ more about the BWC… (1979)
“The well-being and hopes of the peoples of the world can never be served until peace—as well as freedom, honor and self-respect—is secure.” – Ralph Bunche
Quote of the Day: “The well-being and hopes of the peoples of the world can never be served until peace—as well as freedom, honor and self-respect—is secure.” – Ralph Bunche, Nobel Peace Prize-winning diplomat
Photo by: Curated Lifestyle 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?
First Quantum Battery Prototype Marks Big Step for Technology Expected to Change the World
Australian researchers have developed and tested the world’s first quantum battery.
Their prototype is far from anything that will be a perspective power source in an EV or storage facility, but the experiment revealed some important directions for future research.
A theoretical concept since 2013, the prototype was charged wirelessly with a laser, one of the special properties that quantum mechanics in battery technology promises if it can be properly understood and harnessed.
Lead researcher Dr. James Quach of CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency which led the study on the device, said it’s the first quantum battery ever made that performs a full charge-discharge cycle.
Dr. Quach explained that in society today, the larger the battery, the longer the charge time.
“That’s why your mobile phone takes about 30 minutes to charge and your electric car takes overnight to charge,” he said, adding that in contrast, “quantum batteries have this really peculiar property where the larger they are, the less time they take to charge.”
Less time really is an almost worthless descriptor in this case, because the prototype created by CSIRO was fully charged within a few quadrillionths of a second.
The problem is that the discharge rate was a few nanoseconds, which despite being 6 orders of magnitude longer, could be of no use to anyone now. Quach provided some interesting relative comparisons to help mere mortals conceptualize why this could be a world-changing innovation if improved.
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If it takes 30 minutes to fully charge a mobile phone, and it too had a discharge rate equal to 6 orders of magnitude, that means it wouldn’t need to be recharged even after a decade of use.
“What we need to do next is… to increase the storage time,” Quach said, touching on this point. “You want your battery to hold charge longer than a few nanoseconds if you want to be able to talk to someone on a mobile phone.”
Additionally, the prototype doesn’t hold enough voltage to power anything substantial.
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While this might all sound rather pointless, another, non-involved expert in the development of quantum batteries, University of Queensland Professor Andrew White, told the Guardian that the experiment was a huge success in getting the technology off the drawing board and into the real world for the first time.
People would be far more likely to adopt EVs if they could be fully-charged in few seconds, even if their range was severely reduced.
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Teen Lifesaver Awarded One of Scouting’s Highest Honors After Harrowing Whitewater Rescue
A teenage Texan has earned a commendation given fewer than 300 times in the history of the Boy Scouts after saving his scout leader from drowning in rapids.
Devon Champenoy was one of several teen scouts from Houston rafting down class 3 rapids at a summer camp in Georgia’s Blue Ridge Mountains.
Scout leader David Lemley was at the stern, and on a particularly rough patch, lost his balance and fell into the water. Climbing back in, he can be heard in a video from his helmet camera laughing and saying how fun it was in the hot summer day.
When further down the river Lemley fell in again, however, fun was the farthest thing from his mind.
His foot was stuck under the seat of the raft while his head and torso were underwater. Splayed out across the side of the raft, unable to move, his opportunities to breathe came only when the water level happened to be low enough that his head emerged.
Meanwhile, his helmet bought him vital time as his head bounced off rocks as the raft surged down river.
Taking a deep breath and steadying himself, Champenoy, just 13 years old at the time, clambered across and released Lemley’s foot before kayakers helped complete the rescue.
“I have no doubt that if Devon hadn’t released my foot I was going to die,” Lemley told KHOU 11 News.
“It took a while for me to take in the fact that this happened and I saved a life,” Champenoy said in the same interview, admitting he just acted on instinct.
Lemley’s foot had been broken in the ordeal, and Champenoy had to take the role of pilot as there were still 20 minutes of rapids to get through. He kept everyone calm and focused until the job was finished.
When all was said and done, Devon, having been recommended by his Scout Leader, was awarded the Honor Medal with Crossed Palms for unusual heroism demonstrated in the course of saving a life. Fewer than 300 of these medals have been awarded in the more than 100-year history of the Boy Scouts of America.
MORE TEEN LIFESAVERS:
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It came with a special recognition from Texas Governor Greg Abbot as well.
Now 15, Champenoy is attempting to become an Eagle Scout, and KHOU 11 had to remark that they felt it would be a breeze for the young hero.
WATCH the story below from KHOU 11…
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New Hiking Trail Traces the Entire Coastline of England–a 2,689-Mile Route Unlike Any in the World
Last week GNN reported on the completion of the Cross-Texas Trail that would allow Americans to enjoy the full breadth of natural beauty in the Lone Star State.
For Brits, or for those who like their hiking a little more moist, there is the just-finished King Charles III England Coast Path, a 2,689-mile-long trail along the entire coast of England.
In the works for 18 years, it’s the first trail anywhere in the world that follows the entire perimeter of a nation’s coastline.
It was recently inaugurated by the King himself, whose smile was impossible to mistake for anything other than giddy excitement as he hiked a stretch of newly-completed trail along the famous chalk sea cliffs known as the Seven Sisters.
He was joined by Tony Juniper, Chair of Natural England, which oversaw the creation of the trail project going back to the tenure of Gordon Brown.
Juniper said the path “is a testament to how public enjoyment, conservation, heritage, history and community can come together, helping make life better for millions of people.”
An intrepid hiker could very well have done the entire coast of England from Loch Ryan to the Tyne before, but some sections would have required walking along roads, and rambling across others.
Now, 1,000 miles of path have been newly built, intelligently connected, or renovated, which include new boardwalks and bridges as well. Only two sections are broken: one that requires a ferry to cross the Mersey, and another in south Devon where the River Erme must be forded—part of the adventure, argues Neil Constable, who led the project for Natural England.
“It is brilliant—the best thing I’ll do in my working life,” Constable told the BBC.
Quite the statement, but there’s something incredibly special, fulfilling, perhaps spiritual, and ‘just,’ in there being—at any point in the country—a road that leads to the coast, a path that forks at the sea, where whether you turn left or right, one knows they can walk for as long as they want.
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Total completion of the King Charles III England Coast Path is predicted for the end of this year, but it will be undergoing maintenance and attention for years to come, as the 2009 Coastal Access Law that mandated the trail’s creation has inbuilt provisions if parts of the seaside route should become unpassable due to rising seas or torrential rains.
Called a “rollback,” where it was necessary to negotiate the trail across private land, all agreements were made with the clause that a could necessitate the trail being moved further inland under climate and weather conditions.
The law also secured public access to many areas that were off limits, including sand dunes, cliff tops, and across salt marsh.
MORE GREAT TRAILS: New Yorkers Will Love This New 7.5 Mile Trail Along the Hudson River Highlands Inspired by Landscape Painters
The BBC reached out to a nature-use advocacy group known as the Ramblers, which had been fighting for the creation of such a route since the Second World War. Their description of it was “transformational.”
The trail opens the tantalizing possibility for a route along the entire coast of the island of Britain, which would extend the trail to some 9,000 miles. Scotland already enshrined access to walking along its coasts through the Right to Roam legislation in 2012, but any such infrastructure is lacking.
Perspective hikers can plan their trip easily on the trail’s website here.
SHARE This Once-in-a-Lifetime Hike With Your Friends Who Love The Seaside…
Community Rallies Around Local Autistic Barista After His Tip Jar Was Stolen
An autistic barista who had a day’s worth of tips stolen from his coffee shop was left “speechless” after his community rallied to his side.
Michael Coyne knows most of the people who get a coffee from his shop, Red White and Brew, and so the theft of his tips felt extremely personal.
Covering the costs of a recent move to a larger location in Warwick, Rhode Island, the shop currently operates at a loss, and the tip jar is Coyne’s only source of free cash flow.
Coyne has autism, ADHD, and bi-polar disorder. He was fostered by Sheila Coyne when he was 10 years old, who later adopted him. Red White and Brew was opened by Sheila with her retirement savings as a way to guarantee her son fulfilling employment, and despite its first year running smack dab into enforced business closures resulting from COVID-19, the shop was a success.
The store employs workers—and sells products made by—people with mental disabilities, and quickly became a part of the community fabric.
“He was really interested in food service, and I thought, what better way to connect him to a community than a coffee shop?” Sheila told The Washington Post’s Sydney Page. “To me, it just made sense.”
When he recently found that the $20 in tips he had accumulated throughout the day had suddenly been snatched, he was deeply upset.
The day after, the chief of the Warwick Police Department came by for a brew, and after hearing about the theft quickly brought over the materials for a new tip jar with a lid. He told the Coynes he would investigate.
Sheila decided to make a Facebook video announcing the theft and warning people to stay alert. Commenters were infuriated to hear someone would do something like it, among whom was the Mayor of Warwick, Frank Picozzi.
“Red White and Brew is a very special place … run by wonderful people,” he wrote in a post sharing Sheila’s video. “I’ve come to know Michael very well and believe me, it’s not the money that’s bothering him, he’s hurt.”
SIMILAR BUSINESS MODELS: Joyous New York City Coffee Shop Hires and Trains People with Autism and Down Syndrome
The following day, people streamed into the coffee shop, each one leaving a tip in the jar—including one woman who left $100 after telling Michael that her own son is autistic, and that the barista inspires her to believe he can have a decent life as a working adult.
The next day was exactly the same. The mayor came too, and soon Michael had been given $900 in tips.
SHOWING UP FOR THE COMMUNITY: Car Wash Hires All-Autistic Staff to Wash Away Barriers: 10 Years Later, There’s Now 4 Florida Locations
“That was the most special part,” Sheila said. “It was truly just one person after another, leading with such kindness and grace that it renewed my love for humans and humanity.”
Michael admitted the gesture left him speechless.
SHARE This Beautiful Story Of A Community Rallying Around A Wounded Member…
“You begin with the possibilities of the material.” – Robert Rauschenberg
Quote of the Day: “You begin with the possibilities of the material.” – Robert Rauschenberg
Photo by: Raj Adhikari / theraazphotojourney (cropped)
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Good News in History, March 25
Happy Birthday to Sir Elton John, who turns 79 years old today. Growing up in London, the singer-songwriter learned to play piano at age three. In his 5-decade career, Elton John has sold more than 300 million records, making him one of the best-selling musical artists in the world. WATCH a 70th birthday video tribute… (1947)