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New DNA Evidence Frees Innocent Man After 30 Years in Prison for Murder

By
Andy Corbley
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Gordon Cordeiro visiting the grave of his mother on Makawao, Hawaii, hours after his release - credit Denise Cordeiro, family photo
Gordon Cordeiro visiting the grave of his mother on Makawao, Hawaii, hours after his release – credit Denise Cordeiro, family photo

Imprisoned in a “miscarriage of justice,” a Hawaii man has been released from prison after DNA evidence exonerated him.

Behind bars for 30 years, Gordon Cordeiro’s first desire was to visit the grave of his mother, who died of ALS just before he was arrested.

Cordeiro was freed based on advocacy from the Hawaiian Innocence Project, which seeks to free those wrongfully convicted by more closely examining the evidence of settled cases.

Cordeiro stood two trials in 1994 for the murder of Tim Baisdell during a drug deal-turned-robbery on the island of Maui. The first ended in a hung jury, with only one juror voting to convict, while the second saw him convicted and sentenced to life without possibility of parole.

There were tears in the courtroom when Judge Kristin Hammam ordered the suspect released.

“He cried, we all cried,” Kenneth Lawson, co-director of the Hawaii Innocence Project, told CBS News. “He believed that he was going to be exonerated … but having gone through two trials, you lose faith in the justice system. To finally hear a judge say, ‘I’m vacating your convictions,’ that’s when it hit him.”

“The police botched this case from the beginning and turned the No. 1 suspect into the state’s star witness, resulting in a 30-plus-year nightmare and miscarriage of justice for Gordon and his family,” Lawson added.

According to court documents filed by Cordeiro’s attorneys seen by CBS, the state sought to prosecute Cordeiro despite the 22-year-old having four alibis, by relying on four jailhouse informants motivated by promises of reduced sentences, something which the Innocence Project described as “prosecutorial misconduct.”

THE INNOCENCE PROJECT: New Evidence Unearthed by Podcasters Frees 2 Men Wrongfully Imprisoned for 25 Years

Blaisdell had gone to an area of Maui called “Skid Row” to buy a pound of cannabis with a man named Michael Freitas. Blaisdell was found dead in a ravine the following day, and Freitas, the “No.1 suspect” according to Lawson, altered his story several times before shifting blame onto Cordeiro and becoming the “star witness.”

A DNA profile of an unidentified person was found on the inside pockets of Blaisdell’s jeans, which when combined with other DNA findings, put the possibility of Cordeiro’s involvement squarely within reasonable doubt.

MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: Freed After 28 Years of Wrongful Conviction, Man Meets Pen Pal Who Never Stopped Affirming His Innocence

To put Cordeiro’s nightmare into perspective, he walked into the courthouse with a pager. “Now everybody’s on their phones,” he told Fox News Digital.

He visited the grave of his mother on Friday, February 21st, in Makawao, Hawaii, hours after a judge ordered his release, with the AP reporting he thanked her for watching over him. His mother died of ALS at age 49.

SHARE This Incredible Second Chance Thanks To Determined Advocacy…

Netherlands to Return its Share of Nigeria’s Looted Treasures: 120 Statues Set for Repatriation

By
Andy Corbley
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Examples of Benin Bronzes from two German museums - public domain
Examples of Benin Bronzes from two German museums – public domain

A museum in the Netherlands has announced it will return 119 bronze artifacts looted from the old Kingdom of Benin in West Africa.

One of the most notorious and ongoing disputes over looted art during colonial activities, most of the hundreds of Benin Bronzes stolen from the kingdom by the British in the 19th century reside at the British Museum.

Dozens have also made it across the Atlantic to institutions in the US, while dozens more were distributed around Europe.

The Museum Volkenkunde in Leiden, or folk art museum, has made an agreement with Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments to facilitate the repatriation.

The Kingdom of Benin has no connection to the modern nation-state of Benin, and is located in the Nigerian state of Edo

“We thank the Netherlands for their cooperation and hope this will set a good example for other nations of the world in terms of repatriation of lost or looted antiquities,” Olugible Holloway, the commission’s director, said in a statement.

Other Dutch museums have also been busy repatriating artifacts looted during colonial times—from the Dutch East India Company’s holdings in Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

ALSO CHECK OUT: 11th c. Monastery Gets Back Statues from Two US Museums–And Discovers Hundreds of Treasures in the Process

In total, the repatriations include the ‘Lombok treasure’, consisting of 335 objects from Lombok in the Lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia, four statues from the Javan Hindu kingdom of Singasari, 132 objects of modern art from Bali, and from Sri Lanka—a cache of ceremonial weapons from the city-states of Kandy and others including a royal canon made of gold, silver, and rubies.

“Cultural heritage is essential for telling and living the history of a country and a community,” Eppo Bruins, the Dutch culture and education minister, said in a statement. “The Benin Bronzes are indispensable to Nigeria. It is good that they are going back.”

MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: Stolen Trove of Angkor Royal Jewelry Returned to Cambodia After Resurfacing in London

In 2022, Nigeria made formal requests to museums around the world for the return of looted artifacts. Institutions in the UK, US, and Germany, have all sent back Benin Bronzes, but never has the nation received so many and at one time.

SHARE This Just And Responsibile Decision From Dutch Authorities… 

Pierced by Cupid’s Sedan, Woman Forgives and Marries Motorist Who Accidentally Ran Her Over

By
Andy Corbley
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Chinese social media composite
Chinese social media composite

Can you remember the day, perhaps the moment, you met the person who would become your spouse?

Well for an unnamed Chinese woman, it’s a day extremely difficult to forget—because she probably thought it would be her last.

Whilst crossing the street on an electric bicycle, the 23-year-old looked over and saw a car flying towards her at inevitable speeds. The driver, reported with only the surname Li, was driving fast through the streets of a city in Hunan Province because of an emergency.

At that moment, Cupid swapped his bow and arrow for Li’s car. The woman was hit, and the impact broke her collarbone. Li rushed over to her to apologize and call an ambulance but received a surprising reply from his victim: “No worries” she said.

Li said she seemed to be a very kind person. The woman’s parents absolved him of his guilt and opted not to press charges, South China Morning Post’s Fran Lu reports. Feeling the obligation, Li visited her at the hospital every day to make sure she had everything she needed, during which time they grew close.

Three weeks after the collision, the woman confessed her love to the man who nearly killed her in a story that has lit up Chinese social media. At first, the 36-year-old Li rejected her, saying he was too old, however, they remained in touch and eventually went out to see a movie together.

MORE LOVE STORIES: She Was Going to Take Her Own Life, Then Married the Train Driver Who Spotted Her on Tracks

She discovered she was pregnant in September, and, bedecked in the reds and golds of traditional Chinese raiment, were married in February.

Li said marriage was not in his life plan before he met her. He thanked his wife in a social media post for her “bravery.”

DELIGHTFUL SOCIAL MEDIA SAGAS: ‘Road-Tripping Auntie’ Broke with Husband and Tradition to Travel Around China, Becoming Viral Celebrity

Moving in with his wife’s parents as they lived closer to his work, Li reports that they refused the still-used “bride price” of Chinese custom, knowing their son-in-law to be in debt. Instead, they told him to invest it in his business.

It was the sixth such road incident the man was involved in, but since striking his wife on that fateful day it has been the last.

SHARE This Ludicrous Love Story From China With Your Friends… 

“The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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Good News Network
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By Sam Schooler

Quote of the Day: “The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Photo by: Sam Schooler

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?

By Sam Schooler

Good News in History, February 25

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Good News Network
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Glacier Bay National Park - credit Brian W. Schaller, FA License

100 years ago today, President Calvin Coolidge invoked the Antiquities Act to protect Glacier Bay, a long narrow fjord bisecting the Fairweather Range and Takhinsha Mountains lined with the mouths of glaciers. Originally established as Glacier Bay National Monument, the inestimable value of the unspoiled Alaskan coastal ecosystem saw the property expanded into a National Park and Preserve, and eventually a UNESCO Natural Heritage Site—one of the largest on Earth at 3.3 million square miles. READ a little about the history of its protection… (1925)

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Mice Discovered Giving ‘First Aid’ to Unconscious Mates in Surprising Display of Empathy

By
Andy Corbley
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A mouse tends to an unconscious peer by pulling its tongue - credit: Wenjian Sun et al. 2025, released
A mouse tends to an unconscious peer by pulling its tongue – credit: Wenjian Sun et al. 2025, released

When presented with an unresponsive acquaintance, a mouse may attempt to revive them by pawing and gently biting at their face, scientists recently reported.

A third behavior was also seen, however, and that involved the attendant mouse removing the unconscious peer’s tongue in a manner nearly identical to ‘clearing the airways,’ the first step in human CPR.

Together the demonstration shows how mice and other animals may be far better caregivers than previously thought.

Li Zhang at the University of Southern California introduced caged mice to a comrade who had been anesthetized, and watched as the mouse spent nearly half of a 13-minute observation window attending to the sedated individual.

“They start with sniffing, and then grooming, and then with a very intensive or physical interaction,” says Zhang. “They really open the mouth of this animal and pull out its tongue.”

The grooming interactions often involved licking the mouse’s eyes. In the case of the tongue removal maneuver, this was observed in more than 50% of all the trials run by Zhang.

Once this behavior had been established, Zhang and his team inserted non-toxic plastic balls into the mouths of the mice after sedation, and watched how in 80% of the encounters, the attendant mouse removed the ball.

Behavioral changes were also observed. Caregiving or attending behavior stopped once the sedated mouse became responsive again, whilst the sedated mouse began moving faster, quicker than a mouse that awoke without an attendant.

Mice spent more time attending to mice they knew better.

SEE MORE: Elephants Are the First Non-Human Animals Now Known to Use Names, AI Research Shows

“I have never observed these types of behaviors when we run experiments in the lab… ” Cristina Márquez at the Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology in Coimbra, Portugal, told New Scientist, who also commented on how Zhang’s findings were replicated in two other studies recently.

“The fact that three independent laboratories have observed similar behaviors indicates that this is a robust finding. However, we should be really careful about anthropomorphising too much what we observe in non-human species or attributing intentions that go beyond what is observed.”

Zhang compared the behavior to using smelling salts (or a slap) to wake someone, and clearing the airways is one of the most basic steps after arriving at an unconscious person.

LET’S LOVE ANIMALS MORE: Study Shows Wild Kangaroos Can Intentionally Communicate With Humans

Neuronal activity during the behavior shows that it was driven by a release of oxytocin in the regions of the brain called the amygdala and thalamus. Oxytocin is an important signaling hormone related to caring, love, and empathy.

The research makes one hearken back to the Ploughman Poet’s immortal words:

I’m truly sorry man’s dominion
Has broken nature’s social union,
And justified that ill opinion
That makes you startle
At me—thy poor Earth-born companion, and fellow mortal.

Robert Burns—To a Mouse on Turning Up Her Nest with a Plough.

WATCH the behavior on video from New Scientist…

SHARE This Startling Display Of Caregiving With Your Friends…

Gray Slums of Brazil Turn Green with Rooftop Garden Project in Full Bloom

By
Andy Corbley
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Green Roof Favela – Photos by Luis Cassiano Silva
Green Roof Favela – Photos by Luis Cassiano Silva

From the rooftop of a Rio de Janeiro slum, amid sheet after sheet of corrugated iron, one man reclines amid succulents and ficus.

His name is Luis Cassiano Silva, and he is the progenitor of the Teto Verde Favela, or Green Roofs Favela initiative, described by one academic as an exercise in “insurgent citizenship.”

Green Roof Favela – Photos by Luis Cassiano Silva

Rio’s famous favelas are informal settlements neglected by the government that suffer from the urban heat island effect even more so than the city’s metropolitan core.

Winding alleys and corridors of exposed brick, metal, and concrete, without a tree to be seen, the favelas absorb heat from the Sun and radiate it out into the neighborhoods rather than out into space like a forest.

Taking responsibility for improving the lives of the community, in 2014 Cassiano began teaching and planting, gardening and growing, all over Parque Arara, one of Rio’s large favelas. Green roofs are used widely in Europe to climate-proof buildings.

They not only lead to a reduction in the heat island effect, but also contribute to slowing rainwater runoff, keeping indoor areas cooler, and keeping outdoor air cleaner and more moist.

While the informality of favelas makes it all but impossible for centralized government to implement similar plans at scale, and while rows and rows of rooftop plants make it difficult to film the next Jason Bourne movie, spontaneous community-led planning and self-reliance can succeed in insulating low-income earners from climate change’s worst effects, and according to one academic, should not be interfered with.

OTHER NEWS FROM BRAZIL: When A Loving Brazilian Street Dog Kept Visiting A Car Dealership, They Finally Hired Him as a Salesman

“City officials are concerned with addressing UHI in order to keep privileged areas of the city welcoming to outsiders, since a big portion of Rio’s economy is reliant on tourism, and tourist attractions are commonly found in the more privileged areas of the city,” writes Matheus Cardoso at the University of Texas in a review article.

Green Roof Favela – Luis Cassiano Silva

“Green Roof Favela, then, challenges dominant approaches to planning by shedding light on the UHI effect in the marginalized peripheries of the city.”

Cassiano’s work has attracted the attention of multiple international news outlets, including NPR, Sky, and others.

Cassiano himself wrote that as much as the project aims to combat the urban heat island effect, his initiative mostly involves teaching people how to garden.

OTHER EFFORTS IN OTHER SLUMS: The Largest Landfill in Latin America has Been Turned into a Mangrove Forest

“Most children in the favela have no interaction with the forest and do not respect it… It’s a culture of destruction. We must educate them, slowly,” Cassiano describes. “In the favela, there are two colors [red and gray]. There are studies on color that say that red [signifies] passion, force, tension, explosion. But there is also gray—more melancholic, sad, depressing.”

“The favela is this: samba and love, but also sadness because it is poor. The color green will reduce violence. When we’re close to green space, we feel good. Favelas need this.”

SHARE This Great Green Initiative In Rio With Your Friends On Social Media… 

New Tuna Packaging Seen to Reduce Mercury Levels by 35%, Though it May Not Be Necessary

By
Andy Corbley
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A jar of tuna next to the researchers solution of cysteine - credit: Chalmers University of Technology/Hanna Magnusson
A jar of tuna next to the researchers’ solution of cysteine – credit: Chalmers University of Technology/Hanna Magnusson

Reprinted from permission from World at Large

A breakthrough in packaged tuna preparation has been found to reduce mercury content in the fish by 35%.

Consumption of tuna has long been limited, especially by pregnant women and nursing mothers, for the known fact that the fish accumulates mercury throughout its life.

If canned with a water solution containing high amounts of the amino acid cysteine, the tuna meat was found to have 35% less mercury than normal canned tuna.

It’s one of a variety of breakthrough packaging inventions collectively referred to as “active packaging” which reacts with the food being preserved to help increase its shelf-life and nutrient density.

GNN has reported on some packaging that also contains elements that interact with the food to create a vivid color that will warn consumers if the food inside has spoiled.

In this case, the cysteine in the tuna can draw out the mercury and prevent it from binding to human tissues.

“Our study shows that there are alternative approaches to addressing mercury contamination in tuna, rather than just limiting consumption. Our goal is to improve food safety and contribute to enhanced human health, as well as to better utilize food that is currently under certain restrictions,” says Mehdi Abdollahi, Associate Professor at the Department of Life Sciences at Chalmers and coordinator of a project called Detoxpak.

In science, sometimes disagreements can emerge when comparing empirical truth with observed effects. For example, mercury exists in tuna—of that there can be no doubt—but a growing mountain of evidence suggests that it’s either too low to affect the health of even a fetus, or that there’s something in tuna that’s already protecting us from the maleffects of mercury.

Tuna’s seachange

Take for example a long-term monitoring study from 2001 to 2018 which looked at mercury concentrations in the flesh of three tuna species in the Pacific. The study found consistent mercury levels independent of the increasing amounts of mercury in the ocean due to the increase in coal burning among the nations bordering the research area.

In other words, this study casts significant doubt on the idea that mercury enters the fish through environmental contamination.

Tuna meat is rich in selenium, an irreplaceable and essential nutrient for early childhood cognitive development. Selenium also happens to be part of why cysteine works to reduce mercury content in the new tuna packaging: selenium and cysteine form the amino acid selenocysteine, which methylmercury, the compound found in tuna flesh, binds to in the can (and in the human brain) but since the fetal brain doesn’t contain reserves of selenium, it has no natural defense against methylmercury inhibiting selenocysteine’s vital activities in the brain.

A 2024 study however looked at mercury and selenium concentrations in the umbilical cords of fetuses in Hawaiian mothers who ate lots of seafood containing both molecules.

The cord blood samples exceeded the EPA’s mercury toxic reference level of 5.8 ppb, but selenium concentrations were orders of magnitude higher, thus conferring, in theory, all the necessary protective elements to prevent that mercury from affecting the fetus.

MORE NEWS LIKE THIS: New Rice Cultivar Eliminates 70% of Methane Emissions While Boosting Yields

The study stated the finding “clarifies the reasons for the contrasting findings of certain early studies,” namely those listed in a systemic review issued by the National Academy of Science called ‘The Role of Seafood Consumption in Child Growth and Development.’

The review lists numerous studies and meta-analyses that show consumption of seafood known to contain mercury is associated with mostly positive neurodevelopmental outcomes in children, with one study showing an associated increase in IQ of 2 to 5 points. Others report a mix of positive and negligible associations between seafood consumption in young children and infants and neurodevelopmental outcomes.

ALSO CHECK OUT: Biodegradable Food Wrap Created From Algae and Cinnamon Compound is the Packaging Solution We Needed

Another meta-analysis identified by the review identified 29 studies representing 24 unique cohorts. Of the 29 studies, 24 reported beneficial outcomes associated with maternal seafood consumption and neurocognition on some or all the tests administered to children. Based on their analysis, the authors reported moderate and consistent evidence for an association of consumption of a broad range of amounts and types of commercially available seafood during pregnancy with improved neurocognitive development in the offspring as compared to not consuming seafood.

There’s certainly every reason to remove mercury from the human diet, but it looks like the science behind the threat of seafood-born mercury is undergoing a seachange.

SHARE This Double Good News For Food Safety And Human Health… 

This Apex Predator Was ‘King of the Ancient Egyptian Forest’ Then Mysteriously Went Extinct

By
Andy Corbley
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Bastetodon syrtos skull - credit: Shoruq Al-Ashqar, released.
Bastetodon syrtos skull – credit: Shoruq Al-Ashqar, released.

From the sands of Egypt’s Western Desert, a nearly complete skull of a prehistoric apex predator offers scientists the chance to understand ever so much about how climate change affects animal extinction.

Belonging to a fully extinct order of carnivores called Hyaenodonts (hyena-teeth), the dozens of individuals that make up this lineage have been illustrated as weasel-like, cat-like, dog-like, and hyena-like, reflecting the order’s diversity.

Shoruq Al-Ashqar, who officially described the fossil Bastetodon syrtos – credit: Shoruq Al-Ashqar, released.

There were Hyaeodonts as big as rhinos that weighed more than 500 pounds, and others the size of terriers, but Bastetodon syrtos, the order’s most recent addition, definitely skewed more to the slim and agile side of the spectrum.

Discovered by Shoruq Al-Ashqar from the American Institute of Cairo, she named it Bastetodon in homage to the Ancient Egyptian cat goddess Bastet.

“It was an amazing moment,” Al-Ashqar said. “This skull is important to us, not only because it’s complete and three dimensional, and actually it’s a beautiful one, but also it provides us with new traits to know more about this extinct group of carnivorous animals.”

“We can frankly say that Bastetodon was the king of the ancient Egyptian forest,” she told CNN.

Dating back 30 million years ago to the late Oligocene epoch, the species originated within the sub-family Hyainailourinae, one of several offshoots of the order Hyaenodonta containing dozens and dozens of species across Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America.

Hyainailourinae means Hyena-cats, and these more feline-like creatures first appeared in Africa about 47 million years ago when the deserts of Egypt were covered with lush tropical rainforest.

A typical Hyaenodont skeleton – credit: Ryan Somma CC 2.0.

In general, Hyaenodonts like Hyainailourinae were strangely shaped animals to our sensibilities today; possessing enormous skulls, yet long and slender jaws, long tails, and very short necks. They covered a wide spectrum of sizes, and some members adapted to running on their toes, while others ran with planted feet.

One Hyaenodont was estimated to weigh in at over 600 pounds, while another was found to be the size of a large pine marten. Bastetodon probably weighed as much as a leopard or hyena. In general, it can’t be ignored how much illustrations of the creature appear like the rodents of unusual size from The Princess Bride. 

In general, CNN writes, it’s easier to find herbivore fossils, and much harder to find carnivore fossils, because in a naturally balanced ecosystem, there are far more of the former than the latter.

The discovery of such a large and complete skull will help confirm concretely how large the animal’s brain was, how much muscle was attached to its jaw—and therefore bite force—and even what its sense of smell might have been.

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“The fact that they lost out to cats and dogs in their evolution is still a mystery but might be caused by their highly specialized dentition,” Dr. Cathrin Pfaff, a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the Institute of Palaeontology at the University of Vienna in Austria who wasn’t involved in the discovery, told CNN in an email

“Because of this, such a complete find as described here brings us a step closer to solving the mystery, even (if) it is just a medium-sized specimen.”

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: 5,000-year-old Rock Art of Boats and Cattle Unearthed in the Sahara Shows Grassland Came Before Desert

Another mystery it might reveal is the nature of an ecosystem beset by a changing climate. The Oligocene began when the Earth experienced rapid cooling—an event that marked the end of the previous, Eocene Era.

It resulted in the smallest mass extinction event in the fossil record, triggering major ‘faunal turnover,’ when ecosystems are emptied of inadaptable species whose roles and niches are filled by the survivors.

PREHISTORIC LIFE: These 385 Million-year-old Tree Roots Look Just Like Ours, and Tell a Tale Just Like Ours

In this case, modern hyenas, cats, and dogs all moved in to occupy the space that was dominated by Hyaenodonta, perhaps the reason why these animals remain apex predators today.

It is curious how an animal that evolved to hunt so many different-sized prey species would disappear entirely from the Earth. Could it be that Hyaenodonta became too diversified? Maybe Bastetodon can help us understand.

SHARE This Amazing Animal Lineage And The Skull Revealing Its Secrets… 

“In every true marriage, each serves as guide and companion to the other toward a shared enlightenment that no one else could possibly share.” – Joseph Campbell 

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Good News Network
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By Mauricio Livio

Quote of the Day: “In every true marriage, each serves as guide and companion to the other toward a shared enlightenment that no one else could possibly share.” – Joseph Campbell 

Photo by: Mauricio Livio

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?

By Mauricio Livio

Good News in History, February 24

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Good News Network
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Breezing Up (A Fair Wind) - Google Art Project

189 years ago today, one of the foremost painters of 19th-century America, Winslow Homer, was born. Born in Boston to a father always seeking to pull off a get-rich-quick scheme, Homer was molded by his mother; a talented watercolor painter who taught him the basics. His most prolific period was when he moved to Maine and began to paint the robustness of fishing and seagoing cultures there, producing iconic imagery of 19th-century America such as The Gulf Stream, The Fog Warning, and Breezing Up (A Fair Wind). READ about the man’s life and see some of his paintings… (1836)

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The UK’s Cutest Bus Stop Has Been Decorated By Locals With Quirky Themes For 20 Years (Pics)

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Good News Network
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The bus stop's latest design 'Thyme to Stop' - SWNS
Bus stop in Fowey, England, ‘All you need is Fowey’ design from Jan. 2022 – via SWNS

A bus stop in Fowey, England, has been getting artistic makeovers from creative locals for two decades.

Dubbed the Pretty Bus Stop on Lankelly Lane in Cornwall, it was given its first makeover by Jane Tinsley after it became a target for anti-social behavior.

Over the next 20 years the stop has been decorated as a tea room, a yacht race, a library, and even donned an Elvis theme at one point.

Volunteers step forward to redesign the grotto a couple of times each year—especially during the winter.

Sarah Worne, the artist behind the new plant-themed design, has been helping to keep the tradition alive since 2021.

The latest theme is called Thyme to Stop, and features real—and painted—pots of seedlings and plants.

“It was cold coming into February and everybody needs warming up, so we have made it look like you are sitting in a green house.

The bus stop’s latest design ‘Thyme to Stop’ – SWNS

“It is just trying to bring a bit of warmth as you are sitting there waiting for a bus.”

“I am always liking to keep busy and always liking to do things that just make people smile,” said Sarah. “And, just for the fun of it.”

The bus stop even has its own Facebook page, with more than 2,700 followers which features many looks over the years.

SWNS

“We like to delegate and engage with the local community,” she added. “I have challenged Fowey River Lions to do a design—and they are having a go this year at Easter.”

Nautical themed design from March 2021 – SWNS

Sarah has thought about decorating other bus stops, getting inspired while driving around, but hasn’t yet taken the time to talking to the owners.

“The bus stop in Fowey is actually owned by the town council. You do have to work out who owns the bus stops and I haven’t gone down that route—but I certainly got my eye on a couple other bus stops that could do with brightening up.”

PASS ON THE INNOVATIVE IDEA With Your Hometown By Sharing On Social Media…

Sea Turtles Swarm the Beaches in India for Annual Mass Nesting (WATCH)

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Good News Network
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Olive Ridley sea turtles return to lay eggs in annual nesting ritual in Odisha, India – SWNS
Olive Ridley sea turtles return to lay eggs in annual nesting ritual in Odisha, India – SWNS

Thousands of sea turtles have taken over a beach as part of the annual mass nesting of Olive Ridley turtles in India.

The incredible video shows a seemingly endless stretch of beach in Odisha, with waves of turtles slogging ashore near the mouth of the Rushikulya River.

According to Divisional Forest Officer Sunny Khokkar, over 11,000 turtles laid their eggs on February 16 across the 2.5-mile stretch of land (4km). It was the first day of ‘Arribada’, the unique nesting ritual where thousands of females come together on the same beach to lay eggs.

Interestingly, they return to the very same beach where they first hatched as a baby. During the phenomenal nesting, up to 600,000 females emerge from the water during the five to seven day period.

The 2-foot-long turtles then dig pits in the sand to lay between 100 and 150 eggs, before covering them and returning to the sea.

After about 45-65 days, the eggs begin to hatch, and these beaches are swamped with tiny Olive Ridley turtles, making their first trek towards the vast ocean.

It is estimated that approximately 1 hatchling survives to reach adulthood for every 1000 hatchlings that enter the sea waters.

The plentiful species is categorized as “Vulnerable” by international wildlife groups, so to safeguard the nesting process, the Forest Department has implemented protective measures.

AMAZINGLY CUTE: Diver Fulfills Dream to Photograph the Cutest Sea Creature Ever

Local volunteers help to create a secure environment and the beach has been fenced off to prevent visitors from disturbing the nests—and the restrictions are set to remain in place until the hatchlings have emerged.

SHARE The Amazing Sight With Nature Lovers On Social Media…

Teen Mentorship Program Brings Its Bottom Line Success to Detroit–With $15M in Assistance From MacKenzie Scott

By
Nathan Frederick
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By Sagar Ganesh / Pexels
By Sagar Ganesh / Pexels

The dreams of going to college for so many American teens may seem like long-shots, but when a billionaire philanthropist sets her sights on education, their stories may have a happy ending.

Enrique Pepén was born in Boston to Dominican immigrants who hoped to grab hold of the American dream, despite a language barrier that sometimes seemed insurmountable.

Growing up in public housing, Pepén had to help translate legal forms and food menus for his parents—and sometimes worried that the American dream would escape him. But he never gave up.

In high school, Pepén found assistance from Bottom Line, a nonprofit mentorship program that provides personalized guidance to first-generation college students and low-income youth.

Bottom Line, which has now served over 7,000 students, helped Pepén navigate all the forms and applications needed for college. He earned a full scholarship to Boston’s Suffolk University. From there, Bottom Line’s mentors supported him throughout his collegiate career.

Then, in 2023, Pepén was elected to the Boston City Council.

Enrique Pepén, Boston City Council

Pepén’s election arrived just one year after a massive $15 million donation from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott helped secure Bottom Line’s long-term future. Scott, Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife, provided monetary support for Bottom Line and 360 other charities and nonprofits through an operation named Yield Giving. Bottom Line’s gift will ensure that there are hundreds of other youths like Pepén who will gain enough support to grab a firm hold of the American dream.

“My parents left everything they knew when coming to the United States and I saw the mental toll of reinventing their lives. They believed in the power of education to make personal progress easier, and it was a belief they instilled in me,” Pepén said in Bottom Line’s most recent Annual Report.

“After walking my path and navigating the college process, if I could give any advice to students in similar shoes, I would say do not be afraid to ask for help!”

Founded in Boston in 1997, Bottom Line has achieved impressive results:

  • 91.2% of Bottom Line’s high school students committed to college
  • 68.2% made an affordable choice
  • 93.5% of students persisted to their 2nd semester—a leading indicator of graduation rates
  • 100% of students surveyed reported feeling more confident in their ability to build relationships and network with professionals

In its 28 years, the nonprofit has expanded to support students in New York, Chicago, and Ohio too. Later this summer, the program will officially launch in Detroit.

Bottom Line students – Credit: knackvideophoto.com

With funding from family foundations, as well as a $600,000 grant from GreenLight Fund Detroit, Bottom Line hopes to support 725 Detroit students annually by 2031.

CHECK OUT: Thank-You Cards Pile Up with Nowhere to Go After School District Receives Anonymous ‘Transformative’ Donation

It’s a worthy goal for a population faced with innumerable obstacles. Fewer than 20-percent of Detroit residents hold college degrees. The city’s median income averages just $37,000. And Michigan has one of the worst student-to-counselor ratios in the country.

But folks at Bottom Line never shrink from obstacles. They prefer to embrace them instead.

Just ask Danielle North, who was named Bottom Line Detroit’s first executive director. The Detroit native is a first-generation college student herself. A similar support program helped propel her through college and put her on a path to success about 20 years ago. Now, she’ll pay it forward to a new generation.

She already met with some prospective students at her alma mater Northwestern High School in December.

“I was already excited,” she said in an article appearing on ChalkBeat Detroit. ”But coming here and having the opportunity to interact with the staff and learn directly from the students what their experiences have been, to see the glimmer of light in their eyes, to see their future possibilities from their point of view, and to understand what they’re looking for, has really just cemented it for me.”

WATCH: Man Who Grew Up Without a Dad Supports Youth on ‘Dad, How Do I?’ YouTube Channel

They could take Pepén’s advice to heart: “There are a lot of opportunities out there that may seem difficult to obtain, but there are people and groups like Bottom Line who want you to succeed.”

Building on successful stories like Councilman Pepén’s in Boston, the next great chapters will be written in Detroit.

SHARE THE STORY to Inspire Youth With Dreams On Social Media…

“My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.” – Abraham Lincoln

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Quote of the Day: “My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.” – Abraham Lincoln

Photo by: Daryan Shamkhali

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, February 23

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139 years ago today, an American inventor used electrolysis to extract aluminum from aluminum oxide, a process that eventually resulted in reducing the price of aluminum by a factor of 200, making it affordable for many practical uses from soda cans to the Wright Flyer. As small grains amid clay, it was thought by medieval alchemists to be the grains of dirt from a second, currently forming, earth. Today, more aluminum is produced than all other non-ferrous metals combined. The process was discovered by Charles Martin Hall, who helped found the Pittsburgh Reduction Company, which became the Aluminum Company of America. READ more… (1886)

Continue

23-Year-old Finds Huge Dinosaur Footprint Dating Back 127 Million Years on UK Beach After Rain

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Joe Thompson with Iguanodon footprint - SWNS
Joe Thompson with Iguanodon footprint – SWNS

A huge dinosaur footprint dating back 127 million years has been found on a UK beach after a rainstorm.

A 23-year-old fossil guide spotted the three-toed print on the Isle of Wight.

Joe Thompson says the one-meter long footprint revealed itself after storms stripped the beach of pebbles.

The recent Bristol University paleontology graduate was walking on Shepherd’s Chine beach, looking for any fossils or dinosaur bones.

“I had been walking for an hour or two and hadn’t found anything – so was a bit down in the dumps.

“But then I looked down and could see one of the toes in the clay. Thinking it could be a footprint, I uncovered it and discovered a pretty big footprint of an Iguanodon.

“It is high up in the sequence, which means it is a bit younger than other footprints on the island. It belonged to a really big animal.”

Iguanodon dinosaur fossil footprint – SWNS

The news comes as this month marks the 200th anniversary of the first scientific description of Iguanodon in 1825, after a collection of the dinosaur’s teeth was discovered by geologist Dr. Gideon Mantell from large fossils found in Sussex, England, by him and his wife Mary Ann.

Iguanodons were large herbivores measuring up to ten meters long and weighing over four tons.

“Iguanodons are pretty cool and were quite common, but to see a footprint so well preserved in this area is great.

Iguanodons traveled in large groups of maybe 20 to 30, walked on all fours, but ran on two feet.

“They went around eating all the smaller plants around the ecosystem at the time,” Joe told news agency SWNS.com.

INCREDIBLE! Giant New Species of Dinosaur Named Loki-ceratops for Horns That Look Like the Norse God (LOOK)

Joe, who is a guide for Wight Coast Fossils, has recently launched South Coast Fossils, offering his fossil walks in another nearby region of Highcliffe, near Christchurch, saying:

“The Isle of Wight is one of the best places in Europe for finding dinosaur remains and footprints.”

BIG-FOOT THIS DISCOVERY Onto Social Media For Dino-Loving Friends…

New Upside Down House Opens – Take Fabulous Photos And Walk on the Ceiling (LOOK)

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Upside Down House in Bristol – SWNS
Upside Down House in Bristol – SWNS

A quirky tourist attraction has popped up in another seaside town that lets visitors tour a building where all the furniture is flipped 180-degrees.

‘The Upside Down House’ in Bristol, England, is the 12th one to be erected—or should we say inverted—around the UK since the success of the first one opened in Bournemouth in 2018.

Painted in cheerful colors, the homes look like they’ve been flipped on their heads. With two floors of furniture attached to the ceilings, visitors might feel dizzy from the alternative perspective of life upside down.

A ticket booth connected to the back of the house sells tickets to visitors for $7, with proceeds going to local charities or the Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity.

There are plenty of places to take photos on the two floors, including a kitchen, living room, bedroom where striking fun poses can really take advantage of the anti-gravity views.

Paying guests walk on the ceiling as tables, chairs, beds, toilets and more hang above them.

SWNS

Upside Down Houses have opened in several UK beach destinations, in cities like Liverpool and London, and now in other parts of the world, including France, Germany and Australia.

Each home’s furnishings feature the work of local artists—hung upside down, of course.

SWNS

They also take advantage of seasonal themes, like Haunted Upside Down House on Halloween or maybe Santa’s Grotto during Christmas.

Upside Down House Bristol is painted bright magenta and located on Anchor Square next to the Bristol Aquarium. Children under three enter for free.

LITERALLY COOL: Narnia Themed Treehouse Built Next to C.S. Lewis’ Home Features Magic Wardrobe–Now it’s a Holiday Rental

WATCH a couple videos to get some more wild perspective…

These Scenes Are Inverted For Instant Fun…

SHARE THE DIZZYING Photo Op With Friends On Social Media…

Scientists Discover Low-Cost Way to Trap Carbon Using Common Rocks – And it Could Help Farmers Too

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Yuxuan Chen holds carbon dioxide-trapping material with Matt Kanan in their lab – Credit: Bill Rivard / Precourt Institute for Energy
Yuxuan Chen holds carbon dioxide-trapping material with Matt Kanan in their lab – Credit: Bill Rivard / Precourt Institute for Energy

Stanford University chemists have developed a practical, low-cost way to permanently remove atmospheric carbon dioxide, the main driver of global warming and climate change.

The new process uses heat to transform common minerals into materials that spontaneously pull carbon from the atmosphere and permanently sequester it. These reactive materials can be produced in conventional kilns, like those used to make cement.

“The Earth has an inexhaustible supply of minerals that are capable of removing CO2 from the atmosphere, but they just don’t react fast enough on their own to counteract human greenhouse gas emissions,” said Matthew Kanan, a Stanford professor of chemistry and senior author of the new study in Nature. “Our work solves this problem in a way that we think is uniquely scalable.”

In nature, common minerals called silicates react with water and atmospheric CO2 to form stable bicarbonate ions and solid carbonate minerals – a process known as weathering. However, this reaction can take hundreds to thousands of years to complete. Since the 1990s, scientists have been searching for ways to make rocks absorb carbon dioxide more rapidly through enhanced weathering techniques.

Kanan and Stanford postdoctoral scholar Yuxuan Chen developed a new process for converting slow-weathering silicates into much more reactive minerals that capture and store atmospheric carbon quickly.

“We envisioned a new chemistry to activate the inert silicate minerals through a simple ion-exchange reaction,” explained Chen. “We didn’t expect that it would work as well as it does.”

One of the technologies experts say could prevent additional global warming is carbon-capture through the air—but so far, they remain costly, energy-intensive, or both—by using panels or large fans to drive air through chemical or other processes to remove CO2.

“Our process would require less than half the energy used by leading direct air capture technologies, and we think we can be very competitive from a cost point of view,” said Kanan.

Inspired by a centuries-old technique for making cement

Cement production begins by converting limestone to calcium oxide in a kiln heated to about 1,400 degrees Celsius. The calcium oxide is then mixed with sand to produce a key ingredient in cement.

The Stanford team used a similar process in their laboratory furnace, but instead of sand, they combined calcium oxide with another mineral containing magnesium and silicate ions. When heated, the two minerals swapped ions and transformed into magnesium oxide and calcium silicate – two alkaline minerals that react quickly with acidic CO2 in the air.

As a quick test of reactivity at room temperature, the calcium silicate and magnesium oxide were exposed to water and pure CO2. Within two hours, both materials completely transformed into new carbonate minerals—with carbon from CO2 trapped inside.

For a more realistic test, wet samples of calcium silicate and magnesium oxide were exposed directly to air, which has a much lower concentration of CO2 than pure CO2 from a tank. In this experiment, the carbonation process took weeks to months to occur, still thousands of times faster than natural weathering.

Capturing CO2 in this way could also help farmers

“You can imagine spreading magnesium oxide and calcium silicate over large land areas to remove CO2 from ambient air,” Kanan said. “One exciting application that we’re testing now is adding them to agricultural soil. As they weather, the minerals transform into bicarbonates that can move through the soil and end up permanently stored in the ocean.”

Kanan said this approach could have co-benefits for farmers, who typically add calcium carbonate to soil to increase the pH if it’s too low – a process called liming.

“Adding our product would eliminate the need for liming, since both mineral components are alkaline,” he explained.

“In addition, as calcium silicate weathers, it releases silicon to the soil in a form that the plants can take up, which can improve crop yields and resilience. Ideally, farmers would pay for these minerals because they’re beneficial to farm productivity and the health of the soil – and as a bonus, there’s the carbon removal.”

Using mining sites worldwide

Currently, Kanan’s lab can produce only 15 kilograms (33 pounds) of material a week. But the same kiln designs now used to make cement could produce the amount of materials needed to tackle CO2 because of the abundant magnesium silicates (such as olivine or serpentine), which is found in California, the Balkans, and many other regions. These are also common leftover materials – or tailings – from mining.

“Each year, more than 400 million tons of mine tailings with suitable silicates are generated worldwide, providing a potentially large source of raw material,” Chen said. “It’s estimated that there are more than 100,000 gigatons of olivine and serpentine reserves on Earth, enough to permanently remove far more CO2 than humans have ever emitted.” (A gigaton equals 1 billion metric tons, or about 1.1 billion tons.)

SEE MORE CARBON CAPTURE GOOD NEWS:
• New Wyoming Carbon Capture Project Will Eliminate 5 Mil Tons of CO2 per Year
• UK’s Largest Carbon Capture Project Will Turn 40,000 Tons of CO2 into Baking Soda
• Growth in Carbon Capture Projects is Dramatic, Showing Global Determination to Cut Emissions

After accounting for emissions associated with burning natural gas or biofuel to power the kilns, the researchers estimate each ton of reactive material could remove one ton of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The team is also developing kilns that run on electricity instead of burning fossil fuels—and a grant is already funding their efforts to move the research into practical applications.

(Source: Stanford Report) – SHARE THEIR BREAKTHROUGH On Social Media…

Your Weekly Horoscope from ‘Free Will Astrology’ by Rob Brezsny

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Our partner Rob Brezsny, who has a new book out, Astrology Is Real: Revelations from My Life as an Oracle, provides his weekly wisdom to enlighten our thinking and motivate our mood. Rob’s Free Will Astrology, is a syndicated weekly column appearing in over a hundred publications. He is also the author of Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How All of Creation Is Conspiring To Shower You with Blessings. (A free preview of the book is available here.)

Here is your weekly horoscope…

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY – Week of February 22, 2025
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
Have you been struggling to summon the motivation to start anew in some area of your life? I predict that sometime in the coming weeks, you will find all the motivation you need. Have you been wishing you could shed the weight of the past and glide into a fresh project with unburdened mind and heart? I believe that destiny will soon conspire to assist you in this noble hope. Are you finally ready to exorcise a pesky ghost and dash jubilantly toward the horizon, eager to embrace your future? I think you are.

ARIES (March 21-April 19):
The Hindu holiday of Maha Shivaratri is dedicated to overcoming ignorance and darkness in celebrants’ own lives and in the world. This year it falls on February 26. Even if you’re not Hindu, I recommend you observe your own personal version of it. To do so would be in accordance with astrological omens. They suggest that the coming weeks will be an excellent time for you to be introspective, study your life and history, and initiate changes that will dispel any emotional or spiritual blindness you might be suffering from. PS: Remember that not all darkness is bad! But some is unhealthy and demoralizing, and that’s the kind you should banish and transmute.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
The blue whale is the most massive animal that has ever lived. You could swim through its arteries. Its heart is five feet high and weighs 400 pounds. And yet, when diving, its pulse slows to four to eight times per minute. I propose we choose the blue whale to be your spirit creature in the coming weeks. May this magnificent beast inspire you to cultivate slow, potent rhythms that serve you better than hyperactivity. Let’s assume you will accomplish all you need by maintaining a steady, measured pace—by focusing on projects that require depth and diligence rather than speed. Your natural persistence will enable you to tackle tasks that might overwhelm those who lack your patience.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
Over 10,000 years ago, someone walked for a mile through what’s now White Sands National Park in New Mexico. We know they did because they left footprints that were fossilized. Scientists believe it was probably a woman who mostly carried a child and sometimes let the child walk under its own power. Like those ancient footprints, your actions in the coming weeks may carry lasting significance—more than may be immediately apparent. I encourage you to proceed as if you are making a more substantial impact and having a bigger influence than you imagine.

CANCER (June 21-July 22):
What’s the oldest known recipe? What ancient food product did our ancestors write down instructions about how to make? It was beer! The 4,000-year-old Sumerian text included a hymn to Ninkasi, the goddess of beer. It tells how to use the right ingredients and employ careful fermentation to concoct a beverage that lowers inhibitions and brings people together in convivial celebration. In that spirit, Cancerian, I encourage you to meditate on the elements you can call on to create merrymaking and connection. Now is a good time to approach this holy task with extra focus and purposefulness.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
In November 1963, the captain of a sardine boat sailing near Iceland noticed a column of dark smoke rising out of the water. Was it another boat on fire? No, it was the beginning of a volcanic eruption. A few days later, steady explosions had created a new island, Surtsey, which still exists today. I suspect you will have a metaphorically comparable power in the coming weeks, Leo: an ability to generate a new creation out of fervent energies rising out of the hot depths. Be alert! And be ready to harness and make constructive use of the primal force.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Harald “Bluetooth” Gormsson was a 10th-century Danish king. He united the tribes of Denmark into a single kingdom. His nickname originated in the fact that he had a prominent dead tooth that turned bluish-gray. More than 10 centuries later, engineers who created a new short-range wireless technology decided to call their invention “bluetooth.” Why? Because they imagined it would serve a variety of electronic devices, just as the king once blended the many tribes. In the spirit of these bluetooth phenomena, I’m urging you Virgos to be a uniter in the coming weeks and months. You will have an enhanced capacity to bridge different worlds and link disparate groups. PS: An aspect that could be construed as an imperfection, like Harald’s tooth, could conceal or signify a strength.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
Libran author Ursula K. Le Guin wrote, “Freedom is a heavy load, a great and strange burden for the spirit to undertake.” I know from experience there’s truth in that idea. But I’m happy to tell you that in 2025, freedom will be less heavy and less burdensome than maybe ever before in your life. In fact, I suspect liberation will be relatively smooth and straightforward for you. It won’t be rife with complications and demands, but will be mostly fun and pleasurable. Having said that, I do foresee a brief phase when working on freedom will be a bit more arduous: the next few weeks. The good news is that your emancipatory efforts will set the stage for more ease during the rest of 2025.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Always and forever, the world is a delicate balance of seemingly opposing forces that are in fact interwoven and complementary: light and shadow, determination and surrender, ascent and descent, fullness and emptiness, progress and integration, yes and no. The apparent polarities need and feed each other. In the coming weeks, I invite you to meditate on these themes. Are there areas of your life where you have been overly focused on one side of the scale while neglecting the other? If so, consider the possibility of recalibrating. Whether you are balancing emotion with logic, rest with work, or connection with independence, take time to adjust. If you honor both halves of each whole, you will generate fertile harmonies.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
The ancient stands of cedar trees on Japan’s Yakushima Island have a special power. They create weather patterns for themselves, generating rain clouds from the water vapor they release through their leaves. This ingenious stroke of self-nurturing provides them with the exact rainfall they require. I propose that we make these cedar trees your power symbol in the coming weeks. It’s an excellent time for you to dream up and implement more of the conditions you need to flourish.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Tardigrades are tiny, eight-legged animals colloquially known as water bears or moss piglets. Their resilience is legendary. They can thrive anywhere, from mountaintops to the deep sea, from Antarctica to tropical rainforests. They can withstand extreme temperatures, live a long time without water, and even survive in outer space. I propose we make the tardigrade your power creature for the coming weeks, dear Capricorn. Your flexibility and fluidity will be at a peak. You will be hardy, supple, and durable. It will be a favorable time to leave your comfort zone and test your mettle in new environments. Seemingly improbable challenges may be well within your range of adaptability.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
In the coming days, playing games could be good practice for life. Breezy exchanges and fun activities could stimulate clues and insights that will be useful in making important decisions. What appears to be ordinary entertainment or social engagement may provide you with profound lessons about strategy and timing. How you manage cooperation and competition in those lighter moments could yield useful guidance about more serious matters.

WANT MORE? Listen to Rob’s EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES, 4-5 minute meditations on the current state of your destiny — or subscribe to his unique daily text message service at: RealAstrology.com

(Zodiac images by Numerologysign.com, CC license)

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