100 years ago today, one of the great American novels, The Great Gatsby was published. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s work was a commercial disappointment and strangely, as it sometimes happens with artists, it only became a contender for the Great American Novel after his death. It was based on an affair that Fitzgerald had with a New York City socialite, and on the wild parties he would accompany her to on Long Island’s north shore during the Jazz Age. READ more about this seminal work… (1925)
Elk Can Migrate Through Private Colorado Ranch After First-of-its-Kind Deal with Conservation Group
A Colorado rancher has signed a first-of-its-kind agreement that will see a conservation organization help pay for his land leases in exchange for letting wildlife access it.
America is a leader across many dimensions, few more so than in innovative conservation strategies.
From the concept of the ‘national park’ to the Federal duck stamp, America has never been short of good ideas for how to help man and the great nature of North America coexist in harmony.
From the Colorado Sun comes yet another good idea—helping cattle ranchers afford land leases provided they agree to allow migratory elk to pass through their land, even if it means they eat grass and forage the cattle otherwise would.
The reality is that the North American Prairie is home to millions of agriculturalists whose working of the land has disrupted the ancestral wandering of many native species, in particular to this story, elk.
In Colorado, the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) is paying not more than two-thirds of the cost for land leases that state cattle ranchers sometimes negotiate with private landowners. The Sun reports that such private landowning agriculturalists may live adjacent to a cattleman’s ranch, and it’s easier when winter forage is scarce to pay a little to allow the cattle to roam and forage since nothing is being grown there.
PERC was started during the Cold War to find ways to use markets to incentivize and or commoditize conservation. Though often objected to as an immoral and low-brow way of looking at the natural world, economic science states that it’s impossible for anyone to know the true value of a good or service without the market’s supply and demand functions working in conjunction to determine a price.
Perhaps, the conservationists would say, that’s because there is no value that can be put on a natural ecosystem and the rights of the animals and plants to live there, but that’s mostly an impossible position in the eyes of, for example, a rancher or a congressman fighting for space in a budget. They, like everyone else in society, operate in an economic environment, and need prices to be able to make key spending and saving decisions.
Take Colorado rancher Dave Gottenborg for example, who spends days repairing fences that he needs to keep his cattle from running away that the elk which wander through his 3,000-acre Eagle Rock Ranch property destroy every summer. He’s happy to donate his time repairing fences because he loves the elk, but probably could not afford to allow them to out-graze his cattle if PERC weren’t helping him cover the cost of additional land leases.
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By paying his lease fees in advance and over a period of years, PERC helps reduce the frustration and anxiety he and other ranchers feel “when 500 elk show up and eat 20 pounds of forage per day, per elk,” he told the Sun.
The Colorado Cattleman’s Agricultural Land Trust helped organize the money from PERC and the lease agreement with Gottenborg’s neighbor, an agreement which the trust says is the first of its kind, but just one method they’ve used to protect 800,000 acres of grazing land for cattlemen and wildlife.
MORE COLORADO NEWS: Colorado Wild Horse Bill Passes With Huge Majority of Politicians Supporting Laws to Protect the State’s Mustangs
As for what else is required of Gottenborg, the only addition is that he lays down his barbed wire fencing every winter so the elk don’t get caught in it. That way they can move through his ranch onto wherever it is they wish to roam.
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Computer Chips Running at Speed of Light Boast Better Performance and Reduced Energy Use
A tech firm has just demonstrated that a computer chip using light and the speed at which it moves for processing is capable of handling real-world computer workloads at revolutionary speeds and energy efficiency.
The firm’s CEO has called it a “technology marvel” that stands to change the future of computing to one in which the single path of innovation that started with the first integrated circuit is departed from, and a multipolar world of computing possibilities is entered.
Described in two papers published in the journal Nature, Lightmatter’s photonic computer chips that combine the use of light and electricity are shown to increase computational performance, while reducing energy consumption, compared with conventional electronic chips.
These photonic chips might address the growing computing demands driven by advancing artificial intelligence technology.
“Computing stands at an inflection point unlike anything we’ve seen since the transistor was invented,” Lightmatter Co-founder and CEO Nick Harris wrote in a blog post heralding the invention. “Artificial intelligence workloads are driving computational demands beyond what traditional scaling laws can deliver.”
The problem, Harris lays out, is that existing ability to scale up the performance of closed circuits is encountering diminishing returns, as the increase in physical size to match the needs for increased performance will make them cost-prohibitive, but also just too large for modern devices.
Photonic computing by contrast uses photons rather than electrons, and presents a potential solution to these challenges. Multiplication and accumulation—central computational operations for artificial intelligence—can be performed faster and more efficiently using photonic circuits.
Lightmatter’s photonic processor performs 65.5 trillion adaptive block floating-point 16-bit (ABFP) operations per second, consuming only 78 watts of electrical power and 1.6 watts of optical power.
This integration level represents the highest yet achieved in photonic processing, and was used in the study to power a variety of currently-available state-of-the-art AI systems such as the natural language processing model BERT and a neural network called ResNet (used for image processing) at parity with the best of what the conventional silicon closed-circuit chip can offer an average consumer.
The authors show that their photonic processor has a range of applications, including generating Shakespeare-like text, accurately classifying movie reviews, and playing classic Atari computer games such as Pac-Man.
“Photonic computing has been in the making for decades, but these demonstrations might mean that we are finally about to harness the power of light to build more-powerful and energy-efficient computing systems,” notes Anthony Rizzo at Dartmouth College in a commentary piece released alongside the studies.
The photonic processors were built in a currently existing facility for microprocessor manufacture, and with the same machines. They fit into a normal motherboard, demonstrating that this is a technology that could be available in years rather than decades.
Lastly, the processor was built using only monochromatic light in a single spatial waveguide mode. This leaves plenty of room for future improvements that could use many frequency and spatial modes in parallel.
“For the first time in computing history, we’ve demonstrated a non-transistor-based technology capable of running complex, real-world workloads with accuracy and efficiency comparable to existing electronic systems,” said Harris.
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As Harris, a co-author on one of the two papers, points out, several other existing futures of computing are currently being investigated and developed, including quantum computing, computing systems based on DNA-RNA interactions or on human neurology, and traditional processors using carbon nanotubes rather than silicon.
Each has major hurdles to overcome, but Harris believes that together with Lightmatter’s photonic chips, they represent the future of computing— away from one in which the singular focus of making silicon chips smaller and more powerful, and into a new world where there are multiple methods of extreme-speed computation that are specialized to suit certain tasks.
MORE INNOVATION STORIES: This Innovation Could Extend Little-Used Zinc Battery Lifespan Hundreds of Times to Create Battery Revolution
“The invention of the integrated circuit, the microprocessor, or the transistor itself—none of
these innovations immediately replaced their predecessors, but each fundamentally changed what was achievable,” Harris writes.
“At Lightmatter, we’ve demonstrated that computing’s next chapter need not remain bound by transistor limitations. For an industry accustomed to continual reinvention, photonics represents an exciting and necessary new frontier.”
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Solar Tricycle Startup Helps Entrepreneurial Women Be Drivers of Change in Africa
In Zimbabwe, an Africa-born mobility startup is providing women with the catalyst they need to drive change in their community and society.
Called the Hamba, this durable electric tricycle is mobilizing a generation of working women and mothers, allowing them to perform arduous tasks with relative ease and comfort.
Manufactured in Africa and managed by the startup Mobility for Africa (MFA), a leasing program for women allowed one or several locals to lease a Hamba for $15 a month. This pilot program was a huge success, and now these electric tricycles are available to buy, on a lease-to-purchase agreement, and to rent—all on an ad-hoc basis.
It allows women to fetch water and firewood, take family members to medical facilities, or bring and buy produce at local markets, saving sometimes dozens of miles of walking each day.
“In the past transporting our produce to the market was a nightmare we would wake up at 3 am and travel a very long distance using an ox-drawn cart but now it is much easier we can reach the market on time,” a 34-year-old tomato farmer and mother of six, Hilda Takadini, told Africa News.
92% of female customers participating in the company’s pilot program noted an improvement in how safe they feel whilst traveling since they started using the Hamba compared with walking, and some have offered their services as couriers and drivers to other community members, sparking the spirit of entrepreneurialism.
Among the women whose stories were changed by the appearance of the Hamba was Anna Bhobho, a 31-year-old housewife from rural Zimbabwe who was excluded from economic life.
MORE ELECTRIC VEHICLES IN AFRICA: Female Entrepreneur Set to Revolutionize Transportation for All of Africa, After Transforming her Native Ghana
Now, she’s the major bread winner in her house, and Takadini relies on her to bring tomatoes to market before they spoil.
“Even my husband and in-laws have more respect for me now. No one used to listen to me, but now I have a seat when important decisions are being made,” the mother of three told Africa News.
MORE ELECTRIC VEHICLES IN AFRICA: How Fog Nets Are Making Water Abundant in Arid Africa – And May Be Useful in California
70% of the Hambas are reserved for women, and 300 are estimated to currently own or rent one. The solar-powered trikes have just one moving part in the motor, making them easy to maintain and fix. Batteries can be exchanged when depleted at a cost of $5.00 at one of Infraco Africa’s solar power stations, a partner with MFA on the initiative.
Each Hamba can carry 1,000 pounds or so of cargo, and have a top speed of 37 mph (you couldn’t go much faster on a rural Zimbabwe road anyway).
WATCH the story below from Africa News…
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Trading Cards Starring Middle-Aged Men Go Viral in Japanese Town, Boosting Volunteerism and Respect for Elders
In a story that will make you ‘aww’ and ‘ahh’ like the best Pixar film, a Japanese community center released a line of collectable trading cards featuring the town’s male elders.
Seeking a way for the younger generation to connect with the “amazing” community members, middle-aged and older, the center’s secretary general leveraged the youth’s enduring love of Pokémon trading cards to create these masterpieces of civic engagement.
The town of Kawara in Fukuoka Prefecture has a population of about 10,000. Limestone mountains, relatively famous from their appearance in a well-known novel, are all the northern Honshu town can boast of that tourists might want to visit.
But a strange phenomenon has gripped the town’s youth originating from the Saidosho Community Center. They’re rapidly taking up a new trading card game, but the cards don’t depict fantasy creatures, anime heroes, or even famous baseball players.
Instead, the characters portrayed on the distinctly Pokémon-like cards are the town’s ojisan—middle-aged or older community members. Ms. Eri Miyahara, the Secretary General of Saidosho center, originally created them just as a collectable card game.
“We wanted to strengthen the connection between the children and the older generations in the community. There are so many amazing people here. I thought it was such a shame that no one knew about them,” she said in an interview with Fuji News Network, according to Tokyo Weekender. “Since the card game went viral, so many kids are starting to look up to these men as heroic figures.”
It costs less than a dollar per card, while $3.00 gets you a set of 6 that includes one shiny card.
The 47 characters include ‘Soba Master’ Mr. Takeshita, an 81-year-old maker of soba noodles and Mr. Fujii, a 67-year-old former prison guard-turned community volunteer whose card is so sought after that kids will approach him asking for an autograph on it.
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“I was honestly shocked when they asked me to sign it,” Mr. Fujii said, laughing. “I never imagined I’d become a trading card, let alone have fans.”
It was the kids, though, who took the idea and turned it into a card game where the town’s ojisan were given special abilities. A retired fire brigade chief can strike opponents for 200 fire damage, while a local electrician can do the same with electricity. His card explains how he can fix any electronic appliance in the country.
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The cards are made by hand and virtually always sold out and, best of all, Ms. Miyahara’s idea has caused youth participation at the center to double—and the elders of the town are meeting more of their younger neighbors than ever before.
Japan has one of the oldest, fastest-aging populations, and lowest birthrates of any country in the world, and these sorts of efforts to connect those of silver hair with younger citizens will be more important here than virtually anywhere else.
SHARE This Brilliant Idea For Civic Engagement With Your Friends Who Love Japan…
“Painting from nature is not copying the object; it is realizing one’s sensations.” – Paul Cezanne
Quote of the Day: “Painting from nature is not copying the object; it is realizing one’s sensations.” – Paul Cezanne
Photo by: Bryan van Wagner
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, April 9
16 years ago, Parks and Recreation, a television mockumentary debuted on NBC, and leaped right into the hearts of millions of Americans. Without being their introductory roles, the show nevertheless catapulted its cast into nationwide comedy acclaim, particularly for Amy Poehler, Aziz Ansari, Nick Offerman, Chris Prat, and Aubrey Plaza, who all went on to hugely successful careers. The show ran for 7 seasons, from 2009 to 2015, and wracked up 125 episodes. Produced and written by the creators of The Office U.S., “Parks and Rec” as it was commonly called, had a very similar style. WATCH some of the funniest moments… (2009)
Antiviral Chewing Gum Can Reduce Influenza and Herpes Simplex Transmission
Scientists in Pennsylvania have created a kind of antiviral chewing gum made from the Australian pea plant.
Containing a strong antiviral protein, the researches have used it to reduce the viral load in patients’ mouths for both influenza and herpes simplex viruses.
Seasonal influenza epidemics cause a substantial global disease burden and economic losses exceeding $11.2 billion each year in the United States alone, while the HSV-1 virus, infecting two-thirds of the global population, is not only socially stigmatizing, but the leading cause of infectious blindness in Western countries.
Henry Daniell at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Dental Medicine, has replicated work he undertook during the pandemic to create a chewing gum with the potential to neutralize viruses, reasoning that the viruses are spread more significantly from the oral rather than the nasal cavity.
Made from Lablab purpureus, which naturally contain an antiviral trap protein called FRIL, the gum was shown in a study to neutralize two herpes simplex viruses (HSV-1 and HSV-2) and two influenza A strains (H1N1 and H3N2).
In their study published in Molecular Therapy, Daniell and collaborators in Finland, demonstrated that 40 milligrams of a two-gram bean gum tablet was adequate to reduce viral loads by more than 95%.
“These observations augur well for evaluating bean gum in human clinical studies to minimize virus infection/transmission,” Daniell said, according to Penn News.
Daniell and his colleagues are now looking to use lablab bean powder to tackle bird flu, which is currently having a significant impact in North America.
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Previously, bean powder was shown by others to effectively neutralize H5N1 and H7N9—two strains of influenza A known to cause bird flu in humans as well as in birds. Daniell and colleagues are currently looking to test its use in bird feed to help control bird flu in birds.
Additionally, the researchers prepared the gum as a clinical-grade drug to comply with the FDA specifications for drug products and found the gum to be safe.
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“Controlling transmission of viruses continues to be major global challenge. A broad spectrum antiviral protein (FRIL) present in a natural food product (bean powder) to neutralize not only human flu viruses but also avian (bird) flu is a timely innovation to prevent their infection and transmission,” says Daniell.
SHARE This Maskless Great Idea For Flu Prevention With Your Friends
Rare Colocolo Cat Captured on Trail Cam in Chile Sauntering up as if on a Catwalk (Watch)
A conservation nonprofit in Chile has delighted South American ecologists with the daytime camera trap footage of a Pampas cat, an extremely rare, non-endangered, and little-understood small wildcat species.
Named after the characteristic South American environment they thrive in, the “Colocolo,” to use the local name, looks like a small lynx, or large house cat.
Captured by the Colocolo Project, the footage is the second sighting of the cat made by the group this year. According to the project, the Pampas cat is the third-largest in Chile, behind the puma and the Andean mountain cat.
The high-altitude resident is rather special among wildcats because it has six different pelages, or fur patterns, some of which are very different. This can often cause confusion during sightings with Andean mountain cats as to which one is which.
GNN has often reported on progress made by organizations towards the conservation of small wildcat species, since despite outnumbering large wildcat species at a ratio of nearly 3 to 1, very little is known about them, and very little money is spent on protecting them.
Panthera, the world’s most prestigious cat-focused conservation organization, has a fund and division specifically for protecting small wildcats. Even now, more than 4 years after its creation, it mostly embarks on research projects.
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The reason is that animals like the Pampas cat are poorly understood, and even small sightings like that above can help inform large and expensive conservation work. Typically, similar strategies for protecting tigers and lions can be used to protect small elusive cats, but whereas larger cats are more likely to be killed in revenge for livestock poaching, smaller cats are more likely to be at risk for road deaths.
MORE FASCINATING FELINES: Earth’s Tiniest Wildcat Is Captured on Camera for First Time – the Rusty-Spotted Cat of India
Protecting carnivores has been shown to be one of the most effective ways of keeping ecosystems intact. They tend to require larger areas than herbivores, as well as dense, resilient populations of their prey species. By guaranteeing these things, an “umbrella conservation” effect occurs whereby thousands of unprioritized species of plants, fungi, insects, reptiles, and birds receive protections without a dollar being spent on them specifically.
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Man Living with Tremors for 30 Years Is Cured by Ultrasound Beam Paid by Medicare: ‘It’s unbelievable!’
Most times you read about a ‘cure’ in the news, you’ll find out towards the end of the story that it’s just a ‘potential’ cure, or that someone has been ‘seemingly cured.’
But from Palm Beach, Florida comes the story that 72-year-old Orlando Avendaño has been cured of his essential hand tremor, and we can also say the cure, which took just a few hours, was fully covered by Medicare.
Avendaño has lived with the hand tremor for more than 30 years, and basic fine motor movements like writing his name or eating with a fork are beyond him. Picking up a cup of water has to be done with both hands, and he prefers to eat with a big spoon at dinnertime because he can better disguise his tremor that way.
The Delray Medical Center however can remove an essential hand tremor using targeted ultrasound, a procedure already approved and available around the US. It uses the same high-frequency sound waves that bats use for echolocation, and that an OBGYN uses to image a fetus.
At Delray, the ultrasound is turned into a weapon through a piece of headgear called Neuravive that can deliver precise applications of ultrasonic waves into any part of the brain.
Developed by Insightec, the headgear is guided in conjunction with magnetic resonance imaging, and, as well as being covered by Medicare, is also covered in 22 different Blue Cross Blue Shield plans.
Avendaño arrived at Delray in the early morning for his procedure. He was equipped with the headgear and was placed in an MRI machine where neurosurgeon Dr. Lloyd Zucker was able to detect the exact spot in the brain where the tremor originated.
The cutting-edge technology then created a small lesion in the brain which “knocked out” the tremor.
Without the need for surgery or anesthesia, and after just a few hours, Avendaño emerged and held up his hand: stiff as a board.
“Oh my God, it’s unbelievable,” he said after coming out.
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Captured on camera by NBC 6, it was difficult to tell who was happier, Avendaño or Dr. Zucker, who called the procedure his “magic trick.”
“It’s probably the most wonderful thing. I’ve been doing it for years, and as you can see as I start to smile, you can’t take this away, when you see the patients and the families and what it does for them,” he said.
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“He’ll go home, and he’s going to sit there tonight at dinner, and all those things he couldn’t do, he’s gonna be doing. How do you put an adjective on that one? You can’t.”
There are 79 centers in the country where this procedure is done and fully covered by Medicare.
WATCH The story below from NBC 6…
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You Can Eat the Best Naples Pizza on Earth Without Ever Leaving North America
To the sentiment of your average Italian, it would be a surprise that the winner of the world’s best Naples-style pizza came from Turin, and downright unbelievable that his pizzeria isn’t even in Italy.
Nope: to get the world’s best pizza Napolitana will cost you $8.00 for the pie, and $250 for a two-way ticket to Montreal, Canada, the adopted home of Signore Mirko D’Agata.
Winner of the 2025 Umberto Fornito Award for best pizza Napolitana at the International Pizza Challenge in Las Vegas, the transplant from Torino said he loved feeling the pressure of competing, which he had done every year since 2017, but never won top honors.
The executive chef at Pizzeria No.900 for 13 years, D’Agata was judged on the marinara, a very simple pizza that in many ways is the most challenging.
“There’s a lot of pressure: I love pressure,” he told CBC News. “You have to follow some strict rules about the dough, the fermentation, the weight of the dough, how much tomato sauce to use, how many seconds you cook.”
“When you choose to do a marinara as I always did, you have four ingredients: you have tomato sauce, oregano, olive oil, and garlic. So it’s a really simple pizza to eat but the hardest to cook, because you need the right spot, at the right time, with the right dough.”
Along with bringing true pizza Napolitana to Montreal—a great pleasure for him—D’Agata loves to coach and share his knowledge with his cooks—his pizzaioli.
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Undoubtedly the best pizza Napolitana is to be found buried somewhere in Naples, and made by the hands of some 70-year-old guy who doesn’t have the money or interest in flying to Vegas and using canned ingredients to make a pizza for snobs. But it’s nice to know that to get a world-class Naples pie, you don’t even have to leave North America.
WATCH the story below from CBC News…
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“The purpose of our lives is to be happy.” – Dalai Lama
Quote of the Day: “The purpose of our lives is to be happy.” – Dalai Lama XIV
Photo by: Richard Burlton
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, April 8
91 years ago today, the architect Kisho Kurokawa was born. This brilliant mind was the co-founder of the Metabolist architectural movement, which sought to fuse the post-war architecture of the island with organic forms to create structures in harmony with a sort of Marxist vision of humanity in the future. Kurokawa designed and built dozens of large structures across Asia, including the Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo, Central Plaza 1 in Brisbane, Australia, and Lane Crawford Place in Singapore. READ more and see more buildings… (1934)
Thriving Ecosystem of Deep-Sea Creatures Discovered After Iceberg Detached Serendipitously from Antarctica
After a Chicago-sized iceberg broke off from Antarctica, a research vessel changed plans and went to explore an underwater world never seen before by humans.
Researchers and crewmembers aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s Falkor (too), “seized upon the moment” that was presented to them, and in doing so produced the first oceanographical, biological, and geological study of the area.
Located in the Bellingshausen Sea, the King George VI ice shelf, one of the massive, mostly seaborne glaciers that sit attached to the continent of Antarctica, lost a chunk of ice the size of the greater Chicago area, or around 209 square miles.
Using Schmidt Ocean Institute’s remotely operated vehicle, ROV SuBastian, the team observed the deep seafloor for eight days and found flourishing ecosystems at depths as great as 3,900 feet. Their observations include large corals and sponges supporting an array of animal life, including icefish, giant sea spiders, and a rare giant phantom jellyfish.
“We seized upon the moment, changed our expedition plan, and went for it so we could look at what was happening in the depths below,” said expedition co-chief scientist Dr. Patricia Esquete at the University of Aveiro, Portugal. “We didn’t expect to find such a beautiful, thriving ecosystem. Based on the size of the animals, the communities we observed have been there for decades, maybe even hundreds of years.”
Little is known about what dwells beneath Antarctica’s floating ice shelves. In 2021, British Antarctic Survey researchers first reported signs of bottom-dwelling life beneath the Filchner-Ronne ice shelf in the Southern Weddell Sea. The expedition on Falkor (too) was the first to use an ROV to explore sweeping landscapes containing abundant life in this remote environment.
The team was surprised by the significant biomass and biodiversity of the ecosystems and observed species they had not seen outside of the ice shelf earlier in the expedition. They suspect there are several new species amongst the biological samples they collected.
Deep-sea ecosystems typically rely on nutrients from the surface slowly raining down to the seafloor. However, these Antarctic ecosystems have been covered by 150-meter-thick (almost 500 feet) ice for centuries, completely cut off from surface nutrients. Ocean currents also move nutrients, and the team hypothesizes that currents are a possible mechanism for sustaining life beneath the ice sheet.
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“The science team was originally in this remote region to study the seafloor and ecosystem at the interface between ice and sea,” said Schmidt Ocean Institute Executive Director, Dr. Jyotika Virmani. “Being right there when this iceberg calved from the ice shelf presented a rare scientific opportunity. Serendipitous moments are part of the excitement of research at sea – they offer the chance to be the first to witness the untouched beauty of our world.”
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Unable to Return to the Wild, Rescued Foxes Still Have Plenty to Be Pawsitive About
A nonprofit organization that provides a safe and permanent home for foxes rescued from the fur trade, celebrated its fifth anniversary in March with a call for donations.
Proceeds would go to updating and improving the housing where the group keeps the foxes it has in its care, as well as expanding a unique human-animal therapy program.
During its first five years, Pawsitive Beginnings has provided permanent sanctuary to eight foxes rescued from the fur trade. At present, they are home to seven foxes, as one of their foxes, Libby, died last year due to genetic health complications.
“We collaborate with organizations in regions where fur farming is prevalent and offer placement assistance for foxes in need,” said Nicole Navarro, founder of Pawsitive Beginnings. “If we are unable to provide direct sanctuary, we actively network with reputable rescues to ensure each fox is placed in the hands of a qualified caregiver.”
Pawsitive Beginnings goes beyond just rescuing the foxes—it provides a transformative animal-assisted therapy program. Through this unique, inter-species initiative, therapists and counselors share the inspiring stories of these rescued foxes with trauma survivors in the Florida Keys.
Navarro said foxes who have lived in captivity and who have been bred for their fur cannot be released back into the wild because they are several generations removed from their wild counterparts and lack the necessary survival skills to fend for themselves. Many have also been bred for distinctive coloring, making them more visible to predators.
She added that it is against the law to introduce non-native species into the wild, and because these foxes come from farms, they are classified as non-native and cannot legally be released into the environment.
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“That’s where we come in,” she said. “At Pawsitive Beginnings, we are committed to providing these foxes with a safe, loving, and permanent home. We work with a team of veterinarians to address their medical needs and see to it that they are well cared for.”
Navarro said she hopes to raise money to upgrade the fox enclosures to the black, rubber-coated wire because it lasts longer, is more comfortable for the animals, and does not rust in the salty Florida atmosphere. She is also working to expand the animal-assisted therapy program in the region.
MORE SHELTER EFFORTS: Three Orangutans Rescued from Illegal Captivity Finally Returned to Their Forest Realm
Pawsitive Beginnings has received a Platinum Seal of Transparency from Guidestar.org and is rated a top nonprofit by Great Non-Profits.
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Girl Claims Victory in Campaign to Urge Department Store to Include Pockets in Girls Pants
A young English schoolgirl has claimed victory over the large grocery/home chain Sainsbury’s after she noticed all the girls’ school outfits included pants with no pockets.
Arguing “girls need to carry things too!” a letter and petition signed and delivered by her and her classmates last year resulted in a new line of pants with deeper pockets.
It started in 2024 when she went shopping at the retail giant with her mom and discovered there were no trouser options for girls that had pockets deep enough to put anything in. Some had pocket linings sewn on and no actual pockets at all.
This irked the Ipswich local, and after grabbing a pair of boys’ pants for the school year, she wrote a letter expressing her frustration.
“Dear Sainsbury’s,”
“Me and my mummy went shopping for trousers for school and we noticed there weren’t any pockets in the girls’ trousers. Girls need to carry things too! When will this change?”
She received a reply from corporate management, apologizing for the lack of pockets and agreeing with her that the pants options should include them. The reply added that the feedback would be considered, and that was the end of things.
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Georgia followed up her letter with a petition signed by 56 students at her school, including boys, but this was not replied to.
The next year, returning to Sainsbury’s, she discovered grey trousers with pockets deep to the wrist, and little grey bows sewn onto the front two belt loops. Georgia was delighted.
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When asked by the BBC, Sainsbury’s didn’t confirm whether the letter or the petition was the key factor in the change, but Georgia decided to take it as a victory.
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City in India Ranks the Cleanest 8 Years in a Row: ‘It Feels as Though You Aren’t in India’
For 8 years in a row, the lesser-known Indian city of Indore has been voted the country’s cleanest city, an honor accorded to it off the back of a massive civic drive to improve and maintain hygiene standards.
Recounted to the Guardian by Amrit Dhillon, Indore’s success follows an all-hands-on-deck approach after the city, like so many in India, became overly synonymous with garbage and littering.
“When you come out of the airport, it feels as though you aren’t in India, it’s so clean,” said Nitisha Agarwal, a corporate executive who travels to Indore frequently for work.
Agarwal is just one person of many Dhillon spoke to in the city, and his remark that “you aren’t in India” cannot be understated. India has an unfortunately well-publicized relationship with its municipal waste—namely, the tendency for many cities, in the north in particular, to allow it to amass in dumps in the middle of city neighborhoods.
Indore, located in Madhya Pradesh, was like this until the residents simply couldn’t stand it any longer. Dhillon couldn’t put a finger on the moment it changed, but from the time when dogs, pigs, and cows would root around in fetid garbage dumps on the roadsides, and when the driver of every car threw their trash into the street, it’s fair to say that the collective civic consciousness reached a breaking point.
Now, an army of 850 street sweepers cleans up every night. A fleet of garbage trucks trundles through neighborhoods playing a jingle like an ice cream van, alerting locals that it’s time to come out with their garbage, meticulously sorted into electronic, wet, plastic, non-plastic, and biomedical/hazardous waste.
A team of municipal tech workers monitors each truck with GPS to ensure they aren’t cutting corners.
Bins of all colors can be found along even the smallest and most infrequently used streets, while CCTV cameras work to identify and fine litterers.
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Once collected, the waste is properly disposed of, composted, or turned into fuel. Some restaurants, Dhillon writes, even maintain their own composting machinery.
The result has been nothing short of transformational, and it’s the people of Indore who deserve the greatest share of the credit, as their civic pride and enthusiasm keep the less-committed among them in check.
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“You need a willing public, a determined government, and here and there you need very energetic, proactive individuals to keep up the momentum,” Prabhnit Sawhney, a petrol pump owner, told Dhillon, mentioning that he’s seen people stop their cars to pick up litter in the road.
“Only then will habits going back generations change.”
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“Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.” – Leo Buscaglia
Quote of the Day: “Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.” – Leo Buscaglia
Photo by: Thomas Hawk – CC license
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, April 7
94 years ago today, perhaps the greatest American whistleblower in history, Daniel Ellsberg was born. In March of last year, Ellsberg revealed to the media he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and passed away before the year was out. Ellsberg was the man who leaked a top-secret Pentagon study of the US government’s decision-making during the Vietnam War, which came to be known as the Pentagon Papers. It revealed that everything told to the American people and the world besides regarding the war was a lie, and the whole operation was characterized by immense negligence of American commanders. READ more about this great American, and what we know as a result of his heroism… (1931)
Young Bear Rescued After Two Years Stuck in 20-Foot Cage–He Slept in his New Bed for 7 Days Straight
A Syrian brown bear slept for seven days straight after being rescued from a filthy cage where he was kept “for entertainment” purposes.
Four-year-old Noah was stuck in the 15 x 20-foot pen for over two years, with the door welded shut.
Bred in captivity and weighing around 100kg (220 lbs), the bear was kept outside next to a local restaurant in Yerevan, Armenia.
The neglected bear was subject to cold weather conditions and would often stand for long periods inside the metal box with sore paws from standing on a floor covered in waste.
Noah was freed on March 5 by workers from the International Animal Rescue and the Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets, accompanied by police and local emergency services which helped cut open the cage door.
He was taken to one of the Foundation’s rescue centers, where he’s waiting for a full dental examination on his broken teeth to kickstart his recovery.
He was led to an enclosure with plenty of vegetation for bedding, so the stressed youngster could snuggle up and sleep for a week. A video shows the animal’s seeming delight fluffing up and burying himself in the straw—like a panda in snow.
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The two charities have been appealing for funds to keep Noah in the rescue centre for a year, which costs around £2,500 ($3,200).
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Alan Knight, president of Int’l Animal Rescue said Noah experienced “unimaginable suffering”.
“The International Animal Rescue and FPWC’s commitment has ensured Noah’s safety. However, Noah requires expert veterinary services and monitoring to start his recovery process.
“We need the public’s help to fund it.”
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Around 80 bears are thought to be suffering in captivity at restaurants, hotels, and roadside zoos, in Armenia, according to the IAR’s Great Bear Rescue.
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