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Minnesota Summer Camp for HIV-Positive Kids Closes Down–Because There Aren’t Any More

By
Andy Corbley
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Campers paddle on a Willow River lake at One Heartland - credit One Heartland, submitted
Campers paddle on a Willow River lake at One Heartland – credit One Heartland, submitted

For those in the market, an 80-acre campground complete with river, lake, boat ramps, docks, and cabins in northern Minnesota is available after the previous owners were forced to close.

That’s because thanks to rock-bottom rates of HIV infection among babies in the state, One Heartland, one of the nation’s largest summer campgrounds for HIV-positive kids, is no longer needed.

Perinatal transmission of HIV, occurring when children contract the virus while in the womb or breastfeeding, has fallen to below 1% in HIV-positive mothers in the United States thanks to antiretroviral medications.

Globally, new HIV infections among children up to age 14 have declined by 38% since 2015.

One Heartland was founded in 1993 after Neil Willenson, a college student who wanted to be an actor, read about a 5-year-old HIV-positive child in Milwaukee facing isolation and stigma at school.

He created One Heartland as a short project, but ended up running it for the next 30 years.

“The impact was so transformative the first summer in 1993 that during the week the children were already saying ‘When can we come back?’” Willenson told Minnesota Star Tribune.

ALSO CHECK OUT: Botswana Cuts HIV Transmission Rates to Children from 40% to 1% in ‘Groundbreaking Achievement’

Willenson used to rent space in camps every summer, but he soon grew tired of being rejected for health concerns. Raising money, including from former Minnesota Twins player and manager Paul Molitor, he went and bought the Willow River property to turn it into One Heartland.

“We wanted to create a safe haven where children affected by the disease, perhaps for the first time in their young lives, could speak openly about it and be in an environment of unconditional love and acceptance,” added Willenson.

ON THE SUBJECT OF HIV: Fourth Patient Seemingly Cured of HIV Through Wild Coincidence

Children arrived at Willow River from all over the country, courtesy of a referral from the NIH, and donations from generous benefactors.

“That there’s no longer a need for the camp’s original purpose ‘is the greatest story that I ever could have imagined, it’s something I never could have predicted,'” Minnesota Star Tribune’s Jana Hollingsworth writes.

SHARE This Bittersweet Ending To A Man’s Heartwarming Work…

Virginia Sets Date for Nuclear Fusion Electricity as Ground Is Broken on New Plant

By
Andy Corbley
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A rendering of the ARC plant - credit: CFS, released
A rendering of the ARC plant – credit: CFS, released

In a bold step towards the future of energy, a location and date have been decided for the first commercial nuclear fusion power plant in America.

Secured by Virginia Governor Glen Youngkin with help from eastern seaboard utility company Dominion Energy, Chesterfield County, Virginia will welcome Commonwealth Fusion Systems experimental ARC plant on the site of a decommissioned coal power plant.

Founded on the campus of MIT in Boston, Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) is one of the world’s leaders in advancing the quest for commercial nuclear fusion energy—the ultimate energy source for humanity which replicates the process that forged our Sun to create emission-free, pollution-free energy.

Work will begin on the ARC plant next year, even before a smaller, prototype reactor is finished in Fort Devons Massachusetts.

“Dominion will provide us with development and technical expertise while we’ll provide them with knowledge about how to build and operate fusion power plants,” said CFS chief executive officer Bob Mumgaard.

Governor Youngkin said Virginia managed to attract CFS over 100 other global locations. CFS, which has received $2 billion in funding from an estimated 60 private investors that include Google and Eni, the Italian oil and gas giant, hasn’t suggested a price for the ARC plant, but Engineering News Record quoted outlets putting the figure around $3 billion; significantly less than the ITER fusion reactor in Europe.

CFS said the development of northern Virginia as an artificial intelligence and data center hub of the East Coast attracted them to the Chesterfield site. The first component of the ARC plant will be the fusion complex, and is slated to be finished in 2026.

WHERE FUSION IS HEADING:

The ARC plant will use a tokamak: a doughnut-shaped chamber enclosed by superconducting magnets that will heat hydrogen isotopes to 180 million degrees Fahrenheit, causing them to form a plasma, fuse, and release energy as a result. No nuclear waste is produced through the method, and the hydrogen isotopes are either isolated from seawater or produced as a byproduct of the fusion process.

One single plant is claimed by CFS to be capable of generating 400 megawatts of electricity, and Youngkin says it will bring billions of economic development.

The ‘early 2030s’ is predicted to see the whole of the plant operational and selling clean electricity to local partners.

SHARE This Latest Advance In The Pursuit Of Clean Energy… 

“And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been.” – Rainer Maria Rilke

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Good News Network
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Getty Images for Unsplash+

Quote of the Day: “And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been.” – Rainer Maria Rilke

Photo by: Getty Images for Unsplash+

With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?

Getty Images for Unsplash+

Good News in History, January 1

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Good News Network
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UPMC Mercy Hospital - Crazypaco CC 4.0. BY SA

175 years ago today, the world’s first “Mercy” Hospital was founded in Pittsburgh, United States, by a group of Sisters of Mercy from Ireland. Mercy Hospital served the Pittsburgh region through World War I, the worldwide epidemic of Spanish influenza, the Great Depression, and World War II. One of the most compelling examples of the hospital’s service to the community occurred in 1931 when Mercy Hospital donated more than $11,545,733 worth of healthcare services in today’s money. READ about how it’s grown… (1847)

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Youngest Cancer Patient Treated with ‘Nano-knife’ Is Now Cancer-Free

By
Andy Corbley
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George, his parents, and his treatment team - credit: Press handout
George, his parents, and his treatment team – credit: Press handout

Following three rounds of chemotherapy, a 2-year-old Englishman has become the youngest patient ever treated with ‘nanoknife’ technology.

This still-experimental cancer treatment helps to neutralize tumor sections via electrical currents.

George, from Camden, was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma—a cancer of the liver and bile duct last year.

Dr. Sam Godfrey, science engagement lead at Cancer Research UK spoke to the BBC about the treatment, calling it cutting-edge, and explaining how it uses electrical currents to ensure surgeons get a better margin of clearance around a tumor.

This “cutting-edge surgical treatment will inform the treatment of children around the world,” he said.

“The surgeons managed to remove all the tumor and had clear margins all the way around the removed section of his liver,” said George’s father, Johnathan. “This was the news we’d been hoping and praying for.

CONTINUE READING: Belgian Boy is the First Child in the World to Have Been Cured of Brain Stem Glioma, a Brutal Cancer

After 18 months, George was declared cancer-free. Johnathan said that the family was proud their son’s treatment plan was able to advance medical science in the country, potentially helping to better the chances of other children like George.

CELEBRATE George’s Recovery And The Success Of This Unique Technology…

Firefighters Surprise Boy with Brand New Bicycle After Cutting Spokes to Free His Foot

By
Andy Corbley
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- credit: Fernandina Beach Fire Department
– credit: Fernandina Beach Fire Department

On December 18th, Fernandina Beach Fire Department rushed to the scene of a bicycle collision where a young man was trapped under his bike wheel.

Before the firefighters could free the boy, named KJ, they had to cut his foot loose from where it was trapped among the spokes of the wheel, ultimately ruining the bike.

KJ was then brought to the hospital to be treated for injuries including a nasty ankle sprain, but seeing how it was the holidays, the firemen felt they had to do something to cheer the lad up.

They came to the hospital and surprised him with a brand-new bike and helmet.

The following day, they shared a photograph on the Fernandina Fire Department Facebook page of them surprising KJ, who appears to be asleep, with his new gift.

ANOTHER STORY LIKE THIS: When Boy Asks Strangers for Yard Work to Save up for New Game Console, Cops Are Called–And They Buy Him a New PS5 (WATCH)

His mother Joanna, smiling on his behalf in the photo, said that the injury left no serious damage but that KJ was still in shock.

“This reminds us of what the holidays are truly about. Merry Christmas and happy holidays from our fire family to yours. Stay safe, Fernandina,” the fire department said in the post.

SHARE This Brilliant Surprise From Generous Firefighters…

Stranger Who Gave $125,000 Inheritance to Neighbors, Left Impact That Is ‘Out of this world’

By
Andy Corbley
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Gemma O’Brien’s children in Blackpool - credit: family photo
Gemma O’Brien’s children in Blackpool – credit: family photo

From Liverpool comes the story of a son who decided to donate the inheritance of his mother to make his city a better place.

When David Clarke lost his mother in a cycling accident, he was devastated. He inherited roughly $125,000 from her, but she transferred something else to him as well: a sense of civic responsibility.

“She had a huge social conscience and was interested in the world and how it worked—a lot of my moral framework comes from her,” Clarke told the Guardian.

Feeling like he should do something that reflected the woman’s values, he wrote to 600 neighbors in his postcode of L8 and asked their opinion: what should he do with this windfall?

Only 38 people wrote back, and of these, Clarke formed a committee that nominated 4 different Liverpool charities who would each receive a quarter of the inheritance (£25,000).

Team Oasis and Liverpool Kids Plant to Plate are two of the charities that received money from Clarke.

The former is based in one of Liverpool’s poorest areas and provides free meals to families and organizes workshops for dance, football, photography, or other rewarding activities. Half of the children that depend on Team Oasis are considered physically disabled, or living with special needs and/or mental health challenges.

The charity’s director Paul Nilson called the donation “such a blessing.” Some of the money was used to fund RV holidays in sea towns like Blackpool, a traditional English family getaway that these families might never otherwise experience.

“I could never get to places like that on my own with my kids,” Gemma O’Brien, who along with her three kids, frequent Team Oasis; particularly for her eldest son, who had a severe brain injury when he was young and is also autistic.

“They’ve made adjustments for him from day one. He found his passion for music there: he’s self-taught on guitar and piano now. It’s one of the only places where I feel safe and not judged.”

ALSO CHECK OUT: 

Liverpool Kids Plant to Plate organizes lessons on growing and preparing one’s own food for kids in the urban areas of the city.

“To the guy who’s donated the money, the impact it’s had is out of this world,” O’Brien said.

MORE SMALL TIME PHILANTHROPY: 

The story is reminiscent of the ‘democratized philanthropy’ of the Austrian Heiress Marlene Engelhorn, when she nominated 50 Salzburg citizens to give away her $25 million inheritance.

Designated the Good Council for Redistribution, the members, selected at random from a pool of 10,000 people, were offered “a series of lectures including from philosophers and economics professors to inspire their choices,” Euro News reports.

SHARE This Liverpudlian’s Choice Of Generosity Rather Than Enrichment…

Study Finds First Evidence That Heart Muscles Can Regenerate

By
Andy Corbley
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A left ventricular assist device - credit: HeartWare Inc. / Framingham via AHA open access.
A left ventricular assist device – credit: HeartWare Inc. / Framingham via AHA open access.

A study looking at the bearers of artificial hearts found that a subset of them can regenerate heart muscle tissue—the first time such an observation has ever been made.

It may open the door to new ways to treat and perhaps someday cure heart failure, the deadliest non-communicable disease on Earth. The results were published in the journal Circulation.

A team of physician-scientists at the University of Arizona’s Heart Center in Tucson led a collaboration of international experts to investigate whether heart muscles can regenerate.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heart failure affects nearly 7 million US adults and is responsible for 14% of deaths per year. There is no cure for heart failure, though medications can slow its progression. The only treatment for advanced heart failure, other than a transplant, is a pump replacement through an artificial heart, called a left ventricular assist device, which can help the heart pump blood.

“Skeletal muscle has a significant ability to regenerate after injury. If you’re playing soccer and you tear a muscle, you need to rest it, and it heals,” said Hesham Sadek, director of the University’s Sarver Heart Center.

It was previously thought that when a heart muscle is injured, it could never grow back.

“Irrefutable evidence of heart muscle regeneration has never been shown before in humans,” he said. “This study provided direct evidence.”

The project began with tissue from artificial heart patients provided by colleagues at the University of Utah Health and School of Medicine led by Stavros Drakos, MD, PhD, and a pioneer in left ventricular assist device-mediated recovery.

Teams in Sweden and Germany used their innovative method of carbon dating human heart tissue to track whether these samples contained newly generated cells. The investigators found that patients with artificial hearts regenerated muscle cells at more than six times the rate of healthy hearts.

“This is the strongest evidence we have, so far, that human heart muscle cells can actually regenerate, which really is exciting, because it solidifies the notion that there is an intrinsic capacity of the human heart to regenerate,” Sadek said.

“It also strongly supports the hypothesis that the inability of the heart muscle to ‘rest’ is a major driver of the heart’s lost ability to regenerate shortly after birth. It may be possible to target the molecular pathways involved in cell division to enhance the heart’s ability to regenerate.”

In 2011, Sadek published a paper in Science showing that while heart muscle cells actively divide in utero, they stop dividing shortly after birth to devote their energy to pumping blood through the body nonstop, with no time for breaks.

In 2014, he published evidence of cell division in patients with artificial hearts, hinting that their heart muscle cells might have been regenerating because they were able to rest.

These findings, combined with other research teams’ observations that some artificial heart patients could have their devices removed after experiencing a reversal of symptoms, led him to wonder if the artificial heart provides cardiac muscles the equivalent of bed rest like a person needs when recovering from injury.

ALSO CHECK OUT: Exercise Cuts Heart Disease Risk by 23% With Benefits Doubling for Those With Depression

“The pump pushes blood into the aorta, bypassing the heart,” he said. “The heart is essentially resting.”

Sadek’s previous studies indicated that this rest might be beneficial for the heart muscle cells, but he needed to design an experiment to determine whether patients with artificial hearts were actually regenerating muscles.

Next, Sadek wants to figure out why only about 25% of patients are “responders” to artificial hearts, meaning that their cardiac muscle regenerates.

MORE BREAKTHROUGHS FOR HEART DISEASE: Titanium Maglev Heart Implanted Successfully in a Patient for First Time May Help Others Waiting for a Transplant

“It’s not clear why some patients respond and some don’t, but it’s very clear that the ones who respond have the ability to regenerate heart muscle,” he said. “The exciting part now is to determine how we can make everyone a responder, because if you can, you can essentially cure heart failure.

“The beauty of this is that a mechanical heart is not a therapy we hope to deliver to our patients in the future—these devices are tried and true, and we’ve been using them for years.”

SHARE This First-Ever Demonstration Of Heart Muscle Regeneration With Your Friends… 

“’Tis not enough to help the feeble up, but to support them after.” – William Shakespeare

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “’Tis not enough to help the feeble up, but to support them after.” – William Shakespeare

Photo by: Sebastián León Prado

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, December 31

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Good News Network
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2014 photo by Gage Skidmore, CC license

Happy 81st Birthday to Sir Ben Kingsley, the English actor who has won an Oscar, Grammy, BAFTA, two Golden Globes, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. He is best known for his starring role as Mohandas Gandhi in the acclaimed 1982 film Gandhi, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. You may also love his work in Schindler’s List, Hugo, and Iron Man 3, among other films. Watch a Top 10 video showcasing his best roles… (1943)

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Out-of-Control Invasive Crab Species Has Met its Match: Cute and Hungry Otters

By
Andy Corbley
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An invasive green crab - credit: NOAA Alaska Fisheries
An invasive green crab – credit: NOAA Alaska Fisheries

From California comes the story of native species defending our shores from pillaging green crabs introduced from Europe.

Destroying native crab hatcheries, hunting juvenile salmon, and leveling eelgrass beds, this clawed cancer has met its match in the southern sea otter.

At Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, a newly invigorated population of otters has shocked scientists by sparing this sensitive ecosystem almost entirely from the crabs’ destruction.

The green crab is one of the most destructive invasive species in US marine territory. They were first introduced to North America in the 1800s, likely hitching a ride in the ballast water of merchant ships from Europe.

Over 1 million green crabs have been caught by Washington wildlife managers following a 2022 emergency order by the state Governor, costing the state $12 million. In California, researchers from the University of California Davis spent years trying to remove them from Stinson Beach’s Seadrift Lagoon, only to see them return. In Oregon, crabbers are encouraged to try and catch at least 35 per trip.

Elkhorn Slough has been occupied by green crabs since the year 2000, but over time, managers noticed something extraordinary. Their numbers were diminishing without any human influence.

Southern sea otters were nearly hunted to extinction in the 19th century for their furs, only gaining a measure of protection in 1913 before an eventual 1977 entry on the Endangered Species List. Lacking the blubber layer of other marine mammals, sea otters need to eat tremendous amounts of calories to stay warm, a voracious appetite which, as it turned out, they trained on the green crabs.

Elkhorn Slough estuary is the only one of its kind in the Southern United States to have been repopulated by otters. 120 can be found there.

DEFEATING INVADERS: Invasive ‘Murder Hornets’ Are Wiped Out in the US, Using Transmitters That Led Back to the Nests

“The otters eating the crabs benefited the eelgrass, which contributed to better water quality” which helped the otters, said Rikke Jeppesen, an estuarine ecologist with the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve who was the lead author of a paper published December 10th about the otters and their effects on the ecosystem.

“When the otter population was the lowest back in 2003-2004, we thought the green crabs were going to take over Elkhorn Slough,” she told USA Today. “And then they didn’t. And for that we thank the otters.”

ANOTHER WAY OF DEALING WITH INVASIVES: The Perfect Answer for Berlin’s Invasive Species Problem – Make Them Into Delicious Cuisine

Jeppesen said that she and her colleagues used to be able to catch 100 green crabs in a single trap, whereas today they may not even get 5.

Repopulation of the southern sea otter has been gradual, and despite Elkhorn Slough being the only estuary where they live at maximum capacity, around 3,000 inhabit United States waters. Their recovery should hopefully reverse the decades of destruction wrought by the crabs, and prevent them from recolonizing areas they once conquered.

CELEBRATE These Otters’ Successful Campaign Against The Green Crabs…

‘Milking’ the Air for Water: Zero-Energy Technique Doubles Survival Rate for Young Trees to Reforest After Fires

By
Andy Corbley
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The fog catcher's artificial pine needles - credit: LIFE Nieblas
The fog catcher’s artificial pine needles – credit: LIFE Nieblas

In the Canary Islands, in Barcelona, and in Chile, a unique fog catcher design is sustaining dry forests with water without emissions, or even infrastructure.

Replicating how pine needles catch water, the structure need only be brought on-site and set up, without roads, powerlines, or irrigation channels.

Fog catching is an ancient practice—renamed “cloud milking” by an EU-funded ecology project on the Canary Islands known as LIFE Nieblas (nieblas means fog).

“In recent years, the Canaries have undergone a severe process of desertification and we’ve lost a lot of forest through agriculture. And then in 2007 and 2009, as a result of climate change, there were major fires in forested areas that are normally wet,” said Gustavo Viera, the technical director of the publicly-funded project in the Canaries.

The Canaries routinely experience blankets of fog that cloak the islands’ slopes and forests, but strong winds made fog-catching nets an unfeasible solution. In regions such as the Atacama Desert in Chile or the Atlas Mountains of North Africa, erecting nets that capture moisture particles out of passing currents of fog is a traditional practice.

LIFE Nieblas needed a solution that could resist powerful winds, and to that end designed wind chime-like rows of artificial pine needles, which are also great at plucking moisture from the air. However, unlike nets or palms, they efficiently let the wind pass through them.

The water is discharged without any electricity. There are no irrigation channels, and no machinery is needed to transport the structures. The natural course of streams and creeks need not be altered, nor is there a need to drill down to create wells. The solution is completely carbon-free.

WATER IN THE DESERTS: 

In the ravine of Andén in Gran Canaria, a 35.8-hectare (96 acres) mixture of native laurel trees irrigated by the fog catchers enjoys a survival rate of 86%, double the figure of traditional reforestation.

“The Canaries are the perfect laboratory to develop these techniques,” said Vicenç Carabassa, the project’s head scientist, who works for the Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications at the University of Barcelona. “But there are other areas where the conditions are optimal and where there is a tradition of water capture from fog, such as Chile and Morocco.”

In Chile’s Coquimbo province, the town of Chungungo is collecting around 250 gallons a day from a combination of locally-made fog catchers at LIFE Nieblas’ pine needle design, the Guardian reports. 

SHARE This Cutting-Edge Fog Catcher Already In Use Around The World… 

Canadians Delighted by Visit from Giant Sea Eagle from the Other Side of the World

By
Andy Corbley
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Steller’s sea eagle – Courtesy of Sandra Moss (Instagram @YQXSandra)
Steller’s sea eagle – Courtesy of Sandra Moss (Instagram @YQXSandra)

Even in the frigid winter temperatures, a national park in Newfoundland was buzzing with visitors who flocked for a chance to see an extremely rare visitor.

Steller’s sea eagle is one of the largest birds of prey on Earth, but is native to Japan, Korea, and Russia. It must have flown thousands of miles to arrive in Newfoundland on its 7.8-foot wingspan.

Steller’s sea eagle – Courtesy of Sandra Moss (Instagram @YQXSandra)

In Terra Nova National Park, Sandra Moss, a photographer who had heard the bird was sighted in the area, brought her camera on a boat trip in Newman Sound. From the gunwales of the boat, she and her husband didn’t see anything, but returning in their car they came across the majestic animal atop a pine tree.

“I can’t explain how exciting it is,” she said in an interview with CBC on Monday. “It’s an incredible feeling to know that that bird has chosen us. That’s what it feels like.”

“I wouldn’t have liked to have a pet or anything in my arms when he was there, he’d probably take you and the pet.”

Despite the extreme vagrancy of this visitor, the eastern seaboard of Canada and even the US have at times seen these birds. On Facebook, members of the Newfoundland and Labrador Birdwatching Group reported last year in nearby Trinity Bay that a Steller’s sea eagle was in the area nesting.

HOW ABOUT THIS FOR A LIFE LIST ENTRY: Mega Rare Blue Rock Thrush Spotted on Oregon Beach Is First Sighting in US History

A year before that, GNN reported that a Steller’s sea eagle was attracting birdwatchers in Boothbay Harbor, Maine five days before Christmas, but that by January 16th it had flown all the way to Denali, Alaska.

NPR at the time reported that the same bird had been seen in various parts of Canada that summer.

MORE RARE SIGHTINGS: Stork That Went Extinct in the UK 600 Years Ago is Spotted in the English Skies: ‘It was a great sign’

Typically 25% larger than a bald eagle, subtlety is not this fish-eater’s specialty, and because their feather markings can be distinct between individuals, they are easy to track.

Terra Nova National Park’s Facebook post on the arrival of the vagrant was full of commenters referencing past sightings, suggesting this year’s visitor is one from previous years.

SHARE This Incredible Sighting With Your Friends… 

Network of AI Monitors Detected 77 Wildfires in California This Year Before a 911 Call Had Been Made for Any

By
Andy Corbley
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Flames from the Bobcat Fire - credit: Eddiem360, CC license, via Wikimedia.
Flames from the Bobcat Fire – credit: Eddiem360, CC license, via Wikimedia.

2024 saw the unparalleled success of an artificial intelligence detection system in California that alerts authorities to the breakout of small wildfires in the state’s dry forests.

A partnership between the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) and the Univ. of California San Diego called AlertCalifornia has already detected 77 wildfires before a 911 call was made for any of them.

CAL FIRE’s Wildfire AI Detector works alongside UCSD’s AlertCalifornia program to monitor over 1,000 cameras throughout the state with AI to detect wildfires. Governor Newsom’s first budget in 2019 funded 100 of these cameras, and the program has grown ever since.

California has suffered the 8 largest wildfires in the state’s history in just the last 6 years. The interlinked network of cameras, AIs, satellites, and humans is an accommodation a decade in the making.

AlertCalifornia enjoys the support of CA utilities companies, the US Forest Service, the CA Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, and county and tribal governments as well. It’s designed to detect more than just fires, but all natural disasters.

Neal Driscoll, a professor at UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, said that the AI system and its algorithms not only need to detect flames, but also smoke and how smoke is moving. It has to detect which direction the fire might move first, and where first responders would be most effective.

GREAT USES FOR AI TODAY: 

Many of the cameras that are now monitored with AI have actually been in place for many years. Governing Magazine reports that these cameras have collected petabytes of image and video data on fires, all of which have been used to train AlertCalifornia’s AI.

“We could go back and say, ‘this is what smoke looks like in this image,’” Driscoll told the Magazine. “We were constantly showing different attributes—smoke columns, smoke being bent over—so we could build up enough high-quality data that the AI could detect change or ignition.”

NASA too, has become involved through its network of satellites. The space agency is also contributing remote-operated drones that can fly at night and dump fire retardants on developing fires whilst first responders are on their way.

“We have to move together, leverage resources, and try to mitigate the impacts of these hazards,” Driscoll said, “because they are only going to get worse.”

SHARE This Great Use Of AI With Your Friends… 

“In planting time learn, in harvest time teach, in winter enjoy.” – William Blake

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “In planting time learn, in harvest time teach, in winter enjoy.” – William Blake

Photo by: Cristina Gottardi

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, December 30

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Good News Network
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100 years ago today, American astronomer Edwin Hubble announced the existence of other star systems beyond our own Milky Way Galaxy. Using the powerful new 100-inch telescope in Southern California he studied the spiral nebulae Andromeda, which was a fuzzy patch of light generally thought to be clouds of gas or dust. But Hubble calculated that Andromeda was approximately 860,000 light years away—more than eight times further than the farthest star in the Milky Way—thus proving that the nebulae are separate star systems. READ more… (1924)

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Lowe’s Donates 100 Tiny Homes to Carolina Families Waiting For Rebuilt Housing After Hurricane Flooding

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Good News Network
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Tiny Home donated to NC flood victims by Lowe’s
Tiny Home donated to NC flood victims by Lowe’s

Many families in Western North Carolina were facing the holiday season still in need of the perfect housing, after Hurricane Helene devastated their towns.

But this month, thanks to Lowe’s relief efforts and hundreds of volunteer home builders, dozens of tiny homes were donated to families and installed in time for Christmas Eve.

The tiny homes, which include heat and all the necessities—like a kitchen, bathroom, and two full-size beds—allow families to remain in their neighborhood while their permanent home is rebuilt.

Each home includes fresh seasonal greenery, furnishings, and décor all donated by Lowe’s.

Kathy Graham has lived in the mountains near Asheville for 24 years and when the flood waters receded, there was mold left behind and no heat, but she didn’t want to go anywhere because she couldn’t leave all her animals. That’s why she was overcome with emotion when she saw her new, temporary home for the first time ten days ago.

“Thank God I got my new home—my ‘tiny home’. It’s awesome. It’s gorgeous. I can’t believe it. I can’t even say how much I appreciate it. The Lord has answered my prayers, honestly. Answered my prayers.”

Graham is one of several dozen people who were able to move into the mobile tiny homes in the coming weeks, all thanks to a massive effort that Lowe’s employees and a community of builders have worked round the clock to make happen.

The project came together when Lowe’s Senior Director of Community relations, Julie Yenichek, posed a crazy idea to an old friend, Danny Kelly, the co-owner of Kelly McArdle Construction in Charlotte.

“She told me she wanted to build a hundred tiny homes and I thought, oh my God, that’s perfect. I’ve been looking for my opportunity to do something big, but I don’t have the resources to do it and she said they had all these volunteers lined up, and all the supplies lined up, they just didn’t know how to do it.”

So, a team of volunteers built a prototype in his backyard and soon moved to a Charlotte warehouse and built 16 more with the help of 400 volunteers who signed up to assemble the 8 x16 ft homes right before the holidays.

Lowe’s is purchasing another 50 homes built by Incredible Tiny Homes at its Newport, Tennessee facility—67 units to give families who need a home for the holidays, with an additional 33 delivered by early January. Watch one of the heartwarming deliveries below…

 

Amanda Hayes and Randy Jones, co-owners of Incredible Tiny Homes, said they watched as the floods ravaged their East Tennessee hometown. They were thrilled when Lowe’s called them with a solution for families—funding the construction of many more of their tiny homes to be driven to sites all over.

“The first home went to a mom with three kids and it really hit me whenever they sent me the pictures… it was like, my goodness, these people don’t want to leave their land,” said Amanda.

Photos by Lowe’s

“It just means everything. To provide housing for these people who have lost everything, this is the most special thing that we’ve ever done with Lowe’s.”

Permanently fixed on wheels, they can sleep three to four people, and can connect to electricity.

The Home Builders Association of Greater Charlotte is spearheading the volunteer effort. Jennifer Schuster, their Executive Officer, says they had more than 400 volunteers sign up to help put the tiny homes together in just a matter of seven days.

“We’ve had volunteers—everything from framing crew, roofing crew, plumbers, electricians, to the actual builders in the markets—sending their project managers to our associates, which are the suppliers, sending their people to be a part of this.”

AMAZING: Thousands of Circular Homes Are Surviving Hurricanes Across the US Thanks to North Carolina Company

Yenichek says the goal is to get at least 100 tiny homes completed and delivered to the flood victims in the mountains as soon as possible, as part of Lowe’s $12 million pledge to support recovery efforts.

The US disaster agency FEMA has approved $279 million, which includes funds for renting a home or apartment for over 140,000 households, according to local WLOS-TV News, but some people don’t want to leave their communities, so have been in FEMA paid hotel rooms or makeshift tents or sheds.

The effort is also supported by Habitat for Humanity, NASCAR haulers—who towed the homes to towns across the region—BeLoved Asheville, the Appalachia Service Project, and SunCap Property Group which donated the warehouse space to host the build.

CHECK OUT: 14 Luxury Hotels Are Donating Outdated Furniture to Low-Income Families in Need

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Neglected Beagle Freed From 4ft Chain Enjoys First Cozy Christmas Thanks to Anonymous Caller

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Newlyweds Dan and Katherine with Cooper – PETA
Newlyweds Dan and Katherine with Cooper – PETA

A beagle mix named Copper celebrated his first Christmas safe and warm indoors with a loving family after being rescued from the end of a chain, where he lived neglected every day exposed to the elements without shelter.

The eight-year-old dog looked emaciated, and there was no water bowl, when rescuers approached him. They later discovered he was also plagued with parasites.

It all started with a winter phone call from an anonymous tipster who alerted the Twin County Humane Society in Galax, Virginia, saying there was a very thin dog tied up outside that may be in need of help.

The humane society asked two PETA fieldworkers—who were in town for an event that sterilized 229 cats and dogs for free—to investigate. A local animal control officer joined Adam and Jenny on the scene and discovered that Copper was kept unattended outside on a tether that allowed only 4 feet of movement with no doghouse or shelter.

Despite the neglect, from the moment the PETA coworkers met him, Copper was amazingly sweet-natured. After the dog’s owner understood that she could face a criminal charge of cruelty-to-animals, she signed over ownership of the pup.

They immediately secured veterinary care and the sweet animal was adopted by PETA staffers Katherine Sullivan and Dan Paden, who were newlyweds planning their first holiday together. (See the heartwarming video at the bottom…)

“Copper’s recovery and his happy new life are all thanks to one good Samaritan: a mystery caller I will forever think of as my sweet beagle’s ‘Secret Santa’,” wrote Katherine in a blog post.

Like an old penny that just needed polishing, all this copper-hued senior beagle needed was a little TLC – PETA

With his bodyweight nearly doubled and his spirit fully renewed, for the first time in his life Copper’s Christmas season included strolls through dog-friendly parks, plenty of healthy treats under the tree—and best of all, a family that loves and protects him.

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“The weather outside might be frightful, but inside it’s so delightful for Copper (at last), all thanks to one caring person who spoke up when they saw an animal in need,” said PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch.

Copper not only loves other dogs, but cats, too, which proved perfect for Dan and Katherine’s family, which includes three rescued cats in a home where he will enjoy the rest of his golden years.

Watch the heartwarming happy ending…

SHARE THE TRANSFORMATION With Dog Lovers On Social Media… 

Best Holiday Light Show in the Sky Wins Guinness World Record With Dazzling 5,000 Drone Christmas Display–LOOK

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5000 drones form Santa Claus in the night sky over Mansfield, Texas – Courtesy Sky Elements
5000 drones form Santa Claus in the night sky over Mansfield, Texas – Courtesy Sky Elements

To celebrate the holiday season, Sky Elements provided some happy drone news by creating the largest swarming light show ever to have flown in the United States.

Set to music, the light show created massive motion-filled scenes that captured the spirit of the holidays—a Thanksgiving turkey, a winter wonderland scene, a gingerbread village, and, of course, Santa’s sleigh with reindeer.

Making the holiday a little more magical in Mansfield, Texas, 4,981 drones lit up the sky to ring in the season.

Partnering with UVify, a manufacturer of swarm drones for light shows, the team
began the show with a lifelike turkey, full of movement and color, spreading wide its tail feathers. (See the video at the bottom…)

Thanksgiving turkey drone show – Courtesy Sky Elements

A wintery wonderland appeared next, centered around a massive snowman. A surreal gingerbread village also was featured, with candy cane street lamps and gumdrop rooftops. The sun sets on the cozy winter village as lights illuminate the homes and smoke billows out of the chimneys.

For the finale, Santa Claus in his sleigh with two reindeer, waved at the audience.

“We teamed up to create holiday cheer in a new, fun way: by making the largest gingerbread village… made entirely of drones,” said Preston Ward, Chief Pilot of Sky Elements.

“Not only did we spread the holiday spirit, but we also scored our 11th Guinness World Record.”

Flying the nearly 5,000 drones in formation was quite a feat for the private company, and it took 40 people to coordinate the exhibition.

Thousands of drones lift-off for light show in Mansfield, Texas, with crew looking on – Courtesy Sky Elements

“Shout out to our unforgettable pilots, crew leads, animators, and drone crew that made this all possible.”

Watch the awesome show below…

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SPREAD SOME CHEER By Posting These Delightful Drones On Social Media…

Key Alzheimer’s Breakthrough Identifies Stress-Related Cellular Mechanism Driving the Disease

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Alzheimer’s brain study highlights microglia – by Pinar Ayata / CUNY

Scientists investigating Alzheimer’s disease have made a key breakthrough, identifying a vital cellular mechanism driving the most common cause of dementia.

The research from the City University of New York (CUNY) provides a promising target for drug therapies that could slow, and possibly reverse, the disease’s development.

The study, published in the journal Neuron, highlights microglia—the brain’s primary immune cells—and their critical link to cellular stress in the brain—both the protective and harmful responses associated with Alzheimer’s.

Microglia, often dubbed the brain’s first responders, are now recognized as a significant causal cell type in Alzheimer’s pathology. However, these cells play a double-edged role: some protect brain health, while others worsen neuro-degeneration.

“We set out to answer what are the harmful microglia in Alzheimer’s disease and how can we therapeutically target them,” said Pinar Ayata, the study’s principal investigator and a professor with CUNY’s neuroscience initiative within its Advanced Science Research Center.

His team pinpointed a “novel neurodegenerative microglia phenotype” in Alzheimer’s disease characterized by a stress-related signaling pathway.

Activation of this stress pathway, known as the integrated stress response (ISR), prompts microglia to produce and release toxic lipids. These lipids damage neurons and oligodendrocyte progenitor cells—two cell types essential for brain function and most impacted in Alzheimer’s disease.

Blocking this stress response or the lipid synthesis pathway reversed symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease in preclinical models.

Alzheimer’s brain study highlights role of stress in microglia – by Pinar Ayata / CUNY

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Using electron microscopy, the research team identified an accumulation of “dark microglia”, a subset of microglia associated with cellular stress and neuro-degeneration, in postmortem brain tissues from Alzheimer’s patients.

The cells were present at twice the levels seen in healthy-aged people.

“These findings reveal a critical link between cellular stress and the neurotoxic effects of microglia in Alzheimer’s disease,” said study co-lead author Anna Flury.

Ms. Flury, a member of Prof. Ayata’s lab and a Ph.D. student, says, “Targeting this pathway may open up new avenues for treatment by either halting the toxic lipid production or preventing the activation of harmful microglial phenotypes.”

The team’s study highlights the potential of developing drugs that target specific microglial populations or their stress-induced mechanisms.

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“Such treatments could significantly slow or even reverse the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, offering hope to millions of patients and their families,” concluded co-lead author Leen Aljayousi, a member of Prof Ayata’s lab.

SHARE THE HOPE By Posting The Team’s Findings On Social Media…

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