Quote of the Day: “What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?” – Vincent Van Gogh
Photo by: stuart anthony
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627 years ago today, one of the most august figures in East Asian history was born—Sejong the Great—scientist, reformer, and engineer of the Korean alphabet, Hangul. The historic record indicates he had an insatiable appetite for knowledge, and was extremely effective at translating that knowledge into real-world improvements in the welfare of his people, both rich and poor. Among the inventions and products he either commissioned or himself made a reality, there was a new calendar specifically for Korea, a new printing press, medical and agriculture textbooks to be distributed to average people, one of the world’s first rain gauges, hundreds of musical arrangements, some of which are still performed as repertoire today, 100 days’ maternity leave for mothers and 30 days for fathers, and sophisticated gunpowder weaponry. READ about his crowning achievement… (1397)
This week, the Northern Lights were seen as far south as Florida, giving millions of people a glimpse at a phenomenon usually seen only in the coldest of climes.
Now, Sunspot AR3664 has had a final blast, promising perhaps another night or two of lights.
This active region of the Sun generated an even more massive solar flare on May 13th, releasing intense bursts of energy and radiation into space.
However, this latest coronal mass ejection of X-rays, despite being at magnitude 8.7 (very high indeed) isn’t likely to cause other sets of auroras, only interfere with radio communications on the sunlit side of Earth, say the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center.
Space blog EarthSky was more positive, saying that while the Sun’s fresh output won’t have such a dramatic effect on Earth as the weekend’s activity, but “at least G3 (moderate) geomagnetic storming is in the forecast”, which has the potential to produce significant auroral displays under the right conditions.
DETAILS ON THE AURORA: NOAA Predicts Potential Aurora as Far South as Alabama After Severe Solar Storm Witnessed
AR3664 started ejecting and caused a geomagnetic storm on Friday, May 10th. Over the weekend it dazzled GNN readers in South Florida, the Bay Area in California, northern Arizona, and Charlotte NC.
The Sun’s activity was observed by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) spacecraft. Its mission is to study the Sun’s dynamics to “increase understanding of the nature and sources of solar variability”.
SHARE This Update With Anyone You Know Who Saw An Aurora…
A mom created a fairytale dress made of more than 200 fresh flowers she grew herself, as part of her university studies in art and design.
Anita Lee-Archer created the dress on her daughter, Bella, spending around two hours arranging multi-colored dahlias, hand-picked from her garden in Australia.
The mother-of-five is pursuing a fine arts degree at the University of Tasmania at age 48. She decided to go back to college four years ago to pursue her dreams of a career in art.
Now she’s combining another passion—her love of gardening—to create impressive art installations.
To attach the flowers to the dress, she wrapped bird netting tightly around her daughter, Bella, who wore a black slip underneath (see the video at the bottom). She threaded the flowers through the holes, choosing colors from seven buckets of pre-cut blooms.
“It turned out how I wanted it,” said Anita, from Launceston, Tasmania. “It was really fun.”
Anita says she was discouraged from choosing a career in art as a teenager, so instead worked as a nurse and midwife.
“I have always been a creative. But, people always said, ‘you won’t earn any money doing art’.”
But Anita never forgot her love and when they moved to Tasmania she asked her husband, a neurologist, if she could enroll in university. She eagerly started classes in 2020 to finally fulfill her dreams.
“I really want to paint flowers. I breed different varieties and have always been a gardener.
“It’s nice to combine my loves. One lecturer told me ‘it’s your work, you need to do what you love’.”
She admitted the dress turned out to be “really heavy” and it was hard to walk in it.
“Initially it was going to be a strapless dress, but I had to fashion straps.”
Anita graduates from her course at the end of this year and wants to continue creating flower-themed art.
“My garden has been my solace.”
DELICIOUS DESIGN: Sculptor Carves Life-sized Willy Wonka Using 220 Lbs of Chocolate in London’s Trafalgar Square
Here’s a video her daughter shared while modeling the stunning dress of dahlias…
SHARE THE IDEA With Fashion Designers and Gardening Friends on Social Media…
A university concert pianist has made an unlikely nest for herself while she continues her studies: an old age home.
While Beth Christensen studies piano at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory, she doesn’t have a dorm on campus, and instead lodges at Claridge Court, a senior living facility in the nearby town of Prairie Village.
Placed there in July 2023 as a student-in-residence by a partnership between the home and the Conservatory, Christensen says that the experience has been special, and that many of the residents are more than just friendly faces she sees while plunking out a bit of jazz or classical music, they’ve become true friends.
“It’s really fun to have a relationship with your audience as a performer,” Christensen told the university press. “In the beginning, I wouldn’t do anything too out of the ordinary—I would bring a vocalist sometimes, or I would play classical music.”
“As I got more comfortable, I would try new things and play more recent music. Sometimes people wouldn’t like it, and they let me know. Others love to see where the future of music is going. It’s fun to be able to ask what kind of music people want to hear and work it into my repertoire.”
In exchange for her stay at the home, she is encouraged to immerse herself in the community as much as possible in addition to the routine performances, for which she may also bring in other musicians from the Conservatory.
Christensen’s free time is filled with games of ‘chair volleyball’ or doing a puzzle and talking about education with her friend Pat, a former teacher.
INTERGENERATIONAL CONNECTION: More Young Adults are Renting Next Door to Retired Folks – With Intergenerational Benefits
The partnership is supported by Claridge Court residents Charlie and Mary Kay Horner, who were involved in the Conservatory for decades, and the director of Claridge said that her presence has been enriching.
“We are absolutely thrilled that Beth has become such an integral part of our community,” Mary Kay Horner said. “Witnessing the connections she’s made with the residents is incredibly gratifying.”
MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: When College Senior Couldn’t Find Someone to Watch His Baby Daughter, Professor Lends a Hand
“Music is such a connecting force,” Christensen adds.
“It bridges the divisions that exist between people. Having the opportunity to make connections with a community that’s several generations older than me has been so special. These connections don’t make our differences go away, but it helps us really appreciate each other. It’s been such a beautiful experience.”
SHARE This Intergenerational Connection Through Music With Your Friends…
Relying on a supercomputer and the people with talent enough to use it, NASA scientists have produced a video illustration of what it would be like to float into a black hole if you were somehow invincible.
Being that within the event horizon of a black hole, the laws of general relativity break down, it’s extremely difficult to say or to predict what would happen to an object, but we do know from recent observations what can happen with light.
Several versions of the same simulation are explained in a 4-minute video released by NASA that offers visual aids to some extremely complex physics.
“People often ask about [what it would be like to fall into a black hole] and simulating these difficult-to-imagine processes helps me connect the mathematics of relativity to actual consequences in the real universe,” said Jeremy Schnittman, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who created the visualizations.
“So I simulated two different scenarios, one where a camera—a stand-in for a daring astronaut—just misses the event horizon and slingshots back out, and one where it crosses the boundary, sealing its fate.”
The video is more than just fluff, every feature of it corresponds with precise calculations that would have once been a published paper released to great acclaim. The simulation set the target as a supermassive black hole like the one at the center of our galaxy. The camera was set 400 million miles from the 25 million mile-wide black hole, and as it approaches, the hot disk of dust and gas that swirls around a black hole, called an accretion disk, begins to elongate and brighten.
READ MORE ABOUT A BLACK HOLE: Scientists Reveal Incredible Image of Magnetic Fields Spiraling from Supermassive Black Hole
This is the same effect as when the sound of an approaching racecar is amplified based on its speed.
Then, the supercomputer takes over, and the markers of light, namely the stars, the accretion disk, and a band of photon rings, which are thinner and made up of light orbiting inside the event horizon, begin to warp.
ALSO CHECK OUT: Eerie Echo Detected Coming From Milky Way’s Black Hole 200 Years Ago (Listen)
The project generated about 10 terabytes of data—equivalent to roughly half of the estimated text content in the Library of Congress—and took about 5 days what would have taken a normal computer a decade.
WATCH the video and enjoy…
SHARE This Amazing Video Project With Your Friends Who Dabble In Astrophysics…
Quote of the Day: ‘Healing is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature.’ – W. H. Auden
Photo by: Conscious Design
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51 years ago today, Skylab was launched into orbit, the first and only space station to be entirely built and funded by the US. Occupied for about 24 weeks between May 1973 and February 1974, it was operated by three separate three-astronaut crews: Skylab 2, Skylab 3, and Skylab 4. Major operations included an orbital workshop, a solar observatory, Earth observation, and hundreds of experiments. READ more… (1973)
Australia is filled with wild and wonderful critters, but few surpass the novelty of the Mary River turtle—which was once one of the continent’s most endangered.
Now however, the dedication of 800 residents in the town of Tiaro is seeing the turtle repopulate the river from which it draws its name, a point of pride for the locals, and the nation as they both celebrate a conservation win.
The Mary River turtle, (Elusor macrusus) is also known fondly as the “Bum-breathing punk” for its peculiar evolutionary capacity to breathe through its cloaca which allows it to stay underwater for three days without surfacing.
One of Australia’s largest turtle species, the MR turtle can weigh in at close to 20 pounds and grow 20 inches nose to tail. Also sometimes called the green-haired turtle, it collects algae on its head and shell over time, making it seem like it’s sporting a dyed-green mohawk, hence the name ‘punk.’
Also unique to the MR turtle is the tail. It has haemal arches, an osseo feature typically used to identify sauropod dinosaurs but which has been lost in all other modern turtles. In short, the MR turtle is unique in modern evolution.
This species, which lives entirely in the Mary River and five tributaries in southeast Queensland, was incidentally brought to the brink of extinction by turtle egg hunters looking to sell baby turtles at various venues.
They were called ‘penny turtles,’ and the marketing effort was all done without realizing the species that the eggs were coming from was so unique and sensitive.
Starting in 2001, the town of Tiaro launched a program to protect the turtle’s nests and eggs in situ. During nesting season, volunteers are up early to locate new nesting sites and fence them off, protecting them against livestock and invasive egg filchers like foxes.
Recently, a scientific analysis has shown that not only did the program bear fruit in terms of the number of turtles present on the Mary and what the survival rate of hatchlings is, but also in terms of the quantity of scientific data gathered by the locals.
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But the success didn’t happen overnight. The town raised money to fund scholarships for students to study the turtles at university and buy research equipment by selling homemade chocolate turtles as a fundraiser.
MORE TURTLE SUCCESS STORIES: First Recorded Birth of Critically-Endangered Burmese Peacock Turtle Hatchlings (WATCH)
In 2006, photographer Chris Van Wyk captured iconic imagery of the turtle’s green ‘hair’ which went as viral as they could have done back then, also helping to raise awareness of the reptile.
The turtle remains endangered, but not only have the turtle’s numbers rebounded, but the research efforts of the citizens of Tiaro have created protocols for local water resource planning and strategic development to always take into account the watershed and habitat of the turtle when making any decisions.
SHARE This Conservation Success Story For This Legendary Turtle…
Michael Hoffen is a new author, and like him, the protagonist of his book is a teenager. But there’s quite an age gap between them—about 4,000 years.
That’s because Hoffen brought to life the story of a young Egyptian from ancient times named Pepi, whose father, Kheti, is intent on getting his son a job in the royal court.
Hoffen, who has been translating ancient texts since middle school, became fascinated by a 4,000-year-old or so piece of literature from ancient Egypt’s Middle Kingdom known as The Instruction of Khety, or The Satire of the Trades.
The Instruction/Satire was written on papyrus, one of the earliest writing materials, that was typically made from reeds. Papyruses have yielded vast amounts of information about ancient societies from the Judean tribes, Egypt, Greece, and Classical Rome.
Under the guidance and collaboration of his two co-authors, Egyptologists Christian Casey and Jen Thum, Hoffen spent three-and-a-half years translating hieroglyphics into modern-day prose and gathering images to tell the story of Kheti and Pepi.
Put together, he published a book called Be A Scribe! Working for a Better Life in Ancient Egypt.
This young author, a scribe himself, shows just how little the human condition has changed in thousands of years.
THE MOST RECENT PAPYRUS DECODED: 2,000-Year-old Scroll Burnt in Pompeii Decoded and Read for First Time by Three Genius Students
Parents still want the best for their children, and teenagers face important decisions as they set out on their career paths—all of which readers can enjoy with sumptuous illustrations and imagery direct from Egyptian antiquities.
OTHER BOOK REVIEWS: You Have a Hidden Potential That Only Travel Can Unlock–And You Hold the Key
Amy Chua, Yale Law professor, called the book a “marvel” and said she “could not put it down.”
“Young people will gobble it up without realizing they are learning. And even adults with advanced degrees will find themselves engrossed, educated, and fascinated by this story of an Egyptian father giving life advice to his teenage son—and astonished at how little parenting has changed across the millennia.”
SHARE This Great Book Idea For Kids, And The Incredible Drive Of This Youth…
Incredible rains in Australia’s Queensland have turned the typical red of the outback soil into lush green terrain crisscrossed by swollen rivers, ending a decade-long drought.
At its height, the drought affected 88% of the state. But after Diamantina and Bulloo shires had their drought status changed, it means the number has fallen to zero.
With water holes, creeks, and rivers full, it spells a good 2024 for the cattle and the tourists, two staples of the state’s economy.
“It’s amazing how well the country within this area responds to rain,” Mrs Monqiue Betts, a rancher in the southwest told ABC News Australia. “You’d probably say you’re safe for maybe 18 months, especially water-wise.”
“Our house dam had been dry for quite a while… definitely the majority of last year,” she said, adding that they were on the cusp of having to bring water to the farm in tanks on their pickup.
The cattle have already fattened up, which is a relief since recently some ranchers have had to sell out of their operations to avoid losses that might be too much.
The water disperses across the flat region by slow-moving floodwaters in an area called the Channel Country. After receiving late summer rains of around 150 to 300 millimeters, the waters fanned out across the land, greening it as it went.
MORE REJUVENATION: Utah and California Snowpacks Break All Previous Records–Will Completely Alleviate Droughts
It follows a year in which California was declared drought-free for the first time in three years, with the added bonus of a mild summer that didn’t bring about a new one, which in turn prevented any serious wildfires from breaking out.
82% of all land in Queensland is used for either farming or ranching, but the driest areas are in the ranchland to the south and west.
SHARE This Awesome News For A Dry And Dusty Land And Its People…
Stem cells are being used more and more widely in treatments across the spectrum of medicine, but a recent breakthrough from Shanghai promises the best may still be yet to come.
A senior who had suffered from type-2 diabetes for 25 years hasn’t taken insulin for 33 months after he received a regenerative islet cell transplantation.
Diabetes, particularly type 2—the form that may develop in one’s life because of poor diet and lifestyle choices—is one of the most prevalent non-communicable diseases on Earth.
China in particular is one of the world’s diabetes hotspots, with 140 million people unable to make their own insulin, and so suffer from kidney problems, blindness, amputation, and cardiovascular problems.
But this new breakthrough, coming after 10 years of research and testing, may change this paradigm of sickness forever.
Yin Hao, a leading researcher on the team and director of Shanghai Changzheng Hospital’s Organ Transplant Center, said they took the patient’s own peripheral blood mononuclear cells and used existing methods to reprogram them back into pluripotent stem cells for injection into the pancreas.
“Our technology has matured and it has pushed boundaries in the field of regenerative medicine for the treatment of diabetes,” Yin, told China Daily whose team conducted the research with scientists from the Center for Molecular Cell Science at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Existing transplant treatments for type-2 diabetes are hindered by a lack of donor cells, and the complexity of pancreatic islet cell isolation technology.
ALSO CHECK OUT: World’s First ‘Tooth Regrowth’ Medicine Moves Toward Clinical Trials in Japan
Pancreatic islet cells are the major insulin-producing cells in the body, and the patients’ were almost completely inhibited. He relied on multiple insulin injections daily in addition to a kidney transplant.
After receiving the manufactured stem cells in 2021, he was weened off of external insulin over 11 weeks, after which his disease seemed to be largely gone.
MORE GOOD NEWS FOR DIABETES SUFFERERS: Crazy Insulin Prices Now a Thing of the Past in U.S. After Government Initiates Monthly Cost of $35
“Follow-up examinations showed that the patient’s pancreatic islet function was effectively restored, and his renal function was within normal range,” Yin said. “Such results suggested that the treatment can avoid the progression of diabetic complications.”
The paper was published in Cell Discovery on April 30th, and future studies, the authors wrote, should explore the pharmacology of drugs that might provide off-the-shelf equivalents for islet transplantation.
SHARE This Miracle Of Modern Medicine With Someone You Know With Diabetes…
A wonderful story comes to us now from Patagonia where a valley of towering granite cliffs and rare species was saved from development by activists.
It’s a story that North America saw many times during the birth of the conservation movement with groups like the Sierra Club in Yosemite, but this story regards Cochamó Valley, also known as the ‘Yosemite of South America.’
Roberto Hagemann owns 325,000 acres, or roughly 508 square miles, of this valley and its surrounding lands, which sit near the southern tip of South America where the Andes meet the Pacific Ocean.
This Chilean industrialist, who made a fortune in mining and real estate, managed to do what many very rich people had deemed too difficult—buy up all this area from small ranching families. The feat involved over 200 land deed transactions.
Cochamó Valley had never been developed and remained a haven for pumas, the rare Andean deer, and Darwin’s frog. Aside from the ranchers, a plan in the early 2000s to build a road through the area was met with stiff resistance from environmental activists.
Cochamó has many charms in the eye of the environmentalist. Along with being a burgeoning tourist destination for rock climbers hungry to scale the towering granite walls similar to Yosemite Valley in California, it is almost completely surrounded by national parks, allowing animals to roam between them in an unbroken, 4,000-mile area.
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Hagemann announced plans to develop the area with a hydroelectric installation, a network of power lines, and 39 miles of roads. The ink on the announcement had hardly dried when activists rose up against it led, as the New York Times reports, by Pablo Condeza, a self-described ‘hippie’ and long-time wilderness guide.
He founded a defense group called Puelo Patagonia dedicated to preserving the land and sued Hagemann for failing to undergo the proper environmental reviews. After years of legal battles, courts scuppered Hagemann’s plans, and the industrialist decided to sell out.
The price was $150 million, but after no one came forward with an offer, Puelo Patagonia entered into negotiations with the man with whom they had just spent the better part of half a decade in litigation.
The meetings must have had a strange start. Hagemann wanted at least $100 million, but Puelo Patagonia tried to convince him to sell at a fraction of the price.
OTHER HUGE CONSERVATION PURCHASES: Africa NGO Purchases World’s Largest Captive Rhino Population to Rewild 2,000 Across the Continent
“Due to this meeting, a long process of mutual knowledge and respectful dialogue began, that allowed us to reach mutual understanding and respect beyond our differences,” Mr. Hagemann told the Times.
A deal was concluded for $63 million, and Puelo Patagonia was given 3 years to come up with the cash, $30 million of which has already been raised by the Freyja Foundation and the Wyss Foundation. Several large philanthropic entities had been aware of the valley and its importance but considered the task of buying up all the individual ranch land too complex.
Now that one solitary cheque need be signed, one imagines they’ll jump at the chance.
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“This is an irreplaceable place… the missing puzzle piece,” said Jeff Parrish, a senior executive at the Nature Conservancy, which is advising the nonprofit group leading the purchase. “Had it been developed, it would have bifurcated a bunch of protected areas.”
Many of the most beautiful places in the United States were saved from development because of the actions of one or a few committed people who were at the right place at the right time. Pablo Condeza certainly fulfilled that role for his country, the continent of South America, and the world beyond.
SHARE This Incredible Place To Be Conserved Forever
Quote of the Day: “The love of beauty is one of Nature’s greatest healers” – Ellsworth Huntington
Photo by: Martin Sanchez
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115 years ago today, the inaugural Giro d’Italia, was held, with cyclists competing in 21 different stages across over 1,200 miles of the country. The origin of the race was to help increase sales of the newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport, and was set to start and end in Milano, the city where the paper was headquartered. Since then, it has become one of the three “grand tours” of cycling, and is considered the second-most prestigious behind the Tour de France. READ more… (1909)
Reprinted via EarthTalk®, From the Editors of E – The Environmental Magazine
While wind power has been a staple in renewable energy from the beginning, many of the original and old wind turbines have begun to show signs of aging.
Wind repowering is fixing this, by revamping old turbines with more efficient components, or putting in new, state-of-the-art turbines as a whole.
These new components can more efficiently power a turbine, reduce noise, and a deliver a higher overall energy output.
For example, Denmark became an early adopter of wind repowering, with a 1.3 GW gain in capacity and a reduction of 109 wind turbines, enabling substantially increased wind energy production with fewer turbines.
This promising data prompted a surge in wind repowering projects there—and already four years ago, 86 percent of wind energy projects there were classified as “repowered.”
Their signs of success and scalability showed other countries the benefits of wind repowering.
Now, the U.S. has more than 40 active wind repowering sites, with over 2,500 turbines having some type of renovation at any given moment.
CHECK OUT: Company Devises Ingenious Method of Repurposing Old Wind Turbines: ‘The perfect time’
This gale force of advancement, with help from large energy corporations like General Electric, is responsible for four gigawatts of energy, enough to power more than 30 million homes.
Wind repowering has energy, financial, aesthetic and technological benefits. Not only does it make units more efficient, it also removes units that might be aesthetically unpleasing, or in less efficient spots than they could be.
MYTH BUSTER: Not a Single Collision for Seabird Populations in Offshore Wind Farm Says $3M Radar Study
Wind repowering also increases the lifespan of turbines by as much as 20 years, and reduces the need for maintenance. Repowered turbines are also quieter, sleeker, and produce considerably more energy.
So, while there are many types of repowering efforts for other renewable energy sources, none are as comprehensive or successful as wind repowering. Not only is it a comprehensive option for revamping clean energy, but it doesn’t require the entry costs of building new wind farms.
We invite readers to call local officials or urge any nearby wind farms to look into wind repowering—and build on all the success.
EarthTalk® is produced by Roddy Scheer & Doug Moss for the 501(c)3 nonprofit EarthTalk. See more at emagazine.com. To donate, visit Earthtalk.org. Send questions to: [email protected].
(By SWNS / Talker News)
A rare World War II ‘pigeon parachute’ used to carry messages to the French resistance in Normandy ahead of D-Day has been found in a tattered old shoebox.
It was discovered—along with other D-Day-related documents—in the loft of a woman named Mrs. Ellington, who recently passed away in England.
Her family was left scratching their heads over the artifact—how it came to be there and what it was exactly. They had no idea what the fabric item was used for.
They were astonished to discover that she’d been keeping in her possession a very rare D-day pigeon parachute—and now they’ve donated the surviving piece of history to a museum.
The pigeon parachutes were used over Normandy in the days before the Allied Forces landed in France on June 6th, 1944.
Ahead of the planned attack, the British gathered homing pigeons from the local areas of coastal Normandy and used them to carry messages to the French resistance while the area was occupied and defended by thousands of Nazi troops.
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The pigeons carried instructions about blowing up communication lines, armories, and transports.
The pigeon would have been dropped by a light plane low over France, and once released the pigeons could struggle free of the parachute and fly off to their home coop.
This method was considered safer than using coded radio messages.
HISTORY HERO: U.S. Honors 98-yo Irish Woman Whose Storm Forecast Fortuitously Delayed D-Day Landings, Changing the Course of WWII
The pigeon parachute is now on display in the D-Day exhibition at House on the Hill Museum in Standsted Mountfitchet, Essex.
FLY THIS WWII ODDITY to History Lovers on Social Media…
A woman in the city of Wolverhampton, England, suddenly discovered a South American monkey in her greenhouse, and scrambled to figure out who to call.
The animal charity Wings and Paws said they were contacted by a distressed woman who reported a “strange wild animal with a bushy tail” leaping about her property.
Volunteers who arrived on the scene expected to find a squirrel or a fox but were left shocked to see a monkey casually sitting on the kitchen countertop.
“We’re more used to dealing with domestic pets and farmyard animals like dogs, cats and horses so it was certainly a shock to discover a monkey,” said volunteer Gemma Warner.
It turned out to be a marmoset—5,400 miles away from his native South America—most likely an unwanted pet left to fend for himself in the West Midlands of Great Britain.
“Its lucky we found him because the cold would have killed him if he’d been left on the streets of Wolverhampton.”
They were able to entice ‘Marcel’ into a cage to take back to their rescue centre—and things only got better from there.
Volunteers spent several weeks nursing him back to full health—and now they’ve found him a suitable home, which had the added bonus of a potential new girlfriend.
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He was offered a place at Monkey World 200 miles away in Wareham, Dorset, and made the journey there on Wednesday.
Once he has settled into his new enclosure, Marcel will be introduced to a female in residence, and it’s hoped the pair will hit it off.
“It was mixed emotions seeing him go because he was such a sweetheart who we had grown really fond of,” said Gemma.
“But we are obviously ecstatic for him as it’s undoubtedly the best place for him. We were really happy to find him somewhere suitable.”
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It wasn’t an easy task though, Monkey World—like Wings and Paws, and other rescue facilities—was full.
“The owner jiggled some things around and he now has a lovely big enclosure to explore.
“Our volunteers worked relentlessly to make this happen and Monkey World could see he deserved a new start. We’re really grateful.”
“We are sad to see him go but over the moon for him.
Marmosets are mainly found in the tropical rainforests of South America, with a few populations in Central America.
It is currently legal in the UK to keep them as pets, but new rules adopted earlier this year by the government will make it illegal to keep monkeys, lemurs, and other primates without a license beginning in 2026.
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Sharing the news on social media, Wings and Paws added: “What a fabulous end to our rescue mission – this is what it’s all about! Rescues helping rescues and saving lives!”
SHARE THE MONKEY BUSINESS With Animal Lovers on Social Media…
On average, people need to spend 67 minutes outside every day in order to feel refreshed, according to a new poll conducted for Mental Health Awareness Month in May.
The survey of 2,000 adults in the U.S. revealed that over half of Americans (57%) say they are craving time spent outdoors more today than ever before.
Results found 68% of those who spent time outside saying it relaxes them, puts them in a better mood, and helps them clear their heads.
Likewise, spending too much time indoors has led to feelings of depression for 38%, anxiousness for 33%, and loneliness for 32% of those polled, according to the research.
Six in 10 said they get stir-crazy after spending too much time inside—with negative emotions resulting from outdoor plans getting derailed by cancellations or bad weather.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, 16% of respondents have experienced a shift in their travel preferences, favoring places in nature, according to the poll conducted by Talker Research on behalf of RVshare.
“From enhanced mood to feelings of relaxation and wellbeing, there are so many physical and mental benefits that come from breaking through the four walls and exploring open-air adventures and activities,” said RVshare’s CEO Jon Gray.
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“During Mental Health Awareness Month, we are encouraged to be mindful of how we’re spending our time and factor outdoor experiences into our everyday lives, including our travel plans.”
Respondents also shared their favorite outdoor activities, with a majority saying they enjoy these because they can benefit both mental and physical health. Some of these included walking, grilling, hiking, bicycling, and sports.
Findings showed that 67% of Americans view travel as a method of self-care and four in 10 (42%) said they need to book a trip to “escape” at least once every six months.
Those who vacation in the great outdoors are seeing benefits to their mental health through reduced stress (36%), mental recharging (33%), and becoming more grateful for the things they have (23%).
One-third of respondents regularly choose vacations centered around outdoor activities, with 44% most excited about trips to the beach, 29% choosing national parks, and 12% preferring cross-country road trips.
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Over half (57%) preferred driving to their destination, compared to flying (25%). This could be due to the belief that the journey to a destination is part of the vacation itself, which is felt by the majority of respondents (83%).
All in all, outdoor trips are having a positive impact on American lives, as indicated by 83% of survey respondents.
“A key takeaway here is that spending time in nature and on the open road while traveling has both physical and mental benefits,” said Gray. “Whether soaking up the sun, hiking a new trail or gazing up at the starry sky, we’ve all experienced the invaluable renewal, mental clarity and freeness that comes from being outdoors.”
SCIENCE SAYS GO OUTSIDE: ‘Nature Prescriptions’ Improve Both Physical and Mental Health – 28 Studies to Date
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