The invasive basket asparagus fern was grown as an ornamental - Queensland Government, released
The invasive basket asparagus fern was grown as an ornamental – Queensland Government, released
While most Americans will think of asparagus as a tasty compliment to a fish dinner, or alternatively as an inedibly, mushy, misery stick to be substituted for potatoes in every occasion, Down Under it is an entirely different situation.
The asparagus fern is one of the most serially invasive plants on the continent, and one Australian man has gone as far as to declare war on them, armed with a clever weapon of mass de-weeding he invented himself.
In the northern state of Queensland, Ron Gooch took his battery electric drill and modified the hole saw attachment with a section of sewer piping to create “The Asparagus Assassin” which he has used for years to clear the invasive basket asparagus fern.
“There’s a lot of bush between us and the beach and it was full of weeds,” Mr. Gooch, a resident of Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, told ABC News Australia. “It became a passion to get rid of the weeds and asparagus was one of the major ones.”
Australia has spent half a century trying to eliminate invasive species, as the isolated continent was overwhelmed by species that quickly filled unoccupied niches in the landscape. Some of the most famous culprits are foxes, feral cats, and cane toads, but prickly pear cactus had become the tyrant pest of the vegetable kingdom.
It was eventually eradicated from Australia with the help of a tiny insect, but the basket asparagus fern has only human enemies like Gooch at the moment. The plant was brought as an ornamental that eventually spread out of control.
But there are reasons to be sunny about the situation on the Sunshine Coast, as a local group of “bushcare” volunteers found that Gooch’s Asparagus Assassin was so effective that they needed more, and secured a grant for five more.
With extensive underground root systems, pulling the basket asparagus fern out of the ground isn’t enough. The assassin is used to tunnel down to the crown of the roots, encircle it, and then saw away all the connecting roots, ensuring it can’t grow back.
Gooch isn’t planning on monetizing the tool because he doesn’t want to manage the production, but hopes others will use his design to combat weeds in their environs.
In a video on ABC, Gooch demonstrates the difference between using a folding hand saw to remove the crown and using his assassin, and the job is done in about a quarter of the time.
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Two Russian schoolboys, working as cloakroom attendants when the recent terrorist attack occurred at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall, have been hailed as heroes for assisting in the rescue of hundreds of fleeing concertgoers.
Islam Khalilov, 15, and Artyom Donskoy, 14 were awarded medals for bravery in a ceremony by Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights.
On March 22nd, gunmen stormed the Crocus and began firing on those attending a rock concert and setting fire to the theater.
Khalilov—an immigrant from the Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan, told reporters he thought that some workers were doing “noisy” repair work in the hall, but realized something was wrong when people came running.
He and Donskoy helped lead the fleeing attendees away from dead-end hallways and locked maintenance doors and out through the exits.
“I understood that if I didn’t react, many people including me would lose their lives,” Islam said, according to the BBC. He added that he was the last to exit the venue, “so that I didn’t leave anyone behind”.
The attack is believed to have been perpetrated by four men from the majority-Muslim country of Tajikistan.
The Grand Mufti of Russia, an important Islamic religious leader named Ravil Gaynutdin, said young Khalilov, who is also a Muslim, would be presented with the Medal of Muslims of Russia during Friday prayers this week.
A reward was also forthcoming to the young man from the popular Russian Rapper Morgenshtern, who said he would send the boy 1 million roubles ($10,900) to say thank you.
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Quote of the Day: “Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without.” – James Baldwin
Photo by: Polina Kovaleva
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76 years ago today, a mere 11 days after being released from prison, jazz singer Billie Holiday played in front of a sold-out crowd at Carnegie Hall, NYC. Holiday was supposed to have hesitated when her manager suggested a comeback performance at the famous hall, unsure if audiences would accept her after the arrest. She gave in and agreed to appear. Two thousand seven hundred tickets were sold in advance, a record at the time for the venue. READ about her trial, arrest, and shocking performance… (1948)
A dark sky above the Oregon Outback, credit DarkSky International
A dark sky above the Oregon Outback, credit DarkSky International
Oregon is now the new home of the world’s 19th dark sky sanctuary, offering pristine views of the night sky across over 3,800 square miles, making it the largest of its kind.
The certification, issued by DarkSky International, involved a years-long effort by federal, state, and local officials, community members, and several legal jurisdictions.
The first zone of the total amount of area submitted for certification comprises 2.5 million acres in Lake County, southeastern Oregon. The certified area is about one-half the size of New Jersey in a region frequently referred to as the “Oregon Outback,” considered a paradise for stargazers.
If completed, the full Oregon Outback International Dark Sky Sanctuary (OOIDSS) will encompass over 11.4 million acres of voluntarily protected night skies.
“As the population of Oregon and the trend of light pollution continue to rise, the unparalleled scale and quality of the Outback’s dark skies will long serve as a starry refuge for people and wildlife alike,” said DarkSky Delegate Dawn Nilson, who organized Oregon’s application.
Founded in 2001, the International Dark Sky Places Program is a non-regulatory and voluntary program to encourage communities, parks, and protected areas around the world to preserve and protect dark sites through effective lighting policies, environmentally responsible outdoor lighting, and public education. Their work has created a network of Dark Sky places, sanctuaries, and parks encompassing over 160,000 square kilometers in 22 countries worldwide.
The Oregon Outback is situated in the northern extent of the Basin and Range Province of the Western United States. It’s sparsely populated, very remote, and primarily comprises public lands. It’s a high desert area characterized by sage scrub and abrupt changes in topography that’s home to a variety of iconic American wildlife such as the bighorn sheep and greater sage grouse.
Public officials and a variety of other stakeholders participated in night sky monitoring, lighting inventories, lighting improvements (i.e. decommissioned 14 lights and retrofitted 60 lights on public and private land), and public outreach to bring the nomination together.
Phase 2 of the OOIDSS application includes portions of Harney and Malheur counties to the east of Lake County. Only a few lighting retrofits, and local approvals are outstanding in the Phase 2 area which would need to be addressed for the full application to go through.
Other famous Dark Sky Parks in the US include all the National Parks in Utah, Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida, and Big Bend National Park in Texas.
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Here’s a hypothetical: You want to give away $640 million, but you want to give it away to many different groups. How do you find the groups? How do you process value judgments between charities and non-profit organizations and decide who to uplift and who to ignore?
Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has figured it out, as part of her commitment to relinquish all the money she received in her divorce settlement with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
She had already given away billions, but wanted to hone the process in time for her next distribution.
An organization set up to help her navigate this problem, Yield Giving, recently completed an open call process for a grant money giveaway wherein Scott donated double the millions she originally earmarked—in the end, helping 361 charities and nonprofits with grants of one to two million dollars each.
Yield Giving conducted investigations into the processes, transparency, and effectiveness of all the orgs that applied for a grant through the open call process alongside an organizer called Levers for Change.
The evaluation was done through “careful analysis of criteria specific to their size, geography, and mission for indicators of high potential for sustained positive impact, including stable finances, multi-year track records, measurement and evidence of outcomes, and experienced leadership representative of the community served,” Yield wrote on their website.
“The 279 nonprofits that received top scores from an external review panel were awarded $2 million, while 82 organizations in a second tier received $1 million each,” AP News reported.
In a blog post on Yield Giving, Ms. Scott explained the process that saw Levers for Change whittle through a pool of over 6,000 applicants.
“Each of these 361 community-led non-profits was elevated… for their outstanding work advancing the voices and opportunities of individuals and families of meager or modest means, and groups who have met with discrimination and other systemic obstacles,” she wrote.
A scroll through the total list of recipients shows that many of the donations went to human-centered work: improving opportunities for disadvantaged youth, aiding those unfairly battered by the criminal justice system, connecting victims of trauma and violence with people and groups who can help them, or securing stability for the homeless or immigrants, just to name a few.
Many of the organizations released statements upon receiving the gift, which came along with a letter from Scott explaining her appreciation for their work.
Able SC is a disability-led organization seeking transformational changes in systems and communities to better support disabled people.
“Able South Carolina is thrilled and overjoyed to be selected not only to receive this gift from Yield Giving but also as one of the top-rated organizations in the nation,” said Able SC President and CEO Kimberly Tissot.
“This gift brings our vision closer to reality. With $2 million, we will invest this towards our big goals of developing a nationally recognized disability-led initiative.”
Avenues for Justice has diverted thousands of NYC youth from incarceration since 1979.
“By providing the youth of New York City a second chance to fulfill their potential and reach for their dreams, Avenues for Justice attempts to meet those goals every day,” said AFJ Board Chair, Alanna Rutherford. “We thank Yield Giving Open Call for the opportunity to expand our education, mentorship, job training, and other services that we provide our clients.”
The Colorado Fiscal Institute uses research, advocacy, strategic communications, and statewide education to promote responsible, people-centered, fiscal, and economic policies that advance equity and widespread prosperity in Colorado.
“We’re deeply grateful to receive this generous gift from MacKenzie Scott. It’s a testament to the efforts of our incredible staff, current and former board of directors, amazing local funders and supporters who’ve been with us all this time… with whom we’ve been working toward our shared vision of a state where our fiscal and economic policies support equity and widespread prosperity,” said CFI Executive Director Kathy White.
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Everglades National Park, Marjory Stoneman Douglas/NPS
Everglades National Park, Marjory Stoneman Douglas/NPS
24 years ago, a fledging Good News Network reported on a vote in Congress to restore the Florida Everglades.
Rep. Clay Shaw, (R – FL) who left office in 2007, and who passed away a decade ago, called the plan “the biggest environmental restoration project in the history of the world” at the time, which aimed to undo the Army Corps of Engineers “Drain the Everglades” project which started in 1949.
Today, that plan is now in full effect, with over 60 infrastructure projects earmarked for $20 billion that will perform ecosystem-wide “heart bypass surgery.” The Florida fiscal year 2024 budget alone included $740 million for this kind of work, which the Everglades Foundation applauded.
As featured in CBS Mornings, the Drain the Everglades project disconnected Lake Okeechobee from feeding the Everglades ecosystem. This large lake gradually fed the 300-mile-wide river of grass that is the Everglades, and when it was removed, the water quality and quantity declined precipitously.
As wet as it is, South Florida has experienced a catalogue of environmental problems stemming from the loss of water from Lake Okeechobee, including seagrass die-offs, exacerbation of red tide, wildfires in the Everglades ecosystem, and blue-green algae blooms.
Reconnecting the “beating heart,” or the lake, to the millions of acres its water helps refresh is the aim of the modern-day restoration effort.
The first step was to build a large reservoir south of the lake, which has been partially completed already. The next will be to raise up the Tamiami Road, an east-west byway that cuts significant water flow off to the southern Everglades.
Florida sugar plantations are also an impediment to the restoration work. Runoff from the agricultural fields would otherwise contaminate the Everglades, and the state has responded by building the largest man-made wetland on Earth (63,000 acres) to capture the runoff.
The construction was paid for upfront by the state, with polluters footing the financing in the form of a pollution tax, levied particularly hard on the large sugar plantations, CBS reports.
It’s estimated the reservoir will be finished by 2036, and restoration participants believe it won’t be for another 15 years that the landscape and the people of South Florida really begin to experience the benefits of these projects.
But these are all small incremental steps in a project that might not intend to move heaven, but certainly the earth, to give South Florida’s wildlife, wetlands, and people back the healthy river of grass that has no equal in size and complexity anywhere in the world.
WATCH the story below with CBS Morning’s Jeff Glor…
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People gather to watch the annular solar eclipse in Albuquerque –REUTERS/Adria Malcolm
A solar eclipse is coming on April 8th, 2024, and unlike when it drifts across the Indian Ocean or somewhere equally remote, this year’s event is going right across North America.
Occurring when the moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, eclipses are one of the most exciting phenomena for people who like to look up at the heavenly vault.
A total solar eclipse like this one only occurs every year or two, and there’s no guarantee for it to happen in places where no people live. The total solar eclipse on April 8th will be visible across Mexico, the United States, and Canada. That’s why some people are calling it “The Great North American Eclipse.”
Nearly everyone in North America will be able to see the Moon cover part of the Sun. That forms a partial eclipse, where crescents of the Sun remain visible. This time, and like the 2017 eclipse that passed over North America, millions of people will be in the “path of totality.” That means they will be able to see the sky turn to dusk in the middle of the day
The total solar eclipse begins in Mexico on the morning of April 8th. It will then cross into Texas in the United States. After that, it will pass Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Parts of Tennessee and Michigan can see it too. Then the total solar eclipse will reach Canada. The town of Maberly will be the last place on land to see it.
The total eclipse, the kind that noticeably drops the light and temperature, only lasts for a couple of minutes. But it takes about three hours for the Moon to completely move over the Sun.
Neiva, Colombia – REUTERS/Vannessa Jimenez
The Sun is about 400 times wider than the Moon. However, the Moon is about 400 times closer to the Earth. That’s why they appear roughly the same size from our planet
Whatever your view, partial or total, never look directly at the Sun because it can burn parts of your eye or cause blindness. Even a short while is enough to cause permanent damage. The only time it is safe to look at a solar eclipse is when the Moon covers the Sun completely.
But Amazon sells a variety of special eclipse glasses and solar viewers that not only allow you to look directly at the Sun, but see even more of the Sun’s activity behind the moon, such as coronal mass ejections.
Quote of the Day: “Memory is part of the present. It builds us up inside and keeps us who we are.” – Gregory Maguire
Photo by: Felipe Galvan
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49 years ago today, the Biological Weapons Convention, (BWC) entered into force. It’s considered to have established a strong global norm against biological weapons reflected in the treaty’s preamble, which states that the use of biological weapons would be “repugnant to the conscience of mankind”. It is also demonstrated by the fact that not a single state today declares to possess or seek biological weapons, or asserts that their use in war is legitimate, and today, only Israel, Chad, Eritrea, and 5 small island nations have not signed the agreement. READ more about the BWC… (1979)
Less than three months after U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin and her colleagues launched an investigation into the four major American manufacturers of inhalers, three of the companies have relented, making commitments to cap costs for their inhalers at $35 for patients who now pay much more.
25 million Americans have asthma and 16 million Americans have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), meaning over 40 million Americans rely on inhalers to breathe.
Inhalers have been available since the 1950s, and most of the drugs they use have been on the market for more than 25 years.
According to a statement from the Wisconsin Senator’s office, inhaler manufacturers sell the exact same products at a much lower costs in other countries. One of AstraZeneca’s inhalers, Breztri Aerosphere, costs $645 in the U.S.—but just $49 in the UK. Inhalers made by Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, and Teva have similar disparities.
Baldwin and her Democratic colleagues—New Mexico Sen. Ben Ray Luján, Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders—pressured the companies to lower their prices by writing letters to GSK, Boehringer Ingelheim, Teva, and AstraZeneca requesting a variety of documents that show why such higher prices are charged in America compared to Europe.
As a ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, Baldwin recently announced that as a result of the letters they had secured commitments from three of the four to lower the out-of-pocket costs of inhalers to a fixed $35.00 rate.
“For the millions of Americans who rely on inhalers to breathe, this news is a major step in the right direction as we work to lower costs and hold big drug companies accountable,” said Senator Baldwin.
It’s the second time in the last year that pharmaceutical companies were forced to provide reasonable prices—after the cost of insulin was similarly capped successfully at $35 per month thanks to Congressional actions led by the White House.
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A trained demonstrator bee, paired with an observer bee that must learn the full solution, examine the inaccessible target on a closed puzzle box. Credit: Queen Mary University of London.
A trained demonstrator bee, paired with an observer bee that must learn the full solution, examine the inaccessible target on a closed puzzle box. Credit: Queen Mary University of London.
Bumblebees can teach others new behaviors too complex for them to learn alone, suggests a paper published in Nature that essentially posits humans and bees share knowledge in exactly the same way.
In the study, a bee taught to solve a puzzle for a sugary reward was able to train other bees to complete the task, providing evidence that bees can socially learn some behaviors at a level of complexity previously thought to be unique to humans and our ancestors.
Culture is a word that’s thrown around quite a lot, but at the root of it is the designation of a particular behavior that is socially learned and persists over time.
Increasing evidence suggests that, like human culture, animal culture can be cumulative, with sequential behaviors building on previous ones. Human cumulative culture involves behaviors so complex that they lie beyond the capacity of any individual to independently discover during their lifetime.
However, this behavior has not yet been demonstrated in an invertebrate species, generally considered at the bottom of the barrel of intelligent life.
“You and I are both, biologically speaking, African apes, but I am writing this on a laptop in Cornwall, and you might be reading it in Colombo, Caracas, or Canberra,” writes co-author of the study Alex Thorton. “This reflects one of the most remarkable attributes of the human species—the progressive improvement of skills and technologies as innovations spread and are built on.”
Bumblebees, however, are extremely social insects that have proven themselves capable of acquiring non-natural behaviors, such as string-pulling and ball-rolling, via social learning in order to gain rewards.
Alice Bridges, Lars Chittka, Alex Thorton, and their colleagues set up a difficult task to investigate whether bumblebees are capable of learning more complex behaviors from others in the colony.
They designed a two-step puzzle box in which the bees first must move an obstacle to allow a rotating lid to be opened, revealing a sucrose reward. Members from three separate colonies were given 24 days (a sizeable chunk of a bee’s life) to work this out, but not a single one succeeded independently through trial and error.
Indeed, it took around two days to train demonstrator bees to complete the task, often requiring a reward at the first step.
“Imagine you dropped some children on a deserted island, they might with a bit of luck survive,” said Dr. Chittka, a professor of sensory and behavioral ecology. “But they would never know how to read or to write because this requires learning from previous generations.”
However, untrained bees quickly learned to open the two-step box from these demonstrators without needing a reward after the first step. The findings provide evidence that bumblebees are capable of social learning and possibly cultural transmission.
WATCH the bees in action below…
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Anchor from ancient shipwreck – Credit: Kasos Maritime Archaeological Project / Greek Ministry of Culture
Anchor from ancient shipwreck – Credit: Kasos Maritime Archaeological Project / Greek Ministry of Culture
Covering almost 5,000 years of history, a team of maritime archaeologists from Greece have located a series of shipwrecks off the coast of the island of Kasos.
Dating from as far back as (3,000 BCE), and through the Classical period (460 BCE), the Hellenistic Age (100 BCE to 100 CE) and Roman times, all the way up to the Byzantine period (800 to 900 CE), the medieval, and Ottoman periods, they are like a barnacle-encrusted history of Hellas and her neighbors.
Since 2019, the research team of the National Hellenic Research Foundation in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture has utilized sources, testimonies, and references, from Homer’s Iliad until modern times, to locate the wrecks, according to the Ministry.
In the epic, Homer writes that the people of Kasos sent ships to fight in the wars with Ilium (Troy).
The findings were recorded and documented with modern scientific methods, while sample recoveries of archaeological objects were carried out, the study of which offers new information and archaeological data, aspects of the history of Kasos, and the rich cultural heritage of the Mediterranean.
Sunken remains of ancient ships with merchandise from Spain, Italy, Africa, and the coast of Asia Minor were brought to light by an interdisciplinary team of Greek and foreign researchers that included divers, geologists, and others.
Among some of the objects discovered were amphorae stamped with a seal from Spain in 170 CE, as well as drinking vessels and flasks from Roman North Africa. A stone anchor was identified from the period in the aftermath of the Trojan wars.
The Kasos maritime project was documented with underwater footage for an 11-minute film called Diving into Aegean History
WATCH the film below…
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Caption – (left) Save the Redwoods President and CEO Sam Hodder, Redwood National and State Parks Superintendent Steven Mietz, Yurok Chairman Joseph L. James and California State Parks North Coast Redwoods Superintendent Victor Bjelajac sign the landmark agreement at ‘O Rew.
Caption – (left) Save the Redwoods President and CEO Sam Hodder, Redwood National and State Parks Superintendent Steven Mietz, Yurok Chairman Joseph L. James and California State Parks North Coast Redwoods Superintendent Victor Bjelajac sign the landmark agreement at ‘O Rew.
The Yurok will be the first Tribal nation to co-manage land with the National Park Service under a historic memorandum of understanding signed on Tuesday by the tribe, Redwood national and state parks, and the non-profit Save the Redwoods League, according to news reports.
The Yurok tribe has seen a wave of successes in recent years, successfully campaigning for the removal of a series of dams on the Klamath River, where salmon once ran up to their territory, and with the signing of a new memorandum of understanding, the Yurok are set to reclaim more of what was theirs.
Save the Redwoods League bought a property containing these remarkable trees in 2013, and began working with the tribe to restore it, planting 50,000 native plants in the process. The location was within lands the Yurok once owned but were taken during the Gold Rush period.
Centuries passed, and by the time it was purchased it had been used as a lumber operation for 50 years, and the nearby Prairie Creek where the Yurok once harvested salmon had been buried.
Currently located on the fringe of Redwoods National and State Parks which receive over 1 million visitors every year and is a UNESCO Natural Heritage Site, the property has been renamed ‘O Rew, a Yurok word for the area.
“Today we acknowledge and celebrate the opportunity to return Indigenous guardianship to ‘O Rew and reimagine how millions of visitors from around the world experience the redwoods,” said Sam Hodder, president and CEO of Save the Redwoods League.
Reconstructed Yurok plankhouse made of redwood boards harvested from dead trees – NPS
Having restored Prarie Creek and filled it with chinook and coho salmon, red-legged frogs, northwestern salamanders, waterfowl, and other species, the tribe has said they will build a traditional village site to showcase their culture, including redwood-plank huts, a sweat house, and a museum to contain many of the tribal artifacts they’ve recovered from museum collections.
Believing the giant trees sacred, they only use fallen trees to build their lodges.
“As the original stewards of this land, we look forward to working together with the Redwood national and state parks to manage it,” said Rosie Clayburn, the tribe’s cultural resources director.
It will add an additional mile of trails to the park system, and connect them with popular redwood groves as well as new interactive exhibits.
“This is a first-of-its-kind arrangement, where Tribal land is co-stewarded with a national park as its gateway to millions of visitors. This action will deepen the relationship between Tribes and the National Park Service,” said Redwoods National Park Superintendent Steve Mietz, adding that it would “heal the land while healing the relationships among all the people who inhabit this magnificent forest.”
Quote of the Day: “We need 4 hugs a day for survival. We need 8 hugs a day for maintenance. We need 12 hugs a day for growth.” – Virginia Satir (renowned as the ‘Mother of Family Therapy’)
Photo by: Anastasia Vityukova
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
65 years ago today, Elvis Presley performed live at Pearl Harbor’s Bloch Arena in a benefit for the USS Arizona Memorial. The concert was sold out. Even the opening acts before Elvis took the stage (such as Minnie Pearl) had to buy their tickets. It was Elvis’s return to performing after a stint in the army and there was no better cause one could imagine. READ how much was raised… (1959)
Reprinted with permission and alterations from World at Large, an independent news outlet covering world news, conflicts, travel stories, conservation, and science news.
The smells of cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove have different uses around the world, but when the scent of these South Asian spices wafts through an American kitchen, it almost invariably means one thing—it’s the most wonderful time of the year.
Mulled wine, gingerbread cookies, and pumpkin spice lattes are just some of the holiday season treats that include these super aromatic spices, but where tradition has relegated them to seasonal cooking in Europe and North America, their historic use in Asia has been medicine.
Cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves perfectly classify as “nutraceuticals,” a scientific shorthand for foods so rich in fitness-promoting compounds that they mirror the pharmacological potential of synthetic drugs and medicines. Multiple studies have looked at the effects of the cocktails of antioxidants and other nutrients present in these Christmas spices and found they demonstrate potent protection against pathogens through their antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal effects.
They are commonly cited as potent antioxidants, which bears some explaining. Antioxidants get their name from their function of donating a spare electron to molecules produced as the billions of mitochondria in our bodies generate energy. These molecules are known as free radicals, or reactive oxygen species, and are one of the key drivers of aging, and numerous other diseases—a pathology known as oxidative stress.
However not all antioxidants are created equally, and the potency of some, for example oranges, pale in comparison to the potency of others, for example garlic.
Scientists at the National Institute for Aging at the NIH have developed a scale to measure the antioxidant potential of foods, known as ORAC Values. Looking among the highest-ranked compounds, caloric food is noticeably absent from the top 50. Ground clove is the 8th highest in the world, and is probably one of two or three ingredients in the top 10 you’ll have even heard of. Cinnamon sits at number 16, and nutmeg at 34.
With an ORAC value of 290,000, ground clove is 10 times more potent than cranberries, nearly 19 times more potent than raspberries, and nearly 30 times more potent than an orange.
Cloves by Amitha A R
Oxidative stress was once believed to be the reason we aged at all, which highlights the tremendous importance of including high-quality antioxidants in the diet.
In a literature review published at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Vanderbilt, spices were shown to have high value as functional medicines. Some of the items highlighted in the review, such as garlic or turmeric, aren’t universally enjoyed, which is where the Christmas spices come in.
Cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves are roundly enjoyed for their pleasant smells and the warm sensation they confer, making them an easier suggestion for someone who doesn’t cook with herbs and spices quite often.
Cinnamon has been found to slow gastric emptying, reducing the rise in post-prandial blood glucose. The volatile oils in cinnamon, called cinnamic acid, show antifungal and antibacterial effects, and they can even help with type 2 diabetes patients after being shown to cause a .83% decrease in hemoglobin A1C levels. Cinnamon is a key ingredient in what is known in America as spicy chai tea, and makes for a perfect after-dinner drink for these reasons. Cinnamon is also a great to add to yogurt, sweet potatoes, squash, and baked bread.
Ground cloves are one of the most important spices in Ayurvedic medicine in India, and just a tiny amount of the oils contained within have been shown to kill B tuberculosis. The oils have been investigated for the potential similarities to the common drug paracetamol—to reduce inflammation via Cox-2.
Clove also acts as an iron chelator and is effective at clearing hydroxy radicals. It’s been theorized as a treatment for breast cancer and prevents the breakdown of the eye’s retina. As mentioned before, apart from sumac, a spice commonly eaten in Turkish cuisine, and a few other things you’ve probably never heard of, ground clove is the most powerful, edible, antioxidant we know of.
Nutmeg has been investigated, like the other two, for a variety of therapeutic effects. Essential nutmeg oil was found to clear gram-positive pathogenic bacteria species Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermis, and gram-negative bacteria Shigella Dysenteriae, and Salmonella Typhi. Continuing on the theme of medicine, nutmeg has been recorded as a constituent ingredient in treatments for rheumatism, sciatica, malaria, dysentery, nausea, and even the early stages of leprosy.
In India and China, nutmeg is an important and proven antidiarrheal agent, and has also been identified as a potential antidepressant, while another literary review found that nutmeg’s composition of phytonutrients contains compounds known to improve anabolic action in the metabolism of bone, allergenic reactions, and enhance the repressing of lipid peroxidation.
One study found that nutmeg alcohol extract remarkably decreased liver function indexes, blood glucose, lipid accumulation, cholesterol levels, and inflammation levels in mice.
Two studies also found that nutmeg can or might be able to aid in treating colon cancer, breast cancer, and skin papilloma, while a third found that in vitro non-small-cell lung cancer was suppressed with a multi-herb formula containing nutmeg.
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After listening to the media, you might think America has sunk into a political civil war, with neighbors fighting neighbors—and each side convinced the other will ruin the country.
Political debate has indeed become rancorous, but dig into the thoughts and feelings of everyday Americans and you will discover that things are better than you think.
Dubbed the most optimistic pollster in the country, The Harris Poll’s chief executive Will Johnson says the supposed divides disappear when you consider values, points of view, and experiences beyond politics.
“It turns out that we’re more alike than different,” says Johnson. People on the Left, Right, and Middle “all want to make a difference in the world, value learning and growing, and, most of all, crave love and caring. To put it plainly, our hearts are in sync.”
Of course, political views matter, but they are notoriously changeable and they can neglect to capture the complexity of the attitudes of individuals—and the results often challenge conventional wisdom.
In a Harris poll commissioned by Time, for instance, respondents were asked to select adjectives to describe their own life. They picked “hopeful” and “happy” as the top two. Only in third place was negative feeling, “frustrated”.
Johnson insists that his Harris Poll data shows that Americans share many more values than they disagree on. Many enjoy having friends who hold different perspectives than theirs, and understand that they want the same things for themselves and their families. (And this is based on respondents who’ve been selected to reflect the U.S. population by gender, age, region, political affiliation, and economic status.)
Americans are more cheerful than headlines would suggest, when asked about their relationships with each other:
• 76% see the good in those they disagree with
• 71% have a friend who doesn’t share their views
• 57% think the “culture wars” are overblown in terms of how important the issues of those debates are to daily life
• 57% think most Americans get along with one another
• 56% believe that opportunities exist for nearly all to attain the American dream.
The rise in the number of Independents with no party affiliation likely reflects the shared values of people who occupy the vast middle of the political spectrum.
While other pollsters may look for black-and-white conclusions, Johnson always looks for the values beneath the surface.
“The idea that people can be put in a political box, which will then reflect the mood of the country, is outdated,” says Johnson. “Our goal is to find the nuance in U.S. public opinion since so much of our world is gray.”
One final word from Johnson on the truth about a so-called divided America. “The country has problems, for sure,” he says. “But most people remain hopeful and can see the big picture.”
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A couple who ordered a cake replica of their dog found that it was so realistic they couldn’t bring themselves to cut it.
Anna Railton and Chris Smowton bought an edible version of their pet Arthur for a joint birthday celebration.
But when the life-sized whippet dessert arrived, the English pair described it as “uncanny”, and had to get someone else to take a knife to it.
“It was literally the same size and weight as my dog—twice the size of what I thought it was going to be!” recalls Anna
“It came in this genuinely ridiculous huge box and I was thinking ‘my god, what have I done!”
The impressive cake was made by designers at The Cake Shop in the Oxford Covered Market.
Chris ready to eat the cake’s eyeball – Anna Railton and Chris Smowton / SWNS
“I have ordered cakes from them before and they are massive legends who enjoy doing non-standard cakes.”
The cake was set to feed 30 to 40 people, and Anna sent over various images of her beloved eight-year-old pooch, but she presumed it would be just a normal cake size.
Despite having a faulty metal detector and having to use an old back-up, a treasure hunter discovered the largest gold nugget ever found in England.
Richard Brock traveled three-and-a-half hours from his home in Somerset to join an organized expedition on farmland in the Shropshire Hills.
Upon arrival, he found he had difficulty with his detecting device and had to resort to using a dodgy older machine that was not even working properly.
But minutes later, the 67-year-old, who has been metal detecting for 35 years, discovered the biggest find of his life—unearthing a golden nugget weighing 64.8 grams.
“I actually arrived about an hour late, thinking I’d missed the action,” said the father-of-four who’s been detecting since 1989.
“Everyone there had all this up-to-date kit and I bowled up with three old machines, and one of them broke down there and then.
“After only 20 minutes of scanning the ground with this back-up detector that had a fading screen display, I found this nugget buried about five of six inches down in the ground.
By Richard Brock via SWNS
“I was a perhaps bit too honest and started showing people, and then all of a sudden I had swarms of other detectorists scanning the same area.
“The machine I was using was pretty much kaput and only half working. It just goes to show that it doesn’t really matter what equipment you use.
“If you are walking over the find and are alert enough to what might be lurking underneath the soil, that makes all the difference.
“I couldn’t look for anything else as I had the land owner, the organizer of the dig and every other detectorist around me trying to get a look at this nugget.”
Just what a gold nugget was doing in the Shropshire Hills, near Much Wenlock, remains somewhat of a mystery, although the area is believed to have been an old track or road with railway lines running through, containing stone likely distributed from Wales, a country known to be rich in gold.
The only examples of gold nuggets bigger than Richard’s in Britain have been found in either Wales or Scotland.
“The last one which claimed to be bigger in England was 54 grams but mine is 64.8 grams, so we’re pretty confident its the biggest found on English soil.
Named ‘Hiro’s Nugget’, the metal lump is being sold by Mullock Jones Auctioneers in an online auction that runs until April 1, which they hope will fetch tens of thousands.
In a generous gesture, Richard says he’s going to split the proceeds with the land owner.
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