Are you constantly throwing out food that you didn't get around to eating?
In an effort to cut waste, a Geneva nonprofit is rolling out street-side, free-access refrigerators where people can give and take food that might otherwise perish.
The project launched a year ago with a single fridge outside a community centre. The first fridge helped save around three metric tonnes of food from going to waste last year.
Geneva now has four fridges, strategically placed around town, with a fifth one planned before the end of the year.
Run by nonprofit Free-Go - whose name riffs off the word 'frigo', a colloquial French term for refrigerator - the programme costs about €36,500 to run each year. It is funded by charity groups and the city government.
Read More/Source: https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/08/01/free-food-genevas-community-pantries-use-the-sharing-economy-to-prevent-food-waste
NORTH AMERICA
California Couple Renews Vows from Their Hospital Beds After 66 Years of Marriage: "Enduring Love"
During the "unforgettable ceremony," the couple, both in their 90s, renewed their vows at St. John’s Regional Medical Center.
Jesse Cirino, 91, and wife Mary Lou Cirino, 92, were admitted separately to Dignity Health – St. John’s Regional Medical Center in July, according to the Ventura County Star.
Jesse was having heart procedures, while his wife was dealing with severe abdominal pain, per the Star and ABC affiliate KABC-TV.
But despite being treated at the same hospital, the Oxnard couple was kept on separate floors.
The day after she was admitted, hospital staff brought her to her husband’s room, where they saw the couple's connection, according to KABC-TV.
Then administrators asked if the pair would be interested in committing to each other all over again, and the rest was history, per the Star.
And on July 27, the couple renewed their wedding vows after 66 years of marriage, the hospital wrote in a Facebook post about the "unforgettable ceremony."
"Today, our staff helped make a remarkable reunion happen," the hospital added. "Thank you to each member of the St. John's family that made this incredible moment a reality."
Source: https://people.com/couple-renews-vows-from-hospital-beds-66-years-of-marriage-7569491
SOUTH AMERICA
The heaviest animal ever? Massive whale that lived 40 million years ago found in desert in Peru
A giant whale that lived almost 40 million years ago is now thought to be the heaviest animal that has ever lived, scientists said Wednesday.
The Perucetus colossus — meaning the colossal whale from Peru —was even bigger than the current heavyweight champion, the blue whale, according to an article published in the journal “Nature.”
The newly revealed findings were based on fossils found in the Peruvian desert more than 10 years ago, but only just identified as a previously unknown species.
At 66 feet in length, the colossus isn’t the biggest or longest creature to have lived in the seas, since blue whales can grow to a gargantuan 100 feet long.
But the newly discovered sea mammal’s sheer bulk and its bone density means it was probably the heaviest and could have weighed between 94 tons (85 metric tons) and 375 tons (340 metric tons), the study said. The biggest blue whales ever observed weigh an estimated 200 tons (180 metric tons).
“The estimated skeletal mass of P. colossus exceeds that of any known mammal or aquatic vertebrate,” the journal article said, adding that this makes it “a contender for the title of heaviest animal on record.”
Read More/Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/heaviest-animal-ever-whale-peru-desert-rcna97912
OCEANIA
‘I’m just so grateful:’ Castaway and his dog who survived months adrift at sea back on dry land.
An Australian sailor who spent months adrift in the Pacific Ocean alongside his beloved dog has recounted his remarkable tale of surviving on raw fish and rainwater after finally making it safely back to dry land.
Timothy Lyndsay Shaddock, 54, and his canine companion Bella were rescued after three months at sea by a Mexican tuna trawler that happened to spot their stricken vessel in the vast expanse of the world’s largest ocean.
“I’m feeling alright. I’m feeling a lot better than I was, I tell you,” a heavily bearded Shaddock told a news conference after reaching land in the port of Manzanillo, about 790 kilometers (491 miles) west of Mexico City.
“To the captain and fishing company that saved my life, I’m just so grateful. I’m alive and I didn’t really think I’d make it,” he said.
Shaddock, who described himself as a quiet person who loves being alone on the ocean, said his odyssey began in early May when he and Bella, a stray he picked up while traveling through Mexico, set sail on a lengthy fishing expedition from the Sea of Cortes, also known as the Gulf of California.
Read More/Source:https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/18/australia/australia-castaway-dog-rescue-timothy-shaddock-intl-hnk/index.html
