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They told him it was impossible. It took him a hammer, a chisel, and 22 years to prove them wrong.

Truly awe-inspiring.

Imagine you live in a small town.

And less than a mile away, there's another small town.

They have good schools. Good jobs. Good doctors. It's just kind of generally pretty nice. Everyone in your town goes there all the time.

The problem is there's this mountain in the way.


And even though it's less than a mile between your town and the neighboring town, you gotta walk 45 miles to get around the mountain. So most people just try and go over. It's painful. And dangerous.

One day, your wife is trying to get over the mountain, when she slips and falls. She's injured. It's not good. You realize this can't go on.

So what do you do?

You might try to secure a couple billion dollars in funding, then hire a bunch of contractors with backhoes, explosives, and one of those huge drilly things from the “Oceans Eleven" movies to blast a hole and lay down a sweet, shiny new highway.

(That comes in seven years late and $500 million over budget.)

The problem is, you live in a poor community in rural India.

You don't have billions of dollars, and you definitely don't have access to powerful politicians who can loan you that kind of cash. You only have your own two hands.

So how do you get a road through the mountain?

You grab a hammer and a chisel.

And start straight-up beasting your way through.

(Boom.)

Which is exactly what Dashrath Manjhi did.

(Note the captions under the play bar).

Everyone said he was crazy. No one believed he could do it.

But he did it. It took him 22 years, but he did it. Like a boss.

That's some Andy Dufresne-level badassery.

But, you know. Real life.

Manjhi passed away in 2007, but his friends continue his work to this day. They're elderly, and some of them are ill, but they haven't given up trying to make his vision of a better life for his community come true.

Their efforts might not be quite as ready-made for Hollywood. But they're just as important.

And just as Manjhi wanted to uplift his community by building a road, his successors are trying to push even further forward by making sure the next generation has the tools they need to get better jobs, earn a good, independent living, and succeed in life. Particularly the ones who need it most.

It's not a simple task, much like hammering a hole through a giant mountain. But every day, they make a little more progress.

In this way, Dashrath Manjhi is not gone.

Conservation

A juice company dumped orange peels in a national park. This is what it looks like today.

12,000 tons of food waste and 28 years later, this forest looks totally different.

Image via Dan Jansen

A before and after view of the experiment

In 1997, ecologists Daniel Janzen and Winnie Hallwachs approached an orange juice company in Costa Rica with an off-the-wall idea. In exchange for donating a portion of unspoiled, forested land to the Área de Conservación Guanacaste — a nature preserve in the country's northwest — the park would allow the company to dump its discarded orange peels and pulp, free of charge, in a heavily grazed, largely deforested area nearby.

One year later, one thousand trucks poured into the national park, offloading over 12,000 metric tons of sticky, mealy, orange compost onto the worn-out plot. The site was left untouched and largely unexamined for over a decade. A sign was placed to ensure future researchers could locate and study it.

16 years later, Janzen dispatched graduate student Timothy Treuer to look for the site where the food waste was dumped.

Treuer initially set out to locate the large placard that marked the plot — and failed.


natural wonders, nature, recycling, conservation, environment, oranges, orange peels, dumpsThe first deposit of orange peels in 1996.Photo by Dan Janzen.


"It's a huge sign, bright yellow lettering. We should have been able to see it," Treuer says. After wandering around for half an hour with no luck, he consulted Janzen, who gave him more detailed instructions on how to find the plot.

When he returned a week later and confirmed he was in the right place, Treuer was floored. Compared to the adjacent barren former pastureland, the site of the food waste deposit was "like night and day."


Environment, natural wonder, natural miracles, nature, oranges, planet, conservation The site of the orange peel deposit (L) and adjacent pastureland (R).Photo by Leland Werden.


"It was just hard to believe that the only difference between the two areas was a bunch of orange peels. They look like completely different ecosystems," he explains.

The area was so thick with vegetation he still could not find the sign.

Treuer and a team of researchers from Princeton University studied the site over the course of the following three years.

The results, published in the journal "Restoration Ecology," highlight just how completely the discarded fruit parts assisted the area's turnaround.

According to the Princeton School of International Public Affairs, the experiment resulted in a "176 percent increase in aboveground biomass — or the wood in the trees — within the 3-hectare area (7 acres) studied."

The ecologists measured various qualities of the site against an area of former pastureland immediately across the access road used to dump the orange peels two decades prior. Compared to the adjacent plot, which was dominated by a single species of tree, the site of the orange peel deposit featured two dozen species of vegetation, most thriving.


natural wonder, nature, environment, conservation, oranges, orange peelsLab technician Erik Schilling explores the newly overgrown orange peel plot.Photo by Tim Treuer.


In addition to greater biodiversity, richer soil, and a better-developed canopy, researchers discovered a tayra (a dog-sized weasel) and a giant fig tree three feet in diameter, on the plot.

"You could have had 20 people climbing in that tree at once and it would have supported the weight no problem," says Jon Choi, co-author of the paper, who conducted much of the soil analysis. "That thing was massive."

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Recent evidence suggests that secondary tropical forests — those that grow after the original inhabitants are torn down — are essential to helping slow climate change.

In a 2016 study published in Nature, researchers found that such forests absorb and store atmospheric carbon at roughly 11 times the rate of old-growth forests.

Treuer believes better management of discarded produce — like orange peels — could be key to helping these forests regrow.

In many parts of the world, rates of deforestation are increasing dramatically, sapping local soil of much-needed nutrients and, with them, the ability of ecosystems to restore themselves.

Meanwhile, much of the world is awash in nutrient-rich food waste. In the United States, up to half of all produce in the United States is discarded. Most currently ends up in landfills.


natural wonder, nature, conservation, environment, planet, oranges, orange peelsThe site after a deposit of orange peels in 1998.Photo by Dan Janzen.


"We don't want companies to go out there will-nilly just dumping their waste all over the place, but if it's scientifically driven and restorationists are involved in addition to companies, this is something I think has really high potential," Treuer says.

The next step, he believes, is to examine whether other ecosystems — dry forests, cloud forests, tropical savannas — react the same way to similar deposits.

Two years after his initial survey, Treuer returned to once again try to locate the sign marking the site.

Since his first scouting mission in 2013, Treuer had visited the plot more than 15 times. Choi had visited more than 50. Neither had spotted the original sign.

In 2015, when Treuer, with the help of the paper's senior author, David Wilcove, and Princeton Professor Rob Pringle, finally found it under a thicket of vines, the scope of the area's transformation became truly clear.



natural wonder, nature, environment, environmental miracle, planet, oranges, orange peelsThe sign after clearing away the vines.Photo by Tim Treuer.


"It's a big honking sign," Choi emphasizes.

19 years of waiting with crossed fingers had buried it, thanks to two scientists, a flash of inspiration, and the rind of an unassuming fruit.

This article originally appeared eight years ago.

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Germans demonstrate how windows, of all things, separate European life from American life

Who knew this was such a cultural difference?

Photo credit: Canva

Stoßlüften is the German tradition of replacing the air in the home several times a day.

We may share some significant historical and cultural roots, but Americans and Europeans also have some distinct differences in the way they do things. There are the big things for us Americans like how we handle healthcare and young children doing active shooter drills at school, but there are also little things like how generous we are with ice and free soda refills.

And then there's something most of us probably don't think of as a difference, but apparently is: windows.

For the most part, in the U.S., windows are just…windows. You look out them. You clean them sometimes. When the weather is not too hot, not too cold, and not too windy or rainy, you open them for a while to get some fresh air.

windows, looking out, gif, open window, curtainsOpen Window Windows GIF by GarbageGiphy

In Germany and many other parts of Europe, window culture is an entire thing. First, windows have a tilt-open-from-the-top option that you rarely ever see in America. And second, Europeans use their windows actively, opening and closing them daily, all year round, regardless of the weather. And in Germany, it's not just daily, but multiple times a day.

Watch the creators at Radical Living humorously demonstrate this cultural difference by acting out someone learning about German windows from their first day in the country through 10 years of living there.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Stoßlüften literally means "shock ventilation" and refers to the German habit of replacing stale air with fresh air, which Germans do several times a day, every day. Yes, even in the dead of winter.

The discussion in the comments of the video is hilarious, as Europeans say they just thought this was normal and Americans (and apparently Australians?) are agog over the tiltable window design.

"I actually didn't knew that in other countries they had no tiltable windows. I just thought every country would have these."

"In Turkey, we call windows that open from the top 'vasistas.' The word comes from the German phrase 'was ist das,' which means 'what is this.' A bit silly, but really funny."

"I'm Australian. I had no idea windows that open on both axes existed. This is the first time I've ever seen this concept."

"My hotel in Italy had a tilting window like this, and until today I really thought that window was broken this whole time. Glad I didn’t complain to the front desk. That would have been embarrassing haha."

window, tilting window, fresh air, culture, GermanySnow Wind GIF by SnowmindsGiphy

"Used to live in Switzerland, and it is so true! You need to air out the kitchen and whole apartment during winter more often. The heater and closed room, mixed with our own body heat, gives off a very moist and warm feel in the room, which means more mold growing."

"I'm an American and do this during the winter too. My grandfather was German, maybe this is why I do it."

"I married a German woman. I LIVED THIS EXACT CHARACTER ARC."

If you're an American reading this, your first reaction to opening all the windows in winter is probably, "Doesn't that do a number on your heating bill?" Most of us get chastised just for leaving a door open longer than a few seconds in winter. According to some, it's not as much of an energy suck as you might think, since the change of air helps regulate humidity levels and it's only a short time that the windows are open.

@liamcarps

In Germany we don’t say 🇩🇪🪟

As Carrie Bradon writes in House Digest, "While you may find that the air in your home feels a bit chillier following a Stoßlüften session, the limited amount of time that the indoors are exposed to outdoor temperatures is short enough to keep all of the walls, floors, and furnishings from getting frigid. This means that it will take limited energy and time to get your home back to your ideal indoor temp."

However, at least some of the American reactions to this idea and the European normalization of it has to do with the age of our homes. Europe has a lot of very old buildings that don't have the kind of ventilation systems newer buildings in America have. Air really does get stale there in ways that it rarely does in most U.S. homes.

heat, cold, thermostat, air, fresh air, GermanyAir Conditioning Summer GIF by Cartoon NetworkGiphy

Americans are also accustomed to right-down-to-the-Fahrenheit-degree climate control in our homes. Not everyone, of course, but many Americans have full HVAC systems with heating and air conditioning that blows through ducts with air filters and return vents and whole house fans, which not only circulate the air but keep it exactly the temperature we prefer. Whole house air conditioning is much less common in Europe, and heating in older buildings is often radiant heat, fueled by natural gas that heats water that gets pumped into radiators. So naturally, using windows for air purification and ventilation would be more necessary in Europe than in the U.S. and sensitivity to indoor temperature fluctuations may be less pronounced.

Still, getting fresh air into our homes on a more regular basis isn't a bad idea, and experts recommend opening windows at least once a day for 5 to 10 minutes—yes, even in winter. Looks like we should follow Germany's lead on this one, fellow Americans.

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History (Education)

The fascinating reason people looked much older in the past than they do today

Why did teenagers look like they were in their mid-30s?

via Vsauce/YouTube

Norm was only in his 30s?

Ever look at your parents' high school yearbooks and think people looked so much older back then? All of the teenagers look like they’re in their mid-30s and the teachers who are 50 look like they’re 80. When we watch older movies, even those from the 1980s, the teenagers appear to be a lot older as well. Why is it that they looked so much older? Was life harder? Did people act more mature? Did they spend more time outdoors and less time playing video games? Is it their sense of fashion? Were they all smokers?

Educator Michael Stevens, who runs the super-popular Vsauce YouTube channel, explains the phenomenon in a video called, “Did people used to look older?” In it, he explains that people in the past appear a lot older due to retrospective aging.

This is how it works: when we see people in the past, they are wearing outdated styles that we associate with older people; therefore, we think they have aged rapidly. For example, a teenager in the 1950s may have been in fashion while wearing thick Buddy Holly-style glasses.

anti-aging, youth, why do i look older, how to look younger, treatments for looking younger, anti-aging productsBuddy Holly was 20 years old in this photo. upload.wikimedia.org

But as people age, they tend to cling to the fashion of their youth. So many people of that generation continued to wear the Buddy Holly-style glasses into their 50s. So when younger people see those glasses they see them as old people's glasses and not a hip kid from the '50s.

So in the photo from the '50s, the teen appears to look a lot older because our perspective has been tainted by time.

anti-aging, youth, why do i look older, how to look younger, treatments for looking younger, anti-aging products30 going on 60…media3.giphy.com

But it isn’t all just an illusion. Stevens also points out that people did age faster back in the day due to differences in nutrition, lifestyle and medicine. In addition, he also does a deep dive on how a person's name can affect their appearance, referencing the Dorian Gray effect, which theorizes that cultural stereotypes linked to a name come to be written on the faces of their bearers, as well as the name matching effect, in which people whose faces "match" their names tend to be better perceived.

Basically, this 22-minute video is chalked full of fascinating tidbits. Give it a watch below.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

It might be worth noting that, in addition to healthier lifestyle options, younger generations have more access to anti-aging procedures than ever before. "Tweakments," like fillers and botox, are less expensive and more readily available than ever—not to mention every anti-aging cream, serum, and cleanser known to man. And many millennials and Gen Zers take advantage of that, whether prompted by selfie anxiety, a growing obsession with youth, or some other motivation.

Plus, millennial and Gen Z fashion often honors their inner child. Nostalgic cartoon tees, colorful prints, cutesy accessories, etc. Granted, under the retrospective aging theory, even those styles could one day look dated, but they are so youthful that it's hard to imagine that being the case. That said, can't wait to see bunch of geezers sporting those broccoli haircuts.

This article originally appeared three years ago.

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Science

If you do this weird thing with your finger, it'll actually make you a better listener

The body is wired in strange ways.

via Canva/Photos

A woman listening intently and some fingers on a desk chair.

Have you ever gone on a date and were afraid you may not be able to pay perfect attention to the person you’re seeing because you’ll be in a noisy restaurant or club? Have you ever been to a networking event and had difficulty hearing people because of loud music or the rattling of plates and glasses? Find it hard to listen to a child tell how they got hurt while playing on a noisy playground?

We all encounter situations where it might be a little difficult to understand the people we are speaking to. However, a new study out of Aix-Marseille University in France shows a way to improve your hearing and listening comprehension in chaotic environments significantly. Strangely enough, it involves your fingers.

How to improve listening in loud places.

In three separate studies, the researchers found that tapping your finger in a medium rhythmic pattern, about two taps a second, can increase your ability to hear and comprehend what people are saying. The medium pace follows what’s known as the “lexical word rate,” or how quickly people speak.

conversation, night out, club, restaurant, scienceHear each other better.via Canva/Photos

“The motor system is known to process temporal information, and moving rhythmically while listening to a melody can improve auditory processing," the scientists wrote in their report. "In three interrelated behavioral experiments, we demonstrate that this effect translates to speech processing. Motor priming improves the efficiency of subsequent naturalistic speech-in-noise processing under specific conditions."

In plain English, the scientists mean that moving to music helps our brains hear better. They also found that it can improve understanding of speech in noisy places.

The scientists thought that music might play a role in improving listening and comprehension. So, they did an experiment where people listened to some songs before their hearing was tested, and that didn’t improve things very much. But they found that people who performed physical tasks, such as dancing or mild exercise, before having their listening checked found some improvement in speech recognition. But the best way was through “rhythmic priming,” meaning getting yourself ready by tapping out some beats.

dinner, date, conversation, quality, talking, listeningMake a better connection when you can actually hear and absorb what someone is saying. via Canva/Photos

"These findings provide evidence for the functional role of the motor system in processing the temporal dynamics of naturalistic speech," the researchers noted.

Why is it important to be a good listener?

Improving listening skills can be a huge advantage, whether looking to make friends, advance your career, or meet the person of your dreams. While great talkers often get all the attention and accolades, people with excellent listening skills are likely to be seen as likable when making a first impression.

group, conversation, crowd, listening, hearing, understandingNo matter how noisy it is, you can make the other person feel heard. via Canva/Photos

Matt Abrahams, a Stanford communications expert and host of the Think Fast, Talk Smart podcast, says that people should stop feeling the pressure to be interesting and instead work to be interested.

“A lot of us put tremendous pressure on ourselves to be interesting,” Abrahams told Inc. “We want to say exciting, valuable, relevant stuff, and it’s the wrong mindset. I think many of us see small talk as a tennis match where the goal is to get the ball over the net and score. I think we should see it more like hacky sack. The goal is to serve it to the person so they can get it and serve it back to you. Success is when you all work together.”

Being a great listener is a superpower that most people overlook. It gives you a distinct advantage over others, whether you’re trying to get a second date or a promotion. Now, we can improve our listening and comprehension in distracting environments by tapping out our favorite song on our index fingers before the big sit-down.

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Parenting

Woman scared to tell her Korean mom she was laid off surprised by her gentle and loving response

"Don't cry, you got this!"

complanie/TikTok

TikToker @complanie tells her Korean mom she was laid off, is met with love and encouragement.

Getting laid off is scary and emotional for many reasons. The news of getting laid off usually comes as a shock, and plants seeds of uncertainty and fear.

For TikToker Lanie (@complanie), one of the hardest parts of her recent lay off was delivering the news to her Korean mother. Although Lanie anticipated the call not going well, she was surprised and comforted when she was met with kind and encouraging words from her mom.

"i was SUPER nervous to call my mom/family bc i felt like a disappointment and failure for my lay offs but it went way better than i couldve imagined! sorry for all the snot and ugly crying hehe," she captioned the video.

@complanie

i was SUPER nervous to call my mom/family bc i felt like a disappointment and failure for my lay offs but it went way better than i couldve imagined! sorry for all the snot and ugly crying hehe #laidoff #layoffs #fyp #korean #koreanmom

Lanie begins the video by sharing that she needs to tell her mom that she got laid off, and that "this is not going to be an easy call." She decides to FaceTime her mom, and the two catch up with a few pleasantries in Korean. Although she tries to hold it together, when her mom asks her if there is a specific reason she called, Lanie begins to get emotional. "What's wrong? Why are you crying? Is there a problem? What's going on? Tell mom," her mom says in a concerned tone.

Lanie nods her head and gives herself a moment to find her words. "I really didn't want to tell you this, but today I got laid off from my job," Lanie tells her mom. "I know you're always worrying about how I'm doing and making rent, and I don't want to burden you with more worries. I wasn't going to tell you at first."

Her mom comforts Lanie as she speaks. "No it's okay. You can't not tell me this!" she says, and Lanie replies, "Exactly! You're my mom so I did want to tell you."

@complanie

Replying to @K E L L Y dropping some lore on my umma! @Tomato Japanese Grocery please go support her store 💖🥹 #fyp #korean #japanese #mom #umma

Their conversation continues, and Lanie's mom gives her the most encouraging speech. "Don't cry, you got this! You're going to find another job, don't worry. It's okay, don't cry," she says before asking if she's handled logistics like filing for unemployment. "Mom and dad have never been worried about your future. We know it will all work out for you."

Lanie responds emotionally, "Thank you, I'm so thankful that you said that." And her mom adds, "You're going to find something even better, don't worry."

@complanie

EVERYTHING WILL BE GWENCHANA #fyp #gwenchana #korean

Lanie agrees, saying, "I've been working hard, but I'm going to work even harder now. And I'm going to find my place in this world." Her mom adds, "Everyone deals with something like this at least once in their lives, but it'll make you even stronger. So, don't feel too discouraged. This is an opportunity for better possibilities to come your way. Tell mom if there's anything you need, okay?"

Her mom encourages her to take care of herself. "Catch up on all the sleep you've been missing. I bet the flowers in front of the library have bloomed. Go visit the garden!"

Lanie writes in the video's caption, "Me sobbing bc the kind support is overwhelming to me," as she apologizes to her mom for still feeling like a failure. But her mom isn't having it. "Fighting! I love you and cheer up."

The heartwarming exchange between Lanie and her mom resonated deeply with viewers.

"Sobbing, I was also laid off and your moms words are so encouraging and she is totally right ❤️let’s find something better 🤝✨," one wrote.

Another commented, "The way I teared up with you🥺🥺 she’s right— in this economy, I know SO many people who have been laid off. It’s not a reflection of you, it’s a reflection of our current society! You’ve got this❤️."

And another viewer added, "is she available for other facetimes? Asking for me…"

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