Jan. 2, 2025

Sycamore Gap Legacy, Eco-Friendly Plastic, and a Restored Camaro

Show Notes
Transcript

In this episode, Johnny Mac shares five heartwarming stories: archaeologists in Western Syria discover evidence of the earliest alphabet, the National Trust gifts saplings in memory of the Sycamore Gap tree, Japanese researchers develop environmentally-friendly plastic that dissolves in seawater, a retired police dog rescues a missing person in his first walk post-surgery, and a son restores his father's beloved 1967 Chevy Camaro as a surprise for his 65th birthday. Join Johnny for a dose of positivity and good news.

00:22 Ancient Alphabet Discovery in Syria
01:23 Reviving the Sycamore Gap Tree
02:11 Eco-Friendly Plastic Innovation
02:47 Heroic Retired Police Dog
03:51 Father-Son Bond Over a Classic Car

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Callaroga Shark Media. Hey shohnny Mack with five good news stories.

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Let'll tell you this show's so much fun to do.

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Puts me in a good mood today. I'm recording a

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bunch of these in one big session, and one of

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the stories I just read for their previous episode just

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as a big smile on my face. It was fun

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okay for today. In Western Syria, archaeologists believe they have

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unearth evidence of the earliest use of an alphabet in

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a well preserved tomb remarkably unlooted, dating from the early

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Bronze Age. Six skeletons were found alongside grave goods and

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four small perforated clay cylinders. On the clay cylinders seems

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to be a form of alphabet, but carbon dating revealed

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the clay to be around five hundred years older than

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the previous olded recorded alphabetic script. Glenn Schwartz is a

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professor of archaeology at Johns Hopkins. He said alphabets revolutionized

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writing by making it accessible to people beyond royalty and

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the socially elite. Alphabetic writing changed the way people lived,

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how they thought, and how they communicated. This new discovery

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shows that people were experimenting with new communication technologies much

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earlier and a different location than we'd imagined before. Previously,

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scholars thought the alphabet was invented in or around Egypt

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sometime after nine hundred BCE, But our artifacts are older

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and from a different area on the map, suggesting the

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alphabet may have an entirely different origin story than we thought.

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Some good news. Remember some jerks cut down the Sycamore

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Gap Tree. The two hundred year old tree had become

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one of the most photographed in Britain. It was chopped

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down illegally by vandals in twenty twenty three. The National

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Trust announced in September it would create a legacy for

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the tree by gifting forty nine saplings, one for each

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foot of the sycamore's height. The charity received more than

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five hundred applications for the saplings. Some of the winners

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include the Tree Amigos. They are some teenagers who set

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up a sanctuary to nurse trees damaged by vandalism back

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to health. They say this special tree will be planted

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next year among the other other lost trees in our care,

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serving as a beacon to inspire respect, understanding, and a

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sense of responsibility. Towards all trees. Also getting saplings are

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a prison and a cricket club. Good news, Japanese researchers

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may have figured out environmentally friendly plastic that dissolves in

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seawater that would solve all kinds of problems, including seawater pollution.

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The scientists claim that it's just as tough as existing plastic,

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despite taking ten hours to break down in seawater. When

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placed in soil, the material disappears within ten days, leaving

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behind phosphorus and nitrogen. Lead researcher to Kuzo Aida says,

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with this new material, we've created a new family of

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plastics that are strong, stable, recyclable, could serve multiple functions,

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and importantly do not generate microplastics. Boy, that would be

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great if they figured that out. Once a police dog,

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always a police dog, a retired police dog has rescued

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a missing person on his first walk since having major surgery.

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Bear the German shepherd had retired, and he found them

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in dense underground while being walked by his owner, Julia,

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who's a former police officer herself. Bear the dog was

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out celebrating his twelfth birthday and immediately went into work

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mode after sensing the lost individual and started indicating towards

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an area of dense undergrowth. Julia says he then dragged

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us to it, where he located and alerted us to

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a vulnerable man. The man was confused, wet, cold had

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fallen over was unable to get up. I'm not sure

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he would have survived the night, as it was extremely

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cold and almost dark at that point with no one

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else around. Unbeknownst to us, the man was a vulnerable

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missing person who officers had been searching for without any success.

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Last summer, Bear needed an emerging the MRI and surgery

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to treat four herniated disks in his spine after he

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lost the use of his rear legs. He then had

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more surgery to remove two tumors two weeks before locating

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the man on his first walk back. Did police say

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Bear is a true hero out of Texas. Earl and

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his son Jared have always bonded over cars and through

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the years. The one thing they talked about was the

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nineteen sixth seven Chevy Camaro that Earl used to own.

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Jared said, anytime we saw Camaro, he would bring it up.

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It'd be a recurring theme and a recurring story. The

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joke was that I had to sell this car for

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your diaper money. Dad was only half joking. He said,

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you got to build a nursery fund, a crib at

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a cradle, and it was time to settle down and

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raise the family. So in nineteen eighty three, it was

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bye bye Camaro, Hello Mini Van. Jared knew Dad missed

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the car. He spent three years scouring the internet for

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parts and putting it together piece by piece. Then on

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Dad's sixty fifth birthday, he was given a restored Camaro,

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Jared said, and it hit him. He was just overcome

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and he just wrapped his arms around me. It was

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the best. And those your five good news stories for today.

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I like that last one. I have a big smile

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on my face in real life. Yet, as I said

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at the beginning, I like doing this show. It is

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a lot of fun. Hopefully it brings you some happiness.

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I appreciate you listening. Please share the program with someone else,

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hopefully they will like it too. And if you would

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like the program without commercial interruption, there's a link in

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the show notes that explain you how that works. Alright,

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you have an awesome day,