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A Genome Bank to Save Marine Life

February 12, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: David L Ryan/ Boston Globe Staff.
A view of a Forbes sea star at Northeastern University’s Ocean Genome Legacy Center.

As I was reading today’s story, an image kept coming to mind: an image of someone in a burning house running out with a few precious items.

You’ll see why when you read Kate Selig’s article at the Boston Globe on a genome bank.

“On a rocky outcropping a few miles northeast of Boston Harbor,” she writes, “scientists are racing to build a library of tissue and DNA from ocean creatures — before it is too late. It’s a last-ditch effort. As global warming drives ocean temperatures ever higher, some species have vanished and the populations of others have plummeted. If climate change continues unchecked, many marine species could face a mass extinction, rivaling the worst in earth’s history.

“To preserve the oceans’ historical record, researchers in Nahant, a peninsular town jutting into the Atlantic, are collecting samples from marine organisms around the world and distributing them to scientists.

“ It’s not difficult to do,’ said Dan Distel, a marine biologist who serves as the director of Northeastern University’s Ocean Genome Legacy Center. ‘It’s not expensive to do. And of course, if we miss the opportunity, it’s too late.’ …

“The Nahant collection has informed hundreds of studies, providing a baseline understanding of how species are doing while also tracking global trends. The repository houses common local species, such as spiky sea urchins and flatfish with their eyes trained skyward. But there are also some ‘real weirdos,’ as Distel described them. A prized specimen from the Philippines is a preserved giant shipworm, a glistening, tubular creature that lives in a tusk-like shell. A petite marine mussel the size and shape of a plump grain of rice rests in a small jar.

“A whiteboard at its entrance decorated with drawings of fish, sea stars, and a crab displays the current count: over 31,000 DNA samples and 28,000 tissue samples.

“Distel is the ringmaster behind the menagerie. … In addition to his work at the center, he has dedicated much of his career to studying shipworms, a type of worm-like clam notorious for gnawing through submerged wood. Distel was part of an international team that discovered a live specimen of the giant shipworm, a find that drew international attention. …

“ ‘These guys are a great example of a nearly extinct species,’ he said, with a touch of reverence. ‘There’s only one place in the world where we know they can still be found.’

“As humanity continues to burn fossil fuels, the world’s oceans have stood as a bulwark to the most extreme impacts of climate change by swallowing much of the excess heat trapped by greenhouses gases. But that has come at a staggering cost.

“The surface layer of the ocean has warmed by about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit over the past century. In the Gulf of Maine, which is warming much faster than most ocean surfaces on the planet, the higher temperatures are forcing out lobsters, altering the migration patterns of whales, and fueling a population boom of invasive green crabs.

“The center was founded in 2004 by Donald Comb, a Massachusetts biotechnology pioneer. … Comb, who loved the oceans, decided to put up the funds to build a biorepository focused on marine species. The center became the first ocean-focused public DNA bank in the United States. …

“Large samples preserved in jars are stored in shelving units and a repurposed tool chest. They infuse the center with what students call ‘the low tide smell.’

“The real action takes place in the freezer room. Four mechanical freezers, rigged with alarms and known as ‘minus 80s’ for their low temperatures, store small tubes that contain the complete genome of an organism. A single freezer can fit thousands of samples. The center also has a liquid nitrogen freezer that chills samples so quickly that living bacteria can be revived. …

“Angela Jones, a Northeastern PhD candidate in marine and environmental sciences, has supplied the center with samples from her doctoral research on sea stars, studying two species in New England that have undergone steep population declines. …

” ‘It’s important to understand what the species are like now so that we can understand how they change under worsening conditions,’ she said.”

More at the Globe, here.

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The Role of Casting

February 11, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for BAFTA.
Owen Cooper and Shaheen Baig, Adolescence casting director, at the Bafta garden party in Los Angeles last August. 

We’ve been watching a very funny British television “thriller” with Christopher Walken called The Outlaws. The ability of the actors to make the danger plausibly nail-biting while also handling the comedy is impressive.

That got me thinking how perfectly the roles have been cast. Which then got me thinking about Walken’s wife, a New Shoreham neighbor, who is known for having cast some pretty big shows. The Sopranos, for example.

Casting is an invisible art that makes all the difference in success. Today’s article by Stuart Heritage at the Guardian shows why.

“At the Emmys in September,” he reports, “Adolescence all but swept the board. It won best limited series. It won awards for writing, for directing, for cinematography. Three of its actors – Stephen Graham, Erin Doherty and Owen Cooper – all took home awards. But Adolescence also earned another Emmy for a craft that often goes overlooked: best casting.

“Shaheen Baig was the woman responsible for casting Adolescence. … There’s no question that the award was deserved. As the woman who populated Adolescence with actors, Baig is ultimately the woman who discovered Owen Cooper. Despite its incendiary subject matter and technical wizardry, Cooper was the beating heart of the series. So revelatory was his performance – in turn heartbreakingly vulnerable and incandescently vicious – that it was hard to believe he was just 14 years old at time of filming, let alone that this was his first ever role. …

“Cooper’s discovery came as the result of a highly targeted six-month search for someone to fill the role. Baig knew that the show would be filmed in the north of England, so that was where she and her team set to work.

“ ‘I chose five cities,’ she says. ‘We then thoroughly researched those cities. We created databases. We looked at schools, youth groups, art groups, music groups. We talked to people that ran the clubs.’

“Once she was convinced that she had a good grasp of the cities, she put a flyer together. ‘We sent it out on social media, and all the places that we had spoken to, and then we essentially street cast,’ she says. ‘We go, we talk to people, we hand out flyers, we engage with people. It’s a lot of work, and it takes time, but that’s how you get the best results.’

“After this phase, Baig and her team received 600 audition tapes to sift through, and gradually went about whittling them down. ‘In the first rounds, we got people to do little improvs, and then every subsequent stage became a little bit more sophisticated. We would see people in the room, do a bit of improvisation with them. Then we’d recall, get them to work from script, until we got down to five.’

“Baig is keen to stress that every one of the final five candidates was ‘brilliant,’ and they all ended up with roles on the show. Nevertheless, Cooper stood out. … ‘We wanted to push him to see where he could go, and he had this extraordinary focus for somebody so young. I mean, that’s a rare find.’ …

“One of the issues with making filmed entertainment, be it movies or TV, is that people often assume that a director or showrunner controls everything from the top down. [The interviewer asks] is there a sense that this is changing at least when it comes to casting?

“ ‘It’s a collaboration, but like every other department – like a cinematographer, an editor, a costume designer – a huge amount of work and skill goes into creating a cast,’ she says. ‘I think it’s really great that it’s suddenly being recognized.’ …

“After starting her career as a production assistant in the 1990s, Baig found herself being drawn more and more towards actors. She eventually became an assistant to Debbie McWilliams, the James Bond casting director, before setting up shop on her own at the start of the century. …

“ ‘There weren’t really many other people like me,’ she says. ‘Working-class, from Birmingham, mixed race.’ … And so she began to work with Open Door, an organization that seeks to help young actors who lack the resources and financial means to attend drama school.

“ ‘Being able to go to drama school is a privilege, and it can feel quite a long way away for many, many people,’ she says. ‘Applying for drama school is expensive. Travel to your auditions is expensive. Open Door has worked really hard to break down some of those barriers. We work with people on movement, on voice, on auditions. We pair people with buddies, so they have somebody to connect to who has got a career. It’s all about making sure there are people in our industry that are recognizable to you.’ ”

More at the Guardian, here. No firewall. Donations needed.

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Chile’s 1740-Mile Wildlife Corridor

February 10, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Pablo Sanhueza/Reuters.
The Sarmiento de Gamboa glacier in the strait of Magellan.

The conservation effort in today’s article would never have been possible without the dedication of many conservation-focused individuals, including donors. The participation of one of those donors, the founder of clothing company Patagonia, should interest my younger grandson. He loves the company for its sustainable policies.

John Bartlett wrote recently at the Guardian about how the dedication of conservation-minded individuals has benefited Chile.

“Chile’s government is poised to create the country’s 47th national park, protecting nearly 200,000 hectares (500,000 acres) of pristine wilderness and completing a wildlife corridor stretching 1,700 miles (2,800km) to the southernmost tip of the Americas.

“The Cape Froward national park is a wild expanse of wind-torn coastline and forested valleys that harbors unrivaled biodiversity and has played host to millennia of human history.

“ ‘I have been to many exceptional places, and I can tell you that the Cape Froward project is the wildest place I have walked through,’ said Kristine Tompkins, the renowned US conservationist at the heart of the project. ‘It’s one of the few truly wild forest and peak territories left in the country, and the richness of the Indigenous history in the region makes a case for these territories to be preserved for all time.’

“It is the 17th national park created or expanded in Chile and Argentina by Tompkins Conservation and its successor organization, Rewilding Chile. The groups have spent the best part of a decade knitting together a patchwork of land purchases and state-held properties to create the park. In 2023, they signed an agreement with the Chilean government to donate the land to become Cape Froward national park.

“[Last] February, a population of 10 huemul, an endangered deer species, was found in the park, and a network of cameras regularly captures wild pumas and the endangered huillín, a river otter. The area also encompasses 10,000 hectares [~25,000 acres] of sphagnum bogs, a spongelike moss which stores carbon deep below the ground.

“Benjamín Cáceres, the conservation coordinator in the Magallanes region for Rewilding Chile, is a native of Patagonia who first visited Cape Froward at the age of 12 with his conservationist father, Patricio Cáceres. ‘My father was always a dreamer,’ he said. ;When he found out about an abandoned lighthouse all those years ago, he brought us here as a family.’ …

“The San Isidro lighthouse is one of seven designed and built by the Scottish architect George Slight along the treacherous strait of Magellan. It was abandoned in the 1970s and itinerant fishers would come by to salvage wood until the roof collapsed. Now, Patricio and Benjamín’s vision for the restored lighthouse is becoming a reality. It has been converted into a museum of the natural and human history of the area and – together with a cafe on the beach below – will become the entry point for the new national park.

“Dotted along the shoreline are delicate archaeological sites that enshrine the history of the Kawésqar, a nomadic Indigenous people who navigated fjords, rocky beaches and forests in canoes carved from trees. …

“ ‘The area was widely inhabited by nomadic canoeists who lived by fishing and gathering food,’ said Leticia Caro, a Kawésqar activist who belongs to the Nómades del Mar community. ‘For our community, it is very important to protect this area, where you can also see the different ways of inhabiting the land and seas, and the interaction with other peoples like the Yagán, Selknam and Tehuelche.‘

“Long after Indigenous communities had settled in the area, the waters of the strait of Magellan, which the Kawésqar call the tawokser chams, became the link between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. … The murky depths have claimed many lives and spawned legends. Treasure troves lie in the depths, and sealed bottles of rum have washed ashore over the centuries. …

“There are still a number of steps before the national park officially comes into existence.

“An Indigenous consultation process, a legal requirement for large-scale projects in Chile, was held in September but fell flat. Chile’s environment ministry said it would make ‘every effort’ to advance with plans for the park by March. But if no progress is made after two years, the lands revert to the ownership of Tompkins’ organizations.

“ ‘Each of the park projects we have developed has specific reasons for being considered essential for conservation,’ said Tompkins, who was the chief executive of Patagonia outdoor clothing for 20 years until 1993. ‘And in this sense Cape Froward is a piece of an ecological puzzle that, over time, should ensure that key biodiversity sites within Chilean Patagonia are permanently protected.’ ”

More at the Guardian, here.

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Creating the ‘Avatar’ Language

February 9, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: 20th Century Studios/AP Photo/picture alliance.
Varang (played by Oona Chaplin) is the leader of an aggressive Na’vi clan called the ‘Ash People‘ in Avatar.

Several of us here are interested in languages, including invented languages. I worked on learning Esperanto for a while in the 1980s and still speak it haltingly. That’s why I’ve indulged in a few posts about languages that have been created for shows — like Klingon in Star Trek. (Click here to the read the post “Sweden Opens Klingon Center.)

Elizabeth Grenier writes at DW about a man who got “to invent a new language that is heard by millions.” Linguist Paul Frommer talked to DW about how he developed the Avatar aliens’ language.

” ‘It’s been quite a remarkable event in my life,’ says linguist Paul Frommer, recalling his first encounter with James Cameron. Searching for someone to develop a constructed language for a science-fiction film, the renowned director had sent an email to the linguistics department of the University of Southern California. …

” ‘My life really hasn’t been the same ever since,’ Frommer tells DW ahead of the release of Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third film of the epic franchise, 20 years later.

“Cameron’s premise for the language was that it should sound ‘nice’ — ‘of course, that’s a subjective kind of thing,’ says Frommer. It also had to be easy enough for actors to learn it, as it was clear from the start that there wouldn’t be any electronic manipulation of the characters’ voices. …

“Even though there are different aspects of Na’vi that can be compared to other languages, it can’t be directly linked to any single one. ‘I wanted to make it unusual,’ says Frommer.

“Describing the process of developing the language, Frommer refers to the different ‘modules’ used in linguistics — the building blocks he worked with.

“First of all, at the core of a language are its phonetics and phonology, or its ‘sounds and the sound system,’ he explains. …

“He included, for example, ejective sounds — popping sounds that can be heard in parts of Africa, Asia and Native American languages. He also included unusual combinations of consonants in the language, basically ‘taking familiar sounds, but putting them together in unfamiliar ways.’

“Then, Frommer determined the language’s morphology, which is how words are built. … Even though he was inspired by constructions that also exist in other human languages, he ‘took certain things and put them on steroids.’

“For example, there are five levels of verb conjugation: the present, the immediate past, the distant past, the immediate future and the distant future. Word order is also very flexible in sentences. The function of a word in Na’vi is not determined by its placement in a sentence, but through declension, with six different cases. The German language, by comparison, has four grammatical cases — nominative (subject), accusative (direct object), dative (indirect object) and genitive (possession). [Like Latin.] …

“With each film in the franchise, new colloquialisms and dialects are developed to reflect the way the different Na’vi clans speak. The vocabulary thereby keeps expanding, and Frommer estimates there are now more than 3,000 Na’vi-language words. …

“Fans of Star Trek or J.R.R. Tolkien‘s Lord of the Rings famously demonstrate their enthusiasm for these complex fictional universes by learning Klingon or Elvish, which are also constructed languages — or ‘conlangs.’ 

“Similarly, there is now a community of Na’vi learners around the world, with a printed dictionary and a wealth of online resources for those who are interested in the language.’ ” More at DW, here.

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19th Century Black Activist, Paul Cuffee

February 8, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Westport Historical Society.

I think I can predict that in today’s climate, efforts to highlight the contributions of African Americans during Black History Month will be slighted in some areas. That is, unless folks who still value diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) stand up. A small but mighty newspaper in Providence, Rhode Island, is a case in point.

At the Providence Eye, Jane Lancaster recently highlighted a distinguished Black/Wampanoag Rhode Islander from the 19th century. Today his name, Paul Cuffe, uses the spelling “Cuffee.”

“According to the Paul Cuffee School website,” she says, “when their namesake returned to the U.S. in 1812 from voyages to Sierra Leone and then England, he found his ship had been ‘impounded by the U.S. Revenue Service in Newport. Within six days, at record-breaking speed, Cuffee was in Washington knocking at the door of President Madison, who immediately arranged for the ship to be returned. Cuffee is said to have been the first person of color to enter the White House through the front door.’

“[Cuffee] wrote in his journal on Saturday, May 2,  1812: ‘at 11 o’clock Waited on the President.’ He also met Secretary of State Albert Gallatin and discussed his desire to return to Sierra Leone, aiming to find alternatives to the slave trade. Gallatin told him that Madison’s government would ‘consisting with the Constitution’… be ready to help in any way they could. …

“So who was this influential pioneer and problem solver that Paul Cuffee School is named for? He was a businessman, whaler, ship’s captain, ship builder, philanthropist and abolitionist, and when he died in September 1817, he was believed to be the wealthiest man of African descent in America. … He saw education as a means of liberation; he was self-taught. In 1799, wanting his children to have schooling, and facing difficulties with the Westport [MA] authorities, he established a school open to all children regardless of race. It was possibly the first integrated school in America.

“He later told Delaware abolitionists of the difficulties he faced: ‘The collision of opinion respecting mode and place occasioned the meeting to separate without arriving at any conclusion.’ So he built the schoolhouse on his own land, hired a schoolmaster and opened the school to all, never demanding any rent, nor trying to dominate the school.

Paul Cuffee was born free as Paul Slocum on Cuttyhunk, a tiny island in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts in 1759.

“His father was African-born and his mother was Wampanoag. Cuttyhunk was purchased in 1677 by the Slocum family, who were enslavers. … The complicated history of slavery in New England is borne out by the story of Paul Cuffee’s family. His father Cuffee Slocum, originally called Kofi, was brought from West Africa to New England as an enslaved child in the 1720s. …

“He was purchased by Peleg’s descendant Ebenezer Slocum and in the 1740s bought his freedom from Ebenezer’s nephew John Slocum. He soon after married Ruth Moses, a Wampanoag woman from Martha’s Vineyard and they began raising a family of 10 children on Cuttyhunk. In 1766, when his son Paul was seven, Cuffee purchased and moved to a 120-acre farm in Westport. …

“Paul Cuffee was taxed as a landowner, but as a Black and Wampanoag man, he had no vote. In 1780 he, his brother, and other Black and Native landowners petitioned the Bristol County authorities for the right to vote. No taxation without representation was in the air! Their petition was denied, but the case helped pave the way for the 1783 Massachusetts Constitution, which gave equal rights and privileges to all (male) citizens of the state.

“Cuffee first went to sea at sixteen, serving on a whaler and learning mathematics and navigation. The outbreak of the Revolutionary War meant, however, both opportunity and danger. In 1776 his ship was captured by the British and Cuffe was imprisoned for three months in New York. He returned to Massachusetts and in 1779 started running the British blockade taking trade goods to Nantucket and other Massachusetts ports. He built ten boats at his Westport shipyard, which grew increasingly large; among them, schooners, barks, the 109-ton brig Traveller, and finally, a 268-ton ship Alpha.

“Cuffee’s crew were all men of color, African or Native American (except, once, a Swedish youth). This became particularly dangerous after 1793, when Congress passed a Fugitive Slave Act that codified a provision in the Constitution giving enslavers the right to retrieve fugitives from slavery from another state. This put Cuffee and his crew in continual peril of being kidnapped and sold.

“Cuffee, who joined the Westport Monthly Meeting, was a Quaker for most of his life, though he was not a formal member until 1808. Non-white membership of the Society of Friends was unusual, though people of color attended services, often in a separate area. Cuffee, forced to sit in the gallery at a Quaker Meeting House in Philadelphia later that year, stood up and testified his intention of leading the struggle against slavery.”

More at the Eye, here. No firewall. Note the photo of the Paul Cuffee monument, erected by his great grandson in 1913 on the grounds of the Friends Meeting House in Westport, Massachusetts.

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When Diverse Retirement Places Bond

February 7, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff.
Resident service coordinator Judith Lucien and senior property manager Ron Quimby stocked the shelves in the makeshift pantry at Mainstay Supportive Housing and Home Care in Chelsea on Dec. 11.

This is the story of generosity between a well-off group of retirees and one threatened with food insecurity. It’s also the story of how great both the giver and the receiver can feel.

Claire Thornton writes at the Boston Globe, “Husband and wife Ron Quimby and Krissy Fleming tell each other everything. Each manages a senior living community near Boston. …

“North Hill Retirement Community in Needham, where Fleming works, sits on a 59-acre campus and advertises state-of-the-art amenities. Mainstay Supportive Housing and Home Care in Chelsea, Quimby’s employer, is a HUD Section 202 property that provides affordable housing for very low-income seniors who need supportive services.

“During the government shutdown in November, when Quimby was consumed with worry over the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [food stamps] cuts his Chelsea residents faced, Fleming thought residents at North Hill would want to help. …

“For more than a month, Quimby brought weekly donations from North Hill’s 400 residents. … With SNAP payments stopped in November, the food was a lifeline for the low-income seniors with medical challenges and limited mobility who had no extra money to go shopping with, he said.

“Meanwhile, with a bit more income to spare, residents at North Hill embarked on grocery shopping missions for several weeks, pushing carts at Market Basket, Whole Foods, and Sudbury Farms in search of deals and specials they could send to Chelsea.

“Besides groceries, there was a tangible kindness linking the two groups of seniors, said Judy Lucien, a resident services coordinator, who has worked at the HUD-subsidized apartment complex in Chelsea for 17 years. …

“ ‘Krissy and her husband were really examples for those of us who had less information and were less aware of the need,’ said Geoff Pierson, 86, a retired school superintendent and North Hill resident. …

“About 20 miles away, Joe Downey, 69, has resided at Mainstay in Chelsea for the past two years after living unhoused for about three years in Brockton. After working in security for most of his career, Downey cared for his father, who suffered from a chronic disease, his blind aunt, and his mother, who died of a stroke. Later, Downey said he slept on someone’s couch for $1,000 a month and eventually ‘ran out of money.’ …

“Of Mainstay’s 66 residents, some have experienced homeless and as many as 80 percent receive SNAP benefits, said CEO Larry Oaks.

“And when suddenly that was in question, it was like, ‘Wow, these folks can’t live without that,’ said Oaks, who has worked at Mainstay for eight years.

“Mainstay resident Camilla Smith can’t cook without assistance, and relies on ready-to-eat items, Quimby said. Before coming to Mainstay 10 years ago, Smith said she bounced between halfway homes and worked jobs at Stop ‘N Shop and Friendly’s Ice Cream. …

“To meet the complex needs of Mainstay residents, North Hill residents filled a storage room ‘four times over, with donations, Fleming said. …

“Pierson, the former Lexington Public Schools superintendent, said he and his North Hill neighbors … had the financial resources to help the residents in Chelsea and wanted to support those affected by [the] cuts to safety net programs.

“ ‘I felt angry because of the behavior of the present administration to destroy things of value or of comfort,’ Pierson said. …

“Though the seniors at Mainstay have a roof over their heads, food insecurity has been and will continue to be a critical issue, Oaks said.

“ ‘If they don’t have their SNAP benefits, their incomes are not sufficient — they’re not going to feed themselves,’ Oaks, 57, said. While SNAP benefits were restored in mid-November, he said his residents continue to worry about benefit cuts going forward.”

More at the Globe, here.

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What Pollera Skirts Mean to Bolivia

February 6, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Juan Karita/AP.
An Aymara grandmother passes the ball during a warm-up before a traditional Bolivian handball match, Dec. 9, 2025.

Juan Karita writes at AP, “Before setting out for the wide, white mountain, Ana Lia González Maguiña took stock of her gear: A chunky sweater to guard against the chill. A harness and climbing rope to scale the 6,000-meter summit of one of Bolivia’s tallest mountains. Aviator glasses to protect from the bright highland sun. And most crucially, a voluminous, hot-pink skirt.

“The bell skirt with layered petticoats — known as the ‘pollera’ (pronounced po-YEH-rah) — is the traditional dress of Indigenous women in Bolivia’s highlands. Imposed centuries ago by Spanish colonizers, the old-fashioned pollera has long since been restyled with local, richly patterned fabrics and reclaimed as a source of pride and badge of identity here in the region’s only Indigenous-majority country.

“Rather than seeing the unwieldy skirt as a hindrance to physically demanding work in male-dominated fields, Andean Indigenous women, called ‘cholitas,’ insist that their unwillingness to conform with contemporary style comes at no cost to their comfort or capabilities.

“ ‘Our sport is demanding, it’s super tough. So doing it in pollera represents that strength, it’s about valuing our roots,’ said González Maguiña, 40, a professional mountain climber. …

“Skirt-clad miners, skaters, climbers, soccer players and wrestlers across Bolivia echoed that sentiment in interviews, portraying their adoption of polleras for all professional and physical purposes as an act of empowerment.

“ ‘We, women in polleras, want to keep moving forward,’ said Macaria Alejandro, a 48-year-old miner in Bolivia’s western state of Oruro, her pollera smeared with the dirt and dust of a day toiling underground. ‘I work like this and wear this for my children.’

“But many also described the current moment as one of uncertainty for pollera-wearing women in Bolivia. … Center-right President Rodrigo Paz entered office [in November 2025] as Bolivia’s economy burned, ending a long era of governance shaped by the charismatic Evo Morales (2006-2019), Bolivia’s first Indigenous president who prioritized Indigenous and rural populations … Through a new constitution, Morales changed the nation’s name from the Republic of Bolivia to the Plurinational State of Bolivia and adopted the Indigenous symbol of the wiphala — a checkerboard of bright colors — as an emblem equivalent to the national flag. For the first time, pollera-wearing ministers and officials walked the halls of power.

“But disillusionment with Morales’ Movement Toward Socialism party grew, especially under his erstwhile ally ex-President Luis Arce, who was arrested [in December] on allegations that he siphoned off cash from a state fund meant to support Indigenous communities.

“Some cholitas now wonder how far that change will go and fear it could extend to their hard-won rights despite Paz’s promises to the contrary. They describe feeling neglected by a government with no Indigenous members. They worry about the implications of the army last month removing Indigenous symbols from its logo and the government deciding to stop flying the wiphala from the presidential palace, as was long the tradition.

“ ‘I feel like the government won’t take us into account,’ said Alejandro, the miner. ‘We needed a change. The economy must get better. But it’s sad to see there are no powerful people wearing polleras. I see it as discrimination.’

“But González Maguiña said she still had hope, given how far Indigenous women had come.

“ ‘We already have the strength and everything that comes with it,’ she said. ‘We’re certainly going to knock on the doors of this new government.’ ”

More at AP, here. I have posted several articles about these Bolivian women in the past. Here is one on handball competitions.

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Kids Making Music Online in Wartime

February 5, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Peace Tracks.
Sandra Rizkallah and Tom Pugh, founders of Plugged In Band and Peace Tracks, at a 2024 United Nations event for the International Day of Education.

We used to say in the sixties that education should get the mega funding and the Defense Department hold a bake sale, instead of the other way around. (Humor paper the Onion gets the idea here.) Nothing has changed. The worthy cause described below has been defunded by our government and is now looking for alternate benefactors.

James Sullivan had the story for the Boston Globe. It’s about a Massachusetts peace group that makes music with teens from war-torn countries.

“Tensions are running high across the globe, but the couple behind the Needham-based initiative Peace Tracks are doing what they can to alleviate some of that through collaborative songwriting workshops. Launched during the pandemic, Peace Tracks is an offshoot of Sandra Rizkallah and Tom Pugh’s nonprofit Plugged In Band, which has been connecting students who want to form rock bands for 24 years.

“After a harrowing hospitalization with COVID in 2021, Rizkallah went home to recuperate.

” ‘It was a time for me to dream, to play, to do something I always wanted to do,’ she said. That’s when the couple came up with the idea for Peace Tracks.

“The new program focuses on teenagers living in conflict-torn regions, including Ukraine, Palestine, Lebanon, and refugee camps in Jordan and Berlin. Interacting online with the help of Peace Tracks facilitators, the students learn to practice empathy and compassion while writing and recording music together.

Peace Tracks was recently named one of the world’s 100 ‘brightest education innovations’ by the Finland-based HundrED Foundation.

“Working with students from around the world ‘forces you to get out of your bubble and think about bigger problems,’ said [Ali Belamou, a 16-year-old who lives in Morocco]. ‘The conversations are deep, personal, and intimate.’

“His classmate, Ismail Sebai, said he has learned English as a second language primarily through music and movies. He counts Brent Faiyaz, Bryson Tiller, and Drake among his favorite rappers. …

“Joining the students on the call was Afifa el Bassim, their English instructor. … With the Peace Tracks program, ‘we give them the freedom to say what they want,’ she said of the students. …

” ‘Another educator on the call, Gideon Gichiri, has been working with the Peace Tracks program in a refugee community in Berlin. A native of Kenya, he moved to Germany in 2022. After meeting Rizkallah and Pugh when they were visiting Berlin, he introduced the group’s work to the Sprach Café, a space for immigrants to learn German.

“Music, he said, truly is a universal language. ‘When the world is very fast, music slows it down,’ he said.

“Luke Flinter is an aspiring rock musician growing up in Falls Church, Va. He said that each Peace Tracks participant contributes what they can to the songwriting process. Some who have musical skills may cut instrumental tracks for their fellow students to write to. In some cases, he said, ‘I would edit their guitar parts or re-record what they did.’

“Others in these small groups — typically four to eight teammates, plus facilitators — might use their phones to record footage for videos.

“Flinter spent some of his young life in Abu Dhabi, before his family settled outside of Washington, D.C. Peace Tracks, he said, ‘proves what I already thought: that music transcends every cultural and racial boundary.’

“Rizkallah has always felt compelled to seek antidotes to world conflict, she said. Her mother was a Holocaust refugee who instilled in her ‘not a sense of being a victim, but more a humanitarian. My mom was always helping people, regardless of who they were or where they came from.’

“Peace Tracks launched in late 2023 with students from the US, Jordan, Morocco, and Palestine. One week later, the war in Gaza began.

“ ‘It’s been moving for all of us to see how the program has positively impacted everyone,’ Rizkallah said, ‘but especially the youth in Palestine. They felt unheard.’

“ ‘Peace Tracks gave me hope,’ said Faris, a Palestinian student from Ramallah who wants to study international relations, in an email. ‘I saw students from many countries working toward one goal. … ‘That experience showed me that people who care still exist.’

“Until June, Peace Tracks was funded by a two-year US State Department grant. … The group is currently working to develop fund-raising through other resources.

“In September, Rizkallah and Pugh traveled to the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, where they attended a discussion about ‘leading in messy times,’ Rizkallah explained. Among other things, she learned that sometimes it’s better to plunge into your project and set your course as you go. ‘You don’t have to have everything figured out,’ she said. ‘You might have to do it messy. That really had a deep impact on me. … ‘It’s been challenging, [but we] wholeheartedly believe in this mission.’ ”

More at the Globe, here.

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Using Record Players in Palliative Care

February 4, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Lorianne Willett/KUT News.
Dr. Tyler Jorgensen sets “A Charlie Brown Christmas” on a record player at Dell Seton Medical Center in Austin, Texas. He uses vinyl records as a form of music therapy for palliative care patients.

We’ve had a lot of posts about how playing music from a patient’s youth affects those with dementia. It’s like watering a dry plant. The patient perks right up and often starts singing along. Now a doctor in Texas has found that old musical memories have a pleasing affect on people in palliative care, too.

Olivia Aldridge writes at National Public Radio [NPR], “Lying in her bed at Dell Seton Medical Center at the University of Texas at Austin, 64-year-old Pamela Mansfield sways her feet to the rhythm of George Jones’ ‘She Thinks I Still Care.’ Mansfield is still recovering much of her mobility after a recent neck surgery, but she finds a way to move to the music floating from a record player that was wheeled into her room.

” ‘Seems to be the worst part is the stiffness in my ankles and the no feeling in the hands,’ she says. ‘But music makes everything better.’

“The record player is courtesy of the ATX-VINyL program, a project dreamed up by Dr. Tyler Jorgensen to bring music to the bedside of patients dealing with difficult diagnoses and treatments. …

” ‘I think of this record player as a time machine,’ he said. ‘You know, something starts spinning — an old, familiar song on a record player — and now you’re back at home. …

“The man who gave Jorgensen the idea for ATX-VINyL loved classic rock. That was around three years ago, when Jorgensen, a long-time emergency medicine physician, began a fellowship in palliative care — a specialty aimed at improving quality of life for people with serious conditions, including terminal illnesses.

“Shortly after he began the fellowship, he says he struggled to connect with a particular patient. …

“He had the idea to try playing the patient some music.

“He went with ‘The Boys Are Back in Town,’ by the 1970s Irish rock group Thin Lizzy, and saw an immediate change in the patient.

” ‘He was telling me old stories about his life. He was getting more honest and vulnerable about the health challenges he was facing,’ Jorgensen said. …

“Jorgensen realized records could lift the spirits of patients dealing with heavy circumstances in hospital spaces that are often aesthetically bare. And he thought vinyl would offer a more personal touch than streaming a digital track through a smartphone or speaker.

” ‘There’s just something inherently warm about the friction of a record — the pops, the scratches,’ he said. ‘It sort of resonates through the wooden record player, and it just feels different.’

“Since then, he has built up a collection of 60 records and counting at the hospital. The most-requested album, by a landslide, is Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours’ from 1977. Willie is also popular, along with Etta James and John Denver. And around the holidays, the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ gets a lot of spins.

“These days, it’s often a volunteer who rolls the record player from room to room after consulting nursing staff about patients and family members who are struggling and could use a visit. …

“Often, the palliative care patients visited by ATX-VINyL are near the end of life. Jorgensen feels that the record player provides an interruption of the heaviness those patients and their families are experiencing. Suddenly, it’s possible to create a new, positive shared experience at a profoundly difficult time. …

“Other patients, like Pamela Mansfield, are working painstakingly toward recovery. She has had six neck surgeries since April, when she had a serious fall. But on the day she listened to the George Jones album, she had a small victory to celebrate: She stood up for three minutes, a record since her most recent surgery. With the record spinning, she couldn’t help but think about the victories she’s still pursuing.

” ‘It’s motivating,’ she said. ‘Me and my broom could dance really well to some of this stuff.’ “

More at NPR, here. For a different angle on music at the end of life, check out a Guardian story on a documentary about the Threshold singers, here.

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20 New Species in the Deep Sea

February 3, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: California Academy of Sciences.
A potentially new species discovered.

Looking ahead at some of the activities scheduled in my retirement community, I see that in February we can attend a lecture by Prof. Peter Girguis, co-director of the Harvard Microbial Sciences Initiative.

The announcement in our app says, “In this presentation, I will take you on a trip through the deep sea, learning about the extraordinary animals and microbes that thrive therein and about their adaptations to this environment. We will also touch on humankind’s relationship with the ocean, the birth of deep-sea biology, and the technological innovations that first took humans into the deep and how we still have time to turn the tide.”

Sounds pretty good, huh? And I think today’s article will have been the perfect preparation for the talk.

Chandelis Duster reported recently at National Public Radio [NPR] that “scientists believe they have discovered at least 20 new species in a deep part of the Pacific Ocean.

“The discoveries were found after researchers from the California Academy of Sciences retrieved 13 reef monitoring devices that had been placed in deep coral reefs in Guam, which had been collecting data since 2018. The devices, known as autonomous reef monitoring structures or ARMS, were placed up to 330 feet below the surface, an area of the ocean that receives little light.

“Over two weeks in November, scientists retrieved 2,000 specimens, finding 100 species in the region for the first time. Luiz Rocha, California Academy of Sciences Ichthyology curator, told NPR after more analysis is completed, scientists expect to discover more than 20 new species. Rocha was also part of the diving exhibition that placed and retrieved the devices.

” ‘It’s probably going to be higher than that because one of the things we do is we confirm everything with genetics. So we sequence the DNA of the species before we even really make absolutely sure that they’re new,’ Rocha said. ‘And during that process sometimes what happens is what we thought was not a new species ends up being a new species because the genetics is different.’

“He estimates that some of the potential new species could include crabs, sponges, ascidians or sea squirts, as well as new gorgonians, a type of coral.

Deep coral reefs live in an area of an ocean, nicknamed the ‘twilight zone,’ which receives little sunlight.

“Known as the mesopelagic zone, it is a difficult area for some scientists to reach because of pressure and requires specialized diving equipment. Rocha’s team studied the ‘upper twilight zone,’ which sits at 180-330 feet below the surface.

“Finding new species in that part of the ocean was not a surprise for Rocha, who said he and his team were expecting to make new discoveries. But Rocha said he was surprised to see a hermit crab, which usually make their homes in abandoned snail shells, attached to a clam.

“ ‘When they first showed me the picture of it, I’m like, “What, wait, what is that?” I couldn’t even tell what animal it was. And then I realized, oh, it’s a hermit crab, but it’s using a clamshell,’ he said. ‘The species has a lot of adaptations that allows it to do that, and it was really cool and interesting.’

“Rocha and his team have also started a two-year expedition to retrieve 76 more deep reef monitoring devices across the Pacific Ocean, including in Palau and French Polynesia.

“Although studying deep coral reefs may be difficult and challenging, Rocha said it’s crucial to learn more about the reefs and their habitat.”

More at NPR, here.

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Revival of Handpainted Signs

February 2, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Gerry Hadden/The World.
The art of hand-painted gold leaf signs, like this one by artist Victor Bert, is enjoying a renaissance in France.

I love listening to radio show The World because they find international stories I don’t usually hear on US radio. Recently there was one I liked about the resurgence of handpainted signs in France. Gerry Hadden had the story.

“Victor Bert rummaged through an old wooden tackle box filled with brushes, paints, and emulsions. His assignment,” Hadden reports, “was simple. He needed to paint three words onto a wall: ‘Men,’ ‘Women,’ and ‘Shoes.’

“They’d be on display at the hip Parisian clothing store Asphalte. The project would likely take all day. As an artisanal letter painter, Bert was tasked with handpainting each letter in gold leaf. But that didn’t seem to bother him.

“ ‘This is my passion,’ Bert said. ‘I could spend my life doing this.’

France is known for its quaint and classy handpainted signage on storefronts and hotels. The art form dates back to the early 19th century and was almost wiped out by cheaper high-tech alternatives that emerged in the 1980s. But today it’s enjoying a renaissance and artisans are busier than ever.

“The technique requires a lot of dedication and patience. Instead of painting in cut-out letters, like in traditional stenciling, Bert explained that he makes hundreds of pinholes following the contours of each paper letter.

“After tapping and rubbing the paper against the wall with a special talcum powder dispenser that passes the powder through the tiny holes, the outline of the words appear as little dots that can then be painted over by hand. Like calligraphy, it’s one-stroke work.

“Bert, 32, has been practicing this craft for 11 years, and there are a dozen or so other artisans like himself in Paris.

“When machines started taking over in the ‘80s, the appeal was that it was cheaper and faster to print stickers, decals, and plastic printouts that could be stuck directly onto windows or walls. … But those products turned out to not be very durable. Stickers became unstuck. Vinyl decals cracked, and the ones exposed to the sun aged badly.

“Just when people started souring on decals, the COVID-19 pandemic struck. And when Parisians emerged from lockdown seven long weeks later, artisans like Bert became stars of sorts.

“ ‘Everyone was just dying to get back outside and do stuff,’ he said. …

“ ‘What Bert does, it’s part of the history of stores in Paris,’ said Jonathan Gauthier, the store manager who hired him. ‘It was important for us to embrace this. Plus, we wanted to give the shop a little caché. Gold leaf lettering enriches our image.’

“There’s not much room for error in this process. Bert once had to make tiny inscriptions on $5,000 bottles of wine.

Any mistake, and the artisan has to start from scratch.

“ ‘I’ve only messed up once,’ Bert said. ‘I ruined a $200 bottle of men’s perfume,’ which he then had to pay for. …

But, he’s done other jobs where you simply cannot err. He was tasked with etching the engraving on the tombstone of late French Prime Minister Michel Rocard.

“The inscription read: ‘Happiness to the artisans of peace.’ ”

More at The World, here. And you may recall a previous post, here, about Trader Joe’s hiring artists for handmade signs.

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Artist Models Struggle to Make a Living

February 1, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Isa Farfan/Hyperallergic.
A series of sketches created by Melody Lu during a life drawing session.

I’ve always been fascinated by how many different kinds of jobs there are in the world, but I’ve seldom delved into what it feels like to be in an unusual job. I know how it feels to be a waitress, a school teacher, and an editor, and that gives me sympathy for workers in those fields. Other people feel the same. It seems that generous tippers in restaurants have often known firsthand what it means to be on the other end.

Now Isa Farfan at Hyperallergic has given us a glimpse into the life of art models. It was a revelation to me.

“Aaron Bogan, a professional art model and illustrator originally from New Jersey, moved to New York City last year from the Bay Area, attracted in part by what he described as an ‘abundant’ modeling scene. For the past 20 years, Bogan has been a life drawing model, a physically demanding contract-based profession.

“ ‘Figure models are the blue-collar workers of the arts,’ Bogan said. ‘I don’t think anybody knows the amount of physicality and mental fortitude it takes to do what we do on stage.’

“In California, Bogan was part of the Bay Area Models Guild, which claims to represent some of the highest-paid figure models in the country, negotiating a minimum $50 hourly wage for their models. Though Bogan said he finds himself working more hours in New York City than ever before, he is earning just $22 an hour, above the minimum wage but below the living wage at standard full-time hours. On the night he spoke to Hyperallergic, Bogan had worked intermittently from 9 am until around 10 pm. He said he models six or seven days a week.

“A typical three-hour open drawing session begins with artists filing into a studio arranged expectantly toward an area where a model will disrobe. Nude, the model contorts into poses, ranging from sitting cross-legged on the stage to elaborate stances involving chairs, poles, and, for Bogan, katana swords. The relationship between the model and the student is demarcated by a stage, and for the artist, tucked behind a sketchbook or easel, the hours go by quickly, almost prayerfully. For the model, the work can be a gratifying form of artistic expression or meditation, but the postures are physically exerting. Standing poses, Bogan said, led him to develop a painful ulcer on his leg, which required a $430 emergency room visit earlier last October. He went back to work the next day.

“ ‘We’ve all been through pain on the inside and outside, and we bring it all on the stage,’ Bogan said. ‘We’re all smiling, and we’re all doing everything on stage, but nobody knows that when you’re on stage, it looks like you’re stoic, but on the inside, you’re breaking.’

“Despite playing a consequential role in visual arts institutions across the country, art models, also known as figure models or life drawing models, are struggling to cobble together a living between unreliable hours and varying wages, according to nine models interviewed by Hyperallergic. Many of the models, most of whom are artists themselves, reported feeling overlooked in the art world despite their prevalence in educational institutions.

“On Wednesday, December 17, members of the Art Students League, which currently contracts 80–90 models depending on class needs, will vote on a new board. As the institution marks its 150th year, the newly formed Art Students League Model Collective is asking incoming leadership to hear their concerns for improved labor conditions, including raising their $22/hour rate, offering more stable working hours, and providing up-to-date heaters and amenities. 

“The models interviewed by Hyperallergic, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of losing work, also hope that sharing their stories will lead to increased respect for the profession. 

“Anna Veedra, an art model who does not work for the Art Students League, is leading the push for change at the institution through her advocacy organization, The Model Tea Project. Veedra is sending a survey to art models across the country, an initiative she told Hyperallergic would ‘provide the model community with data to match their lived experience.’

“Veedra said she prefers flying to California to take jobs, including at animation studios, rather than working in New York, where institutions like Parsons and the New School pay around $20–25 an hour, according to models who work there. …

“In preliminary data shared with Hyperallergic from 41 models heavily concentrated in New York City and at the Art Students League, over half of the respondents reported being unable to save any money for retirement or emergencies.

About half of the models said they relied on public assistance programs, including food stamps and Medicaid.

“Most models surveyed by Veedra earned below $35,000 per year, including supplemental income. Some models Hyperallergic interviewed had other jobs. A few relied on bookings entirely. 

“In a statement, a spokesperson for the Art Students League said the atelier-style institution was ‘committed to providing a safe and inclusive working environment for the models who devote their time and expertise to aiding the practice of life drawing in our studios.’

“ ‘Models are vital members of our community and the League’s administration regularly holds meetings where models can share feedback and voice concerns,’ the spokesperson said. The institution did not answer questions about whether it had plans to raise pay for models or confirm its hourly rate for models. 

“The Art Students League was established in the 1870s in part to increase opportunities for artists to draw life models. A century and a half later, models are hoping it could set a high standard for the industry.

“One model who works at the Art Students League and spoke to Hyperallergic called the pay ‘insulting for the type of work that it is.’ Another model said he felt the institution ‘completely take[s] us for granted.’ 

“Robin Hoskins, an art model from Cincinnati who works at art schools across New York City as an independent contractor, said she became so ‘desperate’ that she was searching for retail jobs earlier this year. … She wishes people would appreciate the elegance and stamina required to pose for artists.

“ ‘We’re human beings, you know, and we want to be understood and appreciated for the work we’re putting in,’ Hoskins said. ‘But, most importantly, we need to be able to have a dignified wage and be able to earn a decent living, just like anyone else in any other successful profession.’ ” 

More at Hyperallergic, here. No paywall. Subscriptions encouraged.

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Can I Get a Witness?

January 31, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Erin Trieb for NPR.
Alsa Bruno (center) sings with Brass Solidarity, a band founded in 2021 in response to the killing of George Floyd. Above, you see them practicing at a community center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Jan. 19, 2026.

You have probably noticed how much music is in the air around Minneapolis these days: songs of love, agape, hope, unity, and resistance. Suzanne sent me the one that Bruce Springsteen wrote, which is brand new, but some of the songs go back to the civil rights movement of the 1960s, to slave songs, folk music, and gospel.

Recently on Instagram I heard Brass Solidarity play “Don’t Let Nobody Turn You ‘Round,” and I thought, “Oh, I know that one! We used to sing it in the ’60s!”

Brass Solidarity has been introducing both hope and a joyful sense of connection into government-instigated chaos in Minneapolis. So I went online to learn more about them. In a 2023 report from Minnesota Public Radio, here, Minneapolis teacher and band member Natalie Peterson observed, “there’s a lot of work that can be done through energizing people and just bringing a joyful energy to something that can be incredibly hard.”

Last week, Kat Lonsdorf and Megan Lim added more at NPR: “Raycurt Johnson strolls into a local theater in south Minneapolis, shaking off the cold. He’s carrying a tambourine in one hand and a bullhorn in the other.

” ‘I was born in the civil rights era, and I’m still doing that,’ the 65-year-old says with a laugh.

“Around him, other musicians unpack their instruments, mostly brass: tubas, trombones, trumpets. Together they make up a community band called Brass Solidarity, formed in the aftermath of the 2020 murder of Minneapolis resident George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin. … The band plays once a week in George Floyd Square, where the killing occurred. When Renee Macklin Good was killed by a federal immigration agent earlier this month just blocks from there, the band started playing music in her memory as well. …

“The following week, Brass Solidarity was at Good’s memorial site, playing for people gathered there. ‘It was really interesting because there was a lot of mournfulness coming in, but people were rocking with us, and jamming with us,’ says Daniel Goldschmidt, another member of the band, who plays the melodica. …

“Since then, Brass Solidarity has turned out for several anti-ICE protests, and updated their repertoire a bit to include critical lyrics about ICE and other federal agencies. Goldschmidt, a practicing music therapist, says the music isn’t just about bringing the mood up in an otherwise depressing environment – it also helps calm people down, at a time when many are angry. Which is especially helpful [amid threats] to deploy the military to Minneapolis.

” ‘Street band music has the ability to bring down the temperature in spicy situations on the street during protests,’ Goldschmidt says.

“The band has been playing even as the temperatures have hovered well-below freezing. … ‘[But] the horns lock up. Someone’s here with a wooden clarinet right now. That’s not gonna work when it’s cold,’ says Alsa Bruno, a singer with the band. ‘And yet, we show up.’

“In recent days, the band has been meeting and playing indoors, as the weather has dropped into the negative single digits. But members are still showing up at outdoor events, banging drums or singing into bullhorns.

” ‘This is not a moment for us to give in to insecurity. It’s actually the moment that we get to stand together in the cold, knowing we’re all cold, being arm in arm, knowing that this weather is just weather,’ says Bruno. ‘It’s temporary. We’re forever.’ “

Finally, in case you missed it: the spirit of folk singer Woody Guthrie has returned, with Resistance Revival Chorus belting out his song “All You Fascists Bound To Lose.” In fact, you may be hearing other Guthrie anthems again, not just “This Land Is My Land.” There’s another one mourning Mexican migrants who died being deported. We are relearning from the singer who was ahead of his time that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

See the 2025 PBS report on the Guthrie revival, here.

Please add music that speaks to you just now.

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Rebuilding Mosul, Iraq

January 30, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Valéry Freland/International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage (ALIPH).
The Al-Raabiya Mosque — severely damaged during the battle to liberate Mosul from Isis in 2017 — was one of several restored buildings revealed in October 2025.

Let’s think about how humans rebuild places after the unspeakable. Mosul, in Iraq, is one such place. A goal to nurture a diversity of faith traditions there has been dubbed the Mosul Mosaic.

Hadani Ditmars writes at the Art Newspaper that 2025 was “a banner year for the restoration of heritage in Mosul, a city rising from the ashes of war and still recovering from three years of occupation by Islamic State (Isis). When it was liberated in 2017, the northern Iraqi city lay in ruins at a level of destruction Unesco described as unequalled since the Second World War.

“A multitude of reconstruction projects began in 2018 after landmines and debris were cleared. Dozens of these were completed in the past year, among them, Unesco’s program to restore Ottoman houses in the old city. The Isis-ravaged Mosul Central Library opened on 1 January. The Al-Nouri Mosque, Al-Tahera Church, and Al-Saa’a Convent are among the sites to have been restored under Unesco’s $115m Revive the Spirit of Mosul program. In October, two more churches and a mosque restored by the Geneva-based NGO Aliph (International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage) were inaugurated.

“It remains to be seen whether rebuilding churches and mosques will encourage social cohesion and religious peace in a still-fractured society. There are fewer than 70 Christian families living in Mosul, down from a pre-2014 population of 50,000. …

“David Sassine, the project manager of Mosul Mosaic, an initiative launched by Aliph in 2018, tells the Art Newspaper that the NGO’s primary reason for restoring churches and mosques is their heritage value. But it is also, he says, ‘a message that the international community is supporting the presence of all communities in Mosul.’ Displaced communities can be encouraged to return by building schools and restoring monuments, he says. …

“In addition to preserving the cultural heritage of Mosul in its religious diversity (including documentation of the historic Jewish community), Mosul Mosaic also provides on-the-job training in heritage restoration and employment to locals. …

“[In 2024] Aliph reopened the historic Tutunji House—an Ottoman home used by Isis as an explosives factory that is now a cultural centre. This year, it completed the rebuilding of the House of Prayer at the Al-Saa’a Church and the Al-Masfi Mosque, one of Mosul’s oldest, likewise damaged during occupation by Isis, was also inaugurated. …

“At the first public mass at the exquisitely restored Al Tahera Church in May, most of the Christians in attendance no longer lived in Mosul. After the service, attended by perhaps three dozen worshippers, everyone left quickly. Few were inclined to speak to the Art Newspaper, including the priest. ‘I don’t feel comfortable,’ he said.

“One young man said he had moved back to Mosul to take a job as the church verger, and because his old family home was still standing in the old city. The rent in Erbil … where he and his family had fled in 2014, was unaffordable, he said.

“A Muslim construction worker outside the church, said he … fondly remembered his old Christian classmates at the Catholic school he attended in his youth. ‘I haven’t seen them in many years,’ he said.

“But Shams Majid, who returned to Mosul a few years ago to rebuild his family home, was optimistic. He recently transformed his traditional [house] with several stories that overlook the al-Nuri Mosque in the old city into the Mosul Heritage Art House, open to visitors.

“ ‘Everything in Mosul is great now,’ he said. ‘They are rebuilding all the monuments, the tourists are coming back, and the economy is improving.’ …

“Aliph’s next big restoration project—the Mosul Museum—combines ancient and modern heritage preservation. Looted after the 2003 Iraq War and ravaged by Isis in 2015, it is scheduled to open in autumn 2026. The $15.8m project was initiated in 2018 in partnership with the Musée du Louvre, the Smithsonian Institution and the World Monuments Fund.”

Learn about other restored buildings at the Art Newspaper, here.

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A Group Cleaning Up Ocean Plastic

January 29, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Ocean Cleanup.
Ocean Plastic doing its 100th cleanup in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, where an estimated 100,000 tons of plastic have accumulated.

Today I’m sharing an organization’s website describing its work to clean up plastic in the Pacific Ocean. Ocean Cleanup uses the natural circulation of currents to sequester the garbage in several hotspots so they can remove it.

Excerpts from the website: “Plastic [in the Pacific] accumulates in five ocean garbage patches, the largest one being the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, located between Hawaii and California. To solve it, we not only need to prevent plastic from accumulating into the ocean, but also clean up what is already out there. Floating plastics trapped in the patches will keep circulating until they break down into smaller and smaller pieces, becoming harder to clean up and increasingly easier to mistake for food by sealife. …

“The Great Pacific Garbage Patch [GPGP] poses a severe threat to marine life, ecosystems, and human health. Animals often mistake plastic for food, while ghost nets — making up 46% of the patch — cause deadly entanglements. As plastic floats at sea, [it] can enter the food chain through bioaccumulation, potentially contaminating seafood. Beyond ecological and health impacts, microplastics also disrupt oceanic carbon sequestration, with estimated annual losses ranging from 15 to 30 million metric tons of carbon. …

“After the Transpacific Yacht Race [in 2025], sailors helped our research team in two key scientific areas: sailors tagged GPS buoys to megaplastics found at sea, allowing us to track their movement, and mounted ADIS [our Automated Debris Imaging System] on their boats to help identify plastic hotspots.

“After years of engineering development and strategic partnership agreements, the Ocean Cleanup became the first ever organization to remove plastic pollution from the GPGP – and it remains the only one to this day.

“We captured our first plastic from the GPGP in 2019, and by 2021, our technology was proven. Since then, we’ve removed hundreds of tons of trash from the GPGP — mostly plastic coming from fishing gear.

“In 2022, we began … upgrading components while continuing cleanup. …

“Since 2024, [we’ve] begun working on optimizing our efficiency even more. Through hotspot hunting, we can address our cleanup efforts in areas with higher quantity of plastic, while decreasing our environmental impact.

“The circulating currents in the garbage patch move the plastic around, creating natural ever-shifting hotspots of higher concentration. With the help of computational modeling, we predict where these hotspots are and place the cleanup systems in these areas.

“Our floating systems are designed to capture plastics ranging from small pieces, just millimeters in size, up to large debris, including massive, discarded fishing nets (ghost nets). After fleets of systems are deployed into every ocean gyre, combined with inflow source prevention, the Ocean Cleanup aims to remove 90% of floating ocean plastic by 2040.

“It is estimated that 100,000 tons of plastic float in the GPGP. We work with renowned partners to repurpose our catch into meaningful products – to prevent plastic ending up in the natural environment.

“We aim to rid the oceans of plastic in the most responsible way possible. Our mission is intended to benefit the ocean and its inhabitants, so we place protection of the marine environment and mitigation of any negative impact of our operations at the forefront of our ocean cleaning operations.

“[Our] ocean cleaning technology has deterrents, cameras, escape aids, and other features to minimize risk to marine wildlife. We also have trained independent observers on board the vessels each trip to monitor any interactions with protected species (such as turtles or whales) in the area. Monitoring data has confirmed that our operations are having only minimal effects on the environment.”

Learn more about their plastic-capture techniques at the Ocean Cleanup, here.

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