Friday's Upbeat News

9 minutes ago
4 min read

Concluding the week with a global selection of upbeat news nuggets.

Beak to Beak

The photographer watched the sarus cranes and their chicks in the rice paddies in Huai Chorakhe Mak Non-Hunting Area in Buri Ram, Thailand. To avoid disturbing the birds, he would lay still for several hours a day while he watched. In the evenings, after the adults had fed their chicks, they rested on their nests. The parent of this one week-old chick carefully cleaned it. Then, in a moment of intimacy, it made beak-to-beak contact and moved its beak around the chick’s for a while. The image is one of 24 finalists in the running for the Nuveen People’s Choice Award from the Natural History Museum's Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest. “No matter where you are in the world, it’s time to join the jury and vote in the Nuveen People’s Choice Award to select the photograph set for display in our flagship exhibition here at the Natural History Museum,” says Dr Douglas Gurr, Director of the Natural History Museum, London.

Pooch Pirates

A pair of disobedient dogs have been caught stealing a parcel from a porch in Oklahoma City. Doorbell footage posted on Facebook by the local police department showed one of the canine companions pick up the package in its mouth and “flee the scene” with another dog, said UPI. The stolen parcel - which contained drill bits - was “safely recovered” later on. “Evidence shows clear intent, flawless teamwork, and zero remorse - just pure tail-wagging confidence”, wrote police.

Gray wolf crossing a dirt track — Credit: CDFW

First Time in a Century

A gray wolf has been sighted in Los Angeles County for the first time in over a century. The wolf, a three-year-old female, was spotted in the mountains north of Santa Clarita Saturday, marking the first sighting in the county since California’s wolf population was wiped out by hunters and trappers about a century ago. The wolves returned to California in 2011 when a wolf ventured over the border from Oregon. Now a wolf snappily known as BEY03F, born in 2023, has traveled over 370 miles south and officials believe she is seeking a mate and suitable habitat. The sighting is considered a historic moment for the return of wolves to California.

A very faded bit of graffiti on a wall in Pompeii — Credit: Pompeii Archaeological Park

Love Note

About 2,000 years ago, a woman named Erato walked the streets in ancient Pompeii's theater district and when she reached a long passageway covered with graffiti, she decided to carve a message of her own into the wall. “Erato amat,” she wrote, or “Erato loves” in English. The end of her message, presumably revealing the object of her affection, has sadly been lost to history. Archaeologists have been excavating Pompeii since the 18th century. This particular wall was discovered in 1794, with experts recording roughly 200 of its graffiti inscriptions in the centuries that followed. Many others, however, were too faint for the human eye to discern - until now, with advanced imaging technology revealing new pieces of graffiti.

Pompeii ‘Perfume Garden’ Restored to Its Former Glory. The 2,000 year old walled garden now features thousands of roses, violets, cherry trees and vines. Experts think a perfumer may have once used the plants to experiment with scents.

set of 5 new postage stamps celebrating 1940s-era Mexican American car culture

Lowriders Forever Stamps

Celebrating 1940s-era Mexican American car culture, a new set of postage stamps will debut next month. Low and slow: that’s the lowrider. When in motion, these customized automobiles appear to glide over the road surface, only to suddenly levitate and bounce up and down. The new stamps celebrate the lowrider culture that is rooted in working-class Mexican American/Chicano communities throughout the American Southwest in the 1940s. The five models that grace the stamps are pictured from top left: a blue 1958 Chevrolet Impala named “Eight Figures”; an orange 1964 Chevrolet Impala named “The Golden Rose”; a green 1987 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme named “Pocket Change”; a blue 1946 Chevrolet Fleetline named “Let the Good Times Roll/Soy Como Soy”; and a red 1963 Chevrolet Impala named “El Rey.”

Some Good Numbers

50: Number of women’s events at Milano Cortina, the most gender-balanced Winter Olympics to date.

82 Percent: Share of Indian households that now have tap water, up from 17 percent in 2019.

Double: The share of black women in the US with a bachelor’s degree has doubled since 2000.

"I don’t believe in astrology; I’m a Sagittarius and we’re skeptical." Arthur C Clarke

On This Day

Painting of Galileo Galilei at the Roman Inquisition

13 February 1633: 69-year-old astronomer Galileo Galilei arrived in Rome to face the Roman Inquisition, charged with heresy for advocating the view that Earth revolves around the Sun. Galileo spent his remaining years under house arrest. In 1992, 359 years later, Pope John Paul II formally acknowledged the Church's error in condemning Galileo, declaring that he was right.