Upbeat News Tuesday
Today's tasty bite-sized chunks of positive news from around the world.
Super Bowl LXI
It has been announced that twenty-five-time Grammy Award-winner Jay-Z will perform at the Super Bowl LXI Halftime Show at SoFi Stadium in California in February next year. “From Reasonable Doubt to standing on the Super Bowl Halftime stage, this has been a journey,” said Jay-Z. “Thirty years of music, work, and culture on the world's biggest stage. This run continues to be a dream come true.” Anticipation as to who Jay-Z might have guest star at halftime for the big game will now kick off. Of course, his wife, Beyoncé, will be atop the list. Beyoncé headlined the Super Bowl XLVII halftime show and was a special guest for Super Bowl 50.
Australia's New Park
Australia’s Great Koala National Park is official. For conservationist Ashley Love, the park's creation is the culmination of more than a decade of campaigning to protect koalas and their habitat along the Mid North Coast. "We're extremely grateful that the government has decided to protect native forest," he told ABC News. "Its nature is quite fragmented, and there are gaps and connectivity issues between sections of it, but it is a big step forward." Mr Love began lobbying for what would become the Great Koala National Park after hearing multiple reports from residents that koalas in the region were not as common as they once were. "It became too much to ignore," he said. The new park spans 1,845 square miles (4,780 sq. km).
Remarkable Figures
Two-thirds of new cars sold in China in September had a plug. Electric and plug-in hybrid cars took a record 67 percent of sales. Petrol car sales fell 43 percent year on year as the Hormuz crisis pushed up fuel prices. Analysts reckon that China’s electric fleet has saved 143 million barrels of oil since Trump's Middle Eastern foray began.
Donald Trump: The Accidental Environmentalist. By driving oil prices through the roof, he’s unintentionally given renewable energy a significant global boost.
Poland's Renaissance
“Four decades ago, we were in, excuse my English, deep, deep shit.” So said Poland’s deputy foreign minister Marcin Bosacki, who spent his school afternoons in the 1980s queuing for butter. Today, Poland is one of the world’s 20 biggest economies, and Polish incomes have gone from 40 percent of the EU average to 81 percent.
Bat Mystery Solved
Bats have been around for a long, long time. But how long, and where they originated, has been somewhat of a mystery to scientists until now. Researchers have just published the largest-ever combined bat genome and fossil study, mapping the genomes of 103 species and analyzing 44 ancient fossils to build a “bat family tree” of sorts, reports Reuters. They traced the first of the flying mammals to Europe 65 million years ago, roughly a million years after the asteroid that wiped out dinosaurs struck Earth. This contradicts earlier hypotheses that placed bats’ origin in North America, Asia, or Africa.
Patagonia
The outdoor clothing company has given 112,000 customers a $100 discount on Patagonia merchandise for helping three friends make a plan to vote in the midterms. An estimated 11.2 million “environmental voters” don’t participate in elections, so Patagonia launched a campaign to get more people who care about the climate and environment out to the polls - by giving them $100 in merchandise credit. The company's website says that they have met their $11.2 million goal.
Going Off-Grid
Off-grid solar now reaches 149 million people around the world, up 26 percent in two years. That’s according to the World Bank and the wonderfully named Global Off-Grid Solar Association, or GOGLA, who say solar is also now the cheapest way to bring power to at least 398 million people without any, and has saved its users $28 billion over 15 years.
“Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” Marie Curie
On This Day
3 November 1952: General Foods markets Birds Eye frozen peas, using the methods of company vice-president and process inventor Clarence Birdseye. He revolutionized the frozen food industry by inventing a quick-freezing process inspired by Indigenous Inuit methods in Labrador, Canada. Unlike slow-freezing methods that form large ice crystals and rupture cell walls, Birdseye's technique froze food rapidly to create tiny ice crystals. This locked in the food's natural taste, texture, color, and nutritional value.
Today's Articles
Rosetta Stone for Mars: When a rose-colored meteorite was found in the Sahara, no one knew how old it was or where it came from. Until now.
Nutrient Powerhouse: Dragon fruit looks weird, but peel away the skin and you will enjoy a plethora of surprising health benefits within.
Mood Boosting Video
Harnessing Ocean Energy: Wave energy technology inspired by the way the human heart pumps blood.
