OGN Wednesday
- 19 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Mid-week collection of positive news nuggets to brighten the day.
Stargazing Trail
Colorado has announced its new “stargazing trail” linking 21 International Dark Sky destinations. Designed for celestial lovers and adventurers alike, the curated guide of dark sky stops includes stunning landscapes like Great Sand Dunes National Park and Mesa Verde National Park, where a lack of light pollution creates particularly clear views of the cosmos. “These aren’t just places that happen to be dark; they’re carefully protected landscapes, designed to shut out light pollution and let the cosmos shine,” says the website for the trail.
Walking Shark
Residents of southeastern Papua New Guinea have long known about an unusual fish that can “walk” across the reef flats at low tide with most of its body out of the water. They call it kadedekedewa, which loosely means “lazy shark” or “dog shark,” a reference to its waddling gait. Now, scientists have identified the creature as a previously undescribed species. They’ve dubbed it Hemiscyllium dudgeonae, or Dudgeon’s walking shark, and it belongs to a unique group of sharks whose members can use their strong pectoral fins like legs as they navigate the shores of Australia and the island of New Guinea. “A lot of the time, we talk about the deep sea as unknown - we don’t really think of the shallow water as being unknown. So finding a new species of shark that is pretty shallow water-orientated is just so exciting.”
Top Box Office
Disney and Pixar unwrapped a major box office gift with Toy Story 5, which is headed toward the biggest opening of the year so far of $160 million at the domestic box office. Internationally, it is pulling in $152 million, for a global start of $312 million. The domestic launch number is the biggest of 2026 so far, topping the Super Mario Bros. Galaxy movie. It’s also a record for the franchise, topping Toy Story 4‘s $120.9 million launch in 2019.
Top 10 Highest Grossing Movies of All Time, Adjusted For Inflation: Several of the movies on this list will probably surprise you, but it's remarkable how adjusting for inflation puts a rather different spin on things.
Beefing Up Tracking
Colombia has passed a cattle traceability law to stop beef linked to illegal deforestation from entering supply chains. The law lets officials create high-surveillance zones in deforestation hotspots, track cattle movements, and require slaughterhouses, traders and exporters to adopt due diligence systems within two years. Cattle are a major driver of forest loss across Colombia’s 600,000 km² of forest; this is a serious lever. Mongabay
Tumbleweed
California’s new eight-hour battery is making its grid even more renewable. California has switched on Tumbleweed, the first major US battery project able to discharge power for eight hours, twice the usual duration for grid batteries.
Officially Online
SunZia, an $11 billion wind-and-power-line project and one of the largest US clean energy transmission projects ever built, is officially online - carrying renewable electricity from New Mexico to customers across the Southwest. The 550-mile high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line can move up to 3,000 megawatts (MW) of power from the SunZia Wind project in New Mexico to Arizona and customers across the western grid. That’s enough electricity for around 1 million US homes. While the giant 3.65-GW, 916-turbine SunZia Wind has grabbed plenty of headlines, getting that electricity to where it’s needed is just as important. The new transmission line makes that possible, moving large amounts of wind power over long distances with relatively low energy losses.
“There are infinitely many kinds of beautiful lives.” Maria Popova
On This Day
24 June 1911: French couturier Paul Poiret revolutionized the fashion industry by hosting his legendary "The 1002nd Night" costume ball. This opulent event served as a spectacular launchpad for "Parfums de Rosine," making Poiret's line the first signature fragrance ever linked to a design house. Poiret is widely remembered for liberating women's fashion from tight corsets, and he cemented his visionary status by pioneering the highly lucrative designer fragrance market.
Today's Articles
First Time in 220 Years: Visitors to the Acropolis of Athens can now savour the site’s looming Parthenon in a manner unseen for centuries.
Beginning of The End: Letter signed by George Washington accepting British surrender to go on display.
Mood Boosting Video
Making The Final 32: Norway fans and players doing the Viking row to celebrate.
