Ensuring November gets off to an upbeat start with today's smorgasbord of positive news nuggets.
Zeitgeist Cartoon
In 1993, the New Yorker published a cartoon by Peter Steiner featuring two dogs sitting at a computer. With a paw resting on the keyboard, one says to the other: “On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” The image still resonates today and holds the record as the most reprinted New Yorker cartoon in the magazine’s history. Now, it's just hit a new milestone: the original drawing sold at auction for $175,000, the highest amount ever paid for a single-panel cartoon. “Most people had never even used the internet in 1993. I certainly didn’t have a connection,” says Bob Mankoff, former New Yorker cartoon editor told Gizmodo. “But I think part of its success comes from the fact that we’re all living in the world that that cartoon foreshadowed. There’s a way that a cartoonist’s antenna can sort of tap into the zeitgeist, and [a] good cartoon compresses the message as simply as possible.”
Bee Plate
From today, a new license plate will be available to drivers in Oregon, designed by a 16-year-old bee enthusiast. It shows a honeybee and a native bumble bee hovering over a field of red clover with a mountainous blue sky backdrop. The plate comes with a $40 surcharge, and the funds will go towards protecting bees in the state.
Back to The Future
Tesla Motors recently received permission to break ground on a 1950s-style drive-in movie theater and diner where the parking comes with Tesla fast-charging stations. The permits allow for around three dozen EV charging stalls, two outdoor movie screens, and a restaurant with rooftop seating - all coming soon to W Santa Monica Blvd. So, even if you don't need to charge your car, it still looks like a cool place to enjoy some dinner and watch a movie.
Movember
Drones form a moustache shape over the Angel of the North in Gateshead, north east England, to mark the 20th anniversary of the men's health charity Movember. It's a movement that encourages men to 'grow a mo' this month. It's like a symbol representing healthier men and a healthier world, all Movember long. It shows everyone you walk past that men's health (physical and mental) matters to you. It's now a worldwide movement. Why not sign up where ever you live?
Jacket Made From Trash
Every day, Costa Rica produces four tonnes of plastic waste and a fifth of it ends up in rivers and on beaches. To tackle this problem, a company called Bionic dispatches teams to collect the garbage, then transforms it into high-performing Gore-Tex fabrics. And now you can buy a Patagonia jacket - dubbed the Stormshadow Parka - in which half the fibers in the garment are derived from this ocean-bound plastic. It happens to be the brand’s warmest-ever outerwear and contains no toxic 'forever chemicals' in its weatherproof exterior. This jacket reflects how far sustainable-material innovation has come over the past few years.
New Gold Standard in Climate Philanthropy: In a remarkable gesture of corporate responsibility, Yvon Chouinard, the owner of multi-billion dollar clothing firm Patagonia has given the company away to help fight climate change...
Record Squashed
A pumpkin mosaic nearly the size of a tennis court has just squashed a Guinness World Record. The 2,081 square foot display has taken the niche title of the world’s largest cucurbita mosaic. (Cucurbita is a term for pumpkins, squash and gourds.) It depicts the iconic scene from Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas in which the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town sings on a hilltop, a full moon looming in the background. It was made from several types of pumpkins and squash in various colours by the owners of Sunnyfields Farm on England's south coast.
Aussie Renewables
For a half hour in the middle of a Saturday last month, enough renewable energy was available to meet 99 percent of eastern Australia’s entire electricity demand - the closest to reaching 100 percent clean power in the grid’s history. Renewables also supplied just under 40 percent of average demand across the national electricity market in the September quarter, the most for any third quarter, according to a report by the Australian energy market operator.
"The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people." President Teddy Roosevelt
On This Day
1 November 1512: For the first time, the general public was able to view Michelangelo's fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican Palace.
Declassified photos from US spy satellites have revealed a treasure trove of previously unknown Roman-era forts. Trading posts...
Mood Booster
Parrot sings along to Sultans of Swing. Doesn't everyone like Dire Straits?