Tuesday's bite sized chunks of positive news to perk up the day.
Here’s a wild thing to make your heart sing – the world’s first rewilding centre, which will be located on the 10,000-acre Dundreggan estate in the heart of the Highlands of Scotland, will open this year. The project is a prime example of rewilding in action. Exploited for centuries by sheep, cattle and deer grazing, the land is being nursed back to recovery under the stewardship of charity Trees for Life, which bought the estate in 2008. Tree-planting programmes have reintroduced rare varieties to remote areas where they have all but vanished, while a reduction in grazing pressure is encouraging existing fragments of threatened Caledonian Forest – dubbed Scotland’s ‘rainforest’ – to thrive.
Elon Musk’s satellite internet company, Starlink, has ambitious plans to bring internet access to people anywhere in the world. But it turns out the venture is providing another service: warming up cats. A customer tweeted a photo of five cats huddled on his Starlink dish, which links homes to more than a thousand satellites, and noted that the presence of the furtive felines had slowed his internet performance. “Starlink works great until the cats find out that the dish gives off a little heat on cold days,” Aaron Taylor said.
Good news for cyclists: The feather-light Evo21 smart helmet has powerful LED front lights, brake lights and side indicators controlled with a remote from your handlebars. If, God forbid, you have a serious fall, it will detect the pause in movement and send a text message to your emergency contact with your precise GPS location. Check out livall.com
Uganda ended the world’s longest school closure this week, ordering millions of students back to the classroom nearly two years after learning was suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic. Students poured through school gates that had been shut in March 2020, greeting teachers and friends after 83 weeks outside the classroom.
Sightings of rare humpback whales in British waters have increased significantly in the past two years. According to The Wildlife Trust, there have been 75 sightings since 2019. White-beaked dolphins were also logged off the Thames estuary for the first time in decades, while orcas (normally only spotted in the Hebrides) have been sighted off Cornwall.
Whilst OGN has featured stories about the Bentley Continental S2 Flying Spur and the Rolls-Royce Phantom V being upgraded and converted to an electric powertrain, it's good to learn of an American muscle-car getting the same treatment. This ’72 Plymouth Satellite will appeal to some people who have not yet considered an EV. And once people begin to associate “electric” with “cool,” they just might just become EV owners themselves. That’s a win for everyone.
When he was four years old, Li Jingwei was abducted from his home in China and taken to live with another family. It's a tragically common problem in parts of China, and as Li grew up, he knew he had a family waiting for him - somewhere out there - in a place he could still remember. For years, he would stave off homesickness by drawing a map of his childhood village - the rice paddies and paths, even the field where the water buffalo live. Now, technology and social media have helped many kidnapped children like Li find their way home, reports CNN. So he decided to take a shot: He posted one of his maps online with a simple request. "I want to be able to see my parents again while they are still here," he said. People leapt at the chance to help, and even China's Ministry of Public Security got involved. Authorities located Li's birth mother and set up a video call, and he instantly recognized her. And they have now reunited in person, after 30 years apart. "I've finally found my baby," Li's mother said.
Quote of the Day
“Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!” Anne Frank
On this Day
On this day in 1935, Amelia Earhart, one of the world's most celebrated aviators, made the first successful solo flight from Hawaii to California, a distance longer than that from the United States to Europe.
Dive in Deeper
Scientists pull DNA out of the air: The discovery could revolutionize the study of biodiversity in the wild. Read on...
Mood-Boosting Video
Day and Night Scapes
Home to the darkest and cleanest skies in the world, the Atacama Desert offers views to the nightsky like no other.