Some tasty bite-sized chunks of good news to perk up the day.
Patagonia's Masterclass
Every year, from Christmas Day to New Year's, Patagonia closes its stores and the entire company (shops, warehouse, offices in USA and Canada) gets the week off - with pay, of course. "We're out for the holidays so our employees can spend time with loved ones and chase some much needed fun," it said in an Instagram post. "We'll be back on January 2nd, hopefully with sore legs and a few great stories." Patagonia has built a culture where the people who work there are the type of people who very much would go off on an adventure over the holidays, and that's a valuable lesson for every company, reports Inc. If your brand is the way people feel about your company, your culture is how your employees feel about it. And that might be the single most important thing to understand about taking care of your people - after all, you don't get to decide how your people feel, you only get to decide how you treat them.
Bowie Tribute
Paris has honoured music legend David Bowie by naming a street after him. The tribute celebrates Bowie's first Paris performance in 1965 - his first outside the United Kingdom - and his lasting impact on popular culture. His album Pin Ups was recorded near the French capital in 1973 at Chateau d'Herouville after completing the Ziggy Stardust Tour.
Hungry?
Our thanks to a reader in Australia who kindly sent us this picture of an hilariously named restaurant she spotted. If you're tickled by entertaining restaurant names, lettuce introduce you to half a dozen more foodie destinations with funny puns as their moniker: Pun-tastic Restaurant Names.
Alzheimer’s Head Start
Scientists have discovered a way to get Alzheimer’s drugs into the brain faster with a new ultrasound tool, potentially improving the efficacy of Alzheimer's drugs, reports AP. An experiment resulted in a 32 percent greater reduction in Alzheimer's plaque levels in treated areas compared to the opposite side of the brain, according to PET scans. “Our goal is to give patients a head start,” by boosting some new Alzheimer’s treatments that take a long time to work, said Dr. Ali Rezai of West Virginia University’s Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, who led the study.
Bilirubin Reductase
That's the answer to the question: why does the pee of a healthy person have a distinctly yellow colour? It’s been unclear to scientists for centuries what actually gives urine this hue, but a team from the University of Maryland and National Institutes of Health believe that they have solved this mystery by pinpointing the microbial enzyme that makes our pee yellow. Namely, bilirubin reductase. The findings are detailed in a study published earlier this month in the journal Nature Microbiology.
Wheelchair Enhancement
Traveling can be a pain for everyone, but flyers who use wheelchairs face another level of inconvenience and problems, including the risk of damaging expensive - and essential - equipment. That spurred an idea to create a nifty but quite simple seat design that allows wheelchair users to remain in their own chair on the plane. The new design was a collaboration between Delta Flight Products and Britain's Air4All. The innovative seat folds up, allowing passengers with limited mobility to remain securely in their own powered wheelchairs for the duration of the flight, while still maintaining access to the headrest and console table. “This patented design offers new possibilities for customers in wheelchairs to enjoy a travel experience they truly deserve,” said Rick Salanitri, the president of Delta Flight Products.
"Action is the antidote to despair." Joan Baez
On This Day
11 January 1878: Milk was delivered for the first time in glass bottles in New York City.
Mood Booster
Skateboarding down a Norwegian mountain road. If you're looking for a vicarious adrenalin rush...