Sunny Saturday News

Editor OGN Daily
4 minutes ago
4 min read

What better way to start the weekend than with some upbeat news stories?

Vibrant Aurora

When the biggest geomagnetic storm in 20 years hit Earth in May 2024, photographer Kavan Chay was in Tumbledown Bay, New Zealand. Armed with his camera, Chay captured this absolutely spectacular shot of the vibrant aurora that resulted from the G5-level storm. “The aurora pulsed throughout the night, almost like it was alive,” Chay wrote on Instagram. “It was breathtaking to watch and really made all my past week of anxious thoughts quiet. It’s incredible how nature can really help you with these things.” Chay’s image earned top honors in the Aurorae category of the 2025 Royal Observatory Greenwich’s ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year.

Kitty Hall

Somerville, Massachusetts has elected a cat as "mayor" of its bike path, after a "hotly contested" campaign. Despite the efforts of his "seven-year-old chief of staff Amias and five-year-old chief canvasser Emmeline", incumbent Berry was unseated by Orange Cat, a ginger tom whose owner describes him as "pro-democracy and pro-free and fair elections", said The Guardian. His platform included a simple solution to the town's rat problem: "he will 'eat them'". The simplest - and most intriguing - sign to have appeared along the bike path features a one-word slogan: “CRIME”. This provocative message won nine-year-old Minerva many supporters online - despite the fact that, as an indoor cat, she has never been seen on the bike path.

Roman helmet with a smooth dome capped by a small knob — Credit: Sicilian Region

"Beautiful and Intact"

Among the Egadi Islands, off Sicily’s west coast, divers have discovered a remarkably preserved Roman helmet. The bronze armor may have been worn during the last battle of the First Punic War - fought nearly 2,300 years ago between Rome and Carthage. The artifact is one of the most beautiful and intact Roman helmets ever discovered, says Francesco Paolo Scarpinato, the councilor for cultural heritage and Sicilian identity. The recently discovered helmet from around 264 BC was made in the Montefortino style: Its smooth dome is capped by a small knob, and a short visor extends from one edge. Hinges inside the cap once secured its metal cheek plates, which hung down to protect the wearer’s face. This design was popular during the First Punic War.

Click to enlarge. Images credit Amedeo Benestante | Anish Kapoor

A sculptural steel monolith by Anish Kapoor now marks the entrance to a subway station in Naples, Italy. The project at Monte Sant’Angelo Subway Station, which first began in 2003, is set to officially opened yesterday. Integrating sculpture and architecture into a singular environment, the work has been conceived by the celebrity artist as part of a larger regeneration of the city’s Traiano district. Anish Kapoor explains: ‘In the city of Mount Vesuvius and Dante’s mythical entrance to the Inferno, I found it important to try and deal with what it really means to go underground.’

Offices to Homes

Boston is transforming abandoned office space into affordable homes for 1,000+ residents.

In 2023, Boston launched a city-first Office-to-Residential Conversion Program. The initiative offers a tax deduction of up to 75 percent for up to 29 years for downtown office buildings that convert to residential use. Fast forward about two years, and the first residents to benefit from the program are now moving into their new homes. The city has received applications to convert over 600,000 square feet of office space. Once they’re complete, the projects will bring an estimated 1,500 new people living downtown by the end of 2026.

Solid Performance

A Mercedes-Benz EQS fitted with a prototype solid-state battery has been driven 749 miles without stopping to recharge, marking a milestone in the development of the technology.

The weight and footprint of the solid-state battery are said to be “comparable” to a standard EQS’s lithium-ion pack but its energy capacity is said to be improved by 25 percent. Mercedes hailed the technology as a “gamechanger”, saying the successful test drive shows how it can deliver “a new level of range and comfort”.

"It has always been easy to hate and destroy. To build and to cherish is much more difficult." Queen Elizabeth II

On This Day

13 September 122: Construction begins on Hadrian's Wall. The wall is 73 miles (117 km) long and was built between 122 and 128 AD as the northern boundary of the Roman Empire, stretching coast to coast from the River Tyne in the east to the Solway Firth in the west.