Celebrating the start of the weekend with a global round up of positive news nuggets.
Important Role
Calgary Zoo has released pictures of its newest addition, a baby lemur. The zoo says its four-year-old female black-and-white ruffed lemur, Eny, gave birth on April 7 and the zoo says that the pup appears bright-eyed and active. The black-and-white ruffed lemur is registered among the 25 most endangered primates in the world, due mostly to habitat loss and hunting.
“With black-and-white ruffed lemurs being critically endangered in the wild, this pup already plays an important role in the survival and well-being of its species,” said Typhenn Brichieri-Colombi, conservation research and strategy advisor at the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo.
Female Entrepreneurs
Women created almost half of all new businesses in the U.S. last year, says the World Economic Forum. Five million businesses were founded in the U.S. in 2022. 47 percent of those new businesses were founded by women. Before the pandemic, just 29 percent of American entrepreneurs were women.
Life's Getting Better
In 2017, Lucia Forseth from California was homeless, but she battled back to overcome the challenges within a few years. But this month she can put any doubt behind her, becoming a multimillionaire thanks to a lucky Scratchers ticket. “I only bought one ticket,” Forseth told the California Lottery. “I closed my eyes and picked that one - and it won!” The fact that she bought a ticket called ‘2023’ has deep meaning for Forseth. “Six years ago, I was homeless. This year, I am getting married, getting my associate degree, and I won $5 million.”
Spectacular Progress
Indonesia, the fourth most populous nation in the world, has made spectacular progress in helping its citizens escape the worst forms of destitution, says the World Bank. Over the past two decades, it has essentially eliminated extreme poverty and reduced the number of those living on less than $3.20 a day from 61 percent in 2002 to 16 percent in 2022.
Cannes Do
The all-new Icon electric hydrofoil looks far more like a design project than a BMW, but in fact, it's both. The vessel could certainly make an impressive movie prop, but instead it debuts in real life on the waters just outside the 76th Cannes Film Festival. The Icon features enough BMW i battery power for up to 50 nautical miles (93 km), a trio of hydrofoils for quiet, efficient and fast cruising, and more than enough windows for paparazzi-grade celebrity gawking.
Wavy Wounds
For some time now, it has been observed that wounds with a zig-zag pattern heal faster than those which simply form a straight line. Scientists have now determined why this is the case. It was found that on the wavier wounds, 'repair' cells moved in a "swirly, vortex-like" manner. On the straight wounds, however, the cells tended to move in straight lines which ran parallel to the wound's edges. Due to this difference in cell movement patterns, the wavy wounds healed almost five times faster than the straight ones. It is now hoped that the findings could lead to new methods of making surgical incisions which heal faster with less scarring, thus lowering the probability of complications such as infections.
Switch to Clean Energy
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"Lead from the heart, not the head." Princess Diana
On this Day
20 May 1862: U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act, which provided 160 acres of public land virtually free of charge to those who had lived on and cultivated the land for at least five years.
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Brain Teaser
Can you the join dots using only 4 straight lines?