Eclectic bundle of good news nuggets to help perk up the day.
Paternal Leave
107 countries around the world now provide paid parental leave for fathers. Back in the 1990s, only 46 countries has a paid leave policies for fathers, largely high-income nations, reports Axios. "There is widespread recognition that we don't solve gender equality without dads getting leave," says Jody Heymann of the World Policy Analysis Center.
On Tap
Have you ever spent the better part of an outing wandering around, looking for somewhere to fill up your reusable water bottle? Or spent money on a plastic bottle when all you really wanted was a quick sip from a water fountain? Cue Tap: the app that makes it easier to find free water sources, thereby eliminating the need for single-use water bottles! Tap directs users to restaurants, cafes, refill stations and water fountains across 7,100 cities in 30 countries. Users leave reviews about the specifics of the location, making it easy to find a tap anywhere you are.
Complete Remission
An experimental pill has achieved the complete remission of cancer in 18 near-terminal patients with aggressive tumors that did not respond to treatments. The illness, acute myeloid leukemia, is the most common blood cancer in adults, reports El Pais. The three-year survival rate is just 25 percent. The new drug, called revumenib, has completely eliminated cancer in a third of the participants in a long-awaited clinical study in the United States. The results are preliminary and do not suggest a definitive cure, but the authors of the experiment are optimistic. “We think this pharmaceutical is extraordinarily effective, and we hope for it to be accessible to everyone who needs it,” says Dr. Ghayas Issa from the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas.
Cheetahs in India
Namibian cheetahs have been successfully reintroduced to India after the world's fastest land animal was declared extinct in the South Asian country more than 70 years ago. Two cheetahs, Obaan and Asha, were released into the wild of Kuno National Park after being brought to India last September. India aims to bring in about 100 of the big cats over the next decade. The African cheetah is a different subspecies from the extinct Asiatic cheetah, which once roamed the sub-continent in great numbers.
School Curriculum
Following Connecticut's lead, lawmakers in Oregon are working to become the second state in the U.S. to include climate change education in the curriculum for K-12 public school students.
Check out a livestream of Washington, DC's blooming cherry blossoms
New Carbon Capture
Scientists have discovered a new way to remove carbon from the atmosphere. A new study details a method of direct carbon capture that takes the atmospheric CO2 and transforms it into baking soda, which could then safely be stored in seawater. The research used a hybrid of previous capture methods, creating a system that is three times more efficient. "This simple ability to capture CO2 at a high quantity, in a small volume of material, is a unique aspect of our work," said Arup SenGupta, lead author of the study. "This material can be produced at very high capacity very rapidly." Stuart Haszeldine from the University of Edinburgh called the new method "very powerful," adding that the ocean "has an immense capacity for accessible CO2 storage lasting thousands of years."
"To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable." Oscar Wilde
On this Day
21 March 1980: In one of the most famous cliff-hangers in American television, season 3 of Dallas ended with the shooting of J.R. Ewing (played by Larry Hagman); the phrase “Who shot J.R.?” entered the lexicon of American popular culture.
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Mood Booster
Amazing Skydiving and Skiing Combo for a bit of a vicarious adrenalin rush!