OGN Friday

Editor OGN Daily
Aug 22
3 min read

Wrapping up the week with an eclectic global collection of upbeat news stories.

Longshot overture

Oscars on YouTube?

YouTube is making a longshot overture to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences to host the Academy Awards. YouTube consistently ranks as the most-watched streaming platform on American TVs, according to Nielsen. It’s also been expanding into live events, most notably with its successful run of NFL Sunday Ticket. And while award-show ratings continue to decline, the Oscars remain the most-watched - making them a major coup for the creator-focused platform. Disney’s ABC has aired the Oscars since 1976. But with the company’s deal with the Academy ending in 2028, every Hollywood studio is taking a shot for the rights.

Shopfront of the bookseller Waterstones — Credit: Waterstones

Intriguing Trend

Times may be tough on the high street but the bookseller Waterstones is enjoying strong sales as younger adults embrace reading as an escape from their screens and as online competition eases, reports The Guardian. “People have come back to reading and buying books in bookshops as we have made a place which is an enjoyable and effective way to buy books,” says James Daunt, the CEO of the British retailer, which has 320 UK bookshops and owns the Foyles, Hatchards and Blackwell’s names, and whose parent group also owns Barnes & Noble, the US’s largest bookstore chain.

Unapologetically Square: Interesting Lifestyle Habits of Gen Z Brits.

Two bear cubs taking a ride on their mother's back — 'Lifeboat' | Casey Cooper

Bear Hug

A brown bear carries her cubs back to shore in Alaska's Katmai National Park after the family fell asleep at low tide and woke surrounded by water. The photograph, Lifeboat by Casey Cooper, is among donated works on sale from today for Prints for Wildlife, a fundraiser for Conservation International.

Hernán Cortés

The FBI has returned a 500-year-old manuscript page signed by Hernán Cortés, the Spanish conquistador who conquered the Aztec Empire, to Mexico’s national archives. The document, which is dated 20 February 1527, details “the payment of pesos of common gold for expenses,” says the FBI’s art crime team. The page was once part of a larger collection of documents signed by Cortés that is housed at the Mexican archives, known as El Archivo General de la Nación. In 1993, when specialists were preserving the documents on microfilm, they found that 15 pages had gone missing - but nobody knows when. The 1527 document includes logistical details connected to Cortés’ travels in what would become New Spain.

Dolphin staring at the camera — Ready to play?

Playful Interactions

A new study reveals that whales and dolphins don’t just coexist but seem to “play” together. After analyzing 199 encounters at 17 sites across the globe, researchers found that roughly one in four interactions could be mutually positive, with whales responding favourably when approached by dolphins. In total, 19 species were observed, but humpback whales and bottlenose dolphins accounted for the majority of the playful interactions. For instance, dolphins were frequently observed riding the bow waves created by whales, and a handful of times were seen rubbing or touching the larger animals, as if to seek their attention. The whales, in turn, were sometimes observed rolling from side to side, exposing their bellies - behaviours commonly tied to social interaction or courtship - and stretching their pectoral fins toward the dolphins.

Gas Stove Warnings

Colorado now requires health warning labels on gas stoves. The state is the first to put labels on the appliances pointing consumers to evidence about the harms of cooking with gas - it's a first-in-the-nation law that went into effect earlier this month.

"This Friday, finish your work and be done. Look forward to the weekend and have some fun!" Kate Summers

On This Day

22 August 1851: The first America's Cup was won by the American yacht America in a race around the Isle of Wight. It's one of the oldest and best-known trophies in international sailing yacht competition and was first offered as the Hundred Guinea Cup in 1851, by the Royal Yacht Squadron of Great Britain. The inaugural cup was won by the America, a 100-foot (30-metre) schooner from New York City, and subsequently became known as the America’s Cup. The American winners of the cup donated it to the New York Yacht Club in 1857 for a perpetual international challenge competition.