An upbeat collection of positive news stories from around the globe.
The Great Wave
Two prints of Katsushika Hokusai's iconic woodblock print will be auctioned by Bonhams and Christie’s later this month. Kanagawa-oki nami-ura (Under the Wave off Kanagawa), commonly referred to as The Great Wave, is among the most famous art images in the world. It depicts Tokyo-bound boaters confronting a tsunami, with Mount Fuji visible in the background. In March this year, a print of The Great Wave sold for a record-breaking $2.8 million to an anonymous telephone bidder on an estimate of $500,000 to $700,000. So, there is much excitement in the art world as to what the two forthcoming auctions will produce.
Remarkable Marmosets
Marmosets can communicate with one another by name and know when they are being addressed, joining a very short list of species exhibiting such behaviour, and a first for non-human primates. The monkeys use specific calls, known as “phee-calls,” to call each other, which scientists say is a “high cognitive” behaviour pattern only previously observed in humans, dolphins and elephants. The discovery, made by a team from the Hebrew University, is outlined in a study published the journal Science. “This is the first time that we have seen this in non-human primates,” says David Omer, lead author of the study. The tree-dwelling primates are highly social animals and live in small groups in South America.
Complete Shock
A British endurance swimmer says she is astonished to have broken a world record for being the fastest female to swim across Lake Geneva. It took Sam Farrow 22 hours and 48 minutes to continuously swim the length of the lake - 45.2 miles (72.8 km) - which is situated on the north side of the Alps between France and Switzerland. The 31-year-old said: "I never expected to get the overall fastest female or the time that I got. Complete shock."
Want to Swim Faster? Try an 'Underwater Bicycle': French company Seabike has developed a swimming device that looks a bit like a unicycle. The propeller then boosts your swimming speed - a bit like having your own outboard motor.
Grub's Up
The Singapore Food Agency has designated 16 creepy crawlies as safe for human consumption. Locusts, five types of beetle grub and even a species of honeybee are among the little creatures deemed good enough to eat. The agency has also greenlit imports of pasta, chocolate bars and crackers that contain insects as ingredients. One restaurant - House of Seafood - has added 30 insect dishes to its menu, ranging from sushi topped with silkworms to squid ink pasta sprinkled with house crickets. “It’s good news,” says Nick Rousseau, founder of the UK Edible Insect Association. “Insects are amazing. We’re constantly looking to see how other countries are progressing in opening up the market for these potentially very valuable sources of nutrition."
Green Work
Going green isn't only good for the planet - it can also put some green in your pocket. The U.S. added 142,000 clean energy jobs last year, with employment in the emerging sector growing more than twice as fast as the rest of the energy industry and the economy overall, the Department of Energy said in an annual report.
NYC Passive Building
Passive House is a set of building standards focused on energy efficiency and a reduced carbon footprint. The largest building embodying those standards in the United States is not quite a house, but rather a 709-unit apartment complex in East Harlem, New York. Called Sendero Verde, the affordable housing development is open to low-income and formerly homeless individuals and uses roughly half the energy of a comparable non-passive building. The insulation, ventilation, high-performance windows, and other energy-efficient measures create an environment that’s clean, quiet, and temperate. “Ideally, this is the way that all affordable housing should be developed,” says Sadie McKeown, president of the Community Preservation Corporation.
“Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life.” Lord Byron
On This Day
4 September 1972: American swimmer Mark Spitz won his seventh gold medal during the Munich Olympic Games, the first person ever to do so in a single Olympics.
Today's Articles
Time For Action? Jim Kohlberg commits $30m to reforming the Supreme Court to "reverse the reactionary drift of the judicial system."
Funny Celebrity Quotes: If you're feeling like having a bit of a chuckle, hopefully some of these will do the trick.
New Discovery: Tulip trees found to have a previously unknown type of wood - may explain why the trees are so good at sequestering carbon and help us do the same.
Mood Boosting Video
Gannets: Nature's dive-bombers hit the water at extraordinary speeds.