Tasty bite sized chunks of good news to help perk up the day.
World's Smallest?
Pumuckel the Shetland pony is only 50 centimetres tall (19 inches) and weighs just 35 kilos. According to the UK's Shetland Pony Club, a small Shetland pony should weigh around 264lb (120kg). Pumuckel's owner hopes he will be officially named the world's smallest pony in the Guinness Book of World Records. In the meantime, he will have to just be the world's cutest.
Tesla Semi
Tesla’s long-awaited Semi truck is now being rolled out to its first customers, with the first production models landing in the hands of food and beverage giant PepsiCo. In a recent test, the electric big rig’s range and performance proved to be impressive: a fully-loaded Tesla Semi straight off the production line weighing 81,000 lbs (36.7 tons), traveled 500 miles (804 km) on a single charge.“This wasn’t some ultra-clean, precise test track simulation, or something where we shut down a road,” said Tesla engineering chief Dan Priestley. “Nope, this is real-world … this is with traffic, this is true 500 miles.”
Rediscoveries
In Ecuador, one of Earth's most biodiverse countries, ecologists have found 32 species of the Harlequin frog, all of which were thought to be extinct. It’s one of the largest cataloged rediscoveries of animals in the history of science, and has shown that there is still plenty of hope these amphibian “gems” can survive long-term. The work was led by young Kyle Jaynes, a Michigan State University doctoral student who secured a National Geographic grant to investigate sightings of these frogs - all of which had been presumed or declared extinct.
Lucky Runners
To the good fortune of two other runners, California-based runner and cardiologist Steven Lome recently took part in the Monterey Half Marathon. Shortly into the race, at mile three, a runner went down with cardiac arrest. CPR was administered and once a defibrillator arrived, Lome shocked him and a normal heart rhythm resumed. That runner was taken to the hospital. Lome then resumed his run and just as he crossed the finish line, another runner when down in front of him. This person was completely out, with no pulse. Lome again used the defibrillator and administered a shock and then chest compressions and the runner came to. Happily, both runners survived. "I think the moral of the story is that everyone ought to learn CPR and be prepared to use it - that's the bridge to the defibrillator, and it worked in both of these cases."
New Menu
A Scottish University union has voted to go fully vegan by 2025 - the first UK student union to do so. The University of Stirling student union will transition to '100 per cent plant-based catering' within three years. Half the menu at the union’s three cafes will be vegan by the start of the 2023-24 academic year. The bold plan is part of the university's endeavours to help tackle the climate crisis.
Can Going Vegan Save the World? Landmark research by academics at Oxford University found that cutting meat and dairy products from your diet could reduce an individual’s carbon footprint from food by up to 73 percent. Read on...
Lancia Revival
Lancia, the Italian car company owned by Stellantis alongside Fiat, Chrysler, Citroën, Vauxhall, and Peugeot, is being revived as an all-electric car brand. The company announced plans to produce three electric vehicles between 2024 and 2028: a new Ypsilon, new Delta, and an unnamed “new flagship.” The brand is also getting a new logo, the eighth in its 116-year long history.
Right to Choose
Reproductive rights advocates around the world can look to Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina for perspective, strategy, and hope. All three countries have now enshrined a woman's right to choose thanks to a multi-pronged approach: grassroots organizing, strategic litigation, and changing the narrative.
"What makes a river so restful to people is that it doesn’t have any doubt - it is sure to get where it is going, and it doesn’t want to go anywhere else." Hal Boyle
On this Day
6 December 1933: In what was considered a landmark ruling, a U.S. federal judge held that James Joyce's Ulysses was not obscene, thus allowing for greater freedoms in literary works.
French travel company Accor is restoring 17 vintage Orient Express train carriages dating back to the 1920s and ‘30s. Read on...
Japanese Words We Need: Solutions to expressing complicated ideas that can't be succinctly conveyed in English. Read on...
Mood Booster
Avatar 2: This final trailer is designed to get us all booking seats in theatres from 16 December.