Smorgasbord of tasty good news nuggets to wrap up the week on a positive note.
Tom Cruises in
Good news for Tom Cruise but possibly not his budget, as he will reportedly delay the filming of Mission: Impossible to attend King Charles’ Coronation in London on 6 May. The 60-year-old Hollywood star (who apparently got on famously well with the King's mother and even had tea with her at Windsor Castle) is said to be halting production on the latest instalment of the spy franchise, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, despite it messing up filming deadlines and being costly, as he “will not miss out on" the historic event.
Everyday Sundae
If you don't have the money to pay for a scoop of ice cream at Everyday Sundae in Washington, D.C., don't worry - owner Charles Foreman and his generous customers have you covered. Foreman opened his ice cream shop in 2021, and ensures that everyone walks away with a cone regardless of their ability to pay. After one of his regular customers, Nicole, saw Foreman give a free scoop to a child who didn't have any money, she came back with an envelope containing $100 - enough to pay for 28 scoops. "Mr. Charles is so great, and the ice cream is excellent, too," Nicole told The Washington Post. Foreman was stunned by her gift, but this was just the start - other customers heard about what happened, and made their own donations to the ice cream fund. Foreman can tell when someone is going through a hard time and needs a boost, and doesn't hesitate to offer them a free scoop. "That's just being part of the community," he said. "We're supposed to do all we can to help each other."
Solar Parking
France to require all parking lots above a certain size to include solar panel canopies; move expected to generate up to 10 nuclear plants worth of electricity once fully implemented.
Remarkable Transformation
Far upriver in Colombia's rainforest, the lure of rare pink river dolphins is creating jobs and promoting conservation and reconciliation after a 50-year war. The dolphins are more playful than us,” says Diego Cifuentes, co-founder of Villa Lilia Agroecoturistico, a community dolphin-watching project on Colombia’s Lake Nare. “If you give off good energy, they may even touch you.” In a remarkable turnaround for the people and wildlife of the area, rural communities, former guerrillas of the Farc (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and endangered dolphins are unlikely allies in this near-forgotten corner of Colombia’s Amazon basin, where tourism is providing opportunities for reconciliation as well as creating jobs and promoting conservation.
First of its Kind
Time for some proper accountability? The directors of oil major Shell are being personally sued over their climate strategy, which the claimants say is inadequate to meet climate targets and puts the company at risk as the world switches to clean energy. Environmental lawyers ClientEarth have filed the lawsuit against the 11 directors at the high court in England. It is the first case in the world seeking to hold corporate directors liable for failing to properly prepare their company for the net zero transition, ClientEarth said.
Coal v Renewable
Energy policy think tank Energy Innovation Policy & Technology has published a new report looking at the relative cost of operating coal plants versus renewable energy. What they discovered in looking at the basic economics is that “the cost of new clean energy technologies has plummeted over the past decade while coal costs have stayed flat or risen. The upshot of their analysis? They found that out of the 210 U.S. coal plants they investigated, 209 of them are more expensive to run than if their generation capacity was replaced with solar or wind power. The cost savings would be significant, too. The analysts behind the report determined that the cost of new wind or solar would be at least thirty percent cheaper than running over three quarters of the existing coal plants. The savings are so significant that they can even cover the cost, in many cases, of adding battery storage to those solar plants to improve the reliability of the grid.
"To be or not to be. That's not really a question."
Jean-Luc Godard
On this Day
10 February 1942: Glenn Miller awarded first ever gold record for selling 1 million copies of Chattanooga Choo Choo.
OGN has obtained China's list of possible excuses for its errant balloon from a secret CCP brain storming session. Read on...
Man unexpectedly summons Beluga whales by singing and, perhaps even more remarkably, they sing back. Read on...
Trevi: The Fountain That Never Stops Giving. Rome's famous fountain feeds, clothes and houses the city's poor. Read on...
Mood Booster
Sneaky squirrel steals acorns and sometimes gets more than it bargained for.