Today's Good News | OGN Daily

Kick-starting the week with an eclectic collection of short, upbeat news stories.

Melanie Hamrick and Sir Mick Jagger — Credit: Melanie Hamrick | Instagram

Becoming Mrs Jagger

Melanie Hamrick reveals she is engaged to Sir Mick Jagger in an interview with Paris Match. The 37 year old former ballerina and author shares an 8-year-old son, Deveraux Octavian Basil Jagger, with Jagger, 81. The pair began dating in 2014 after meeting at a Rolling Stones concert and Jagger has eight children in total with five different women from past relationships. Hey, that's rock'n'roll for you.

Gift of The Gab

A brain implant attached to a voice synthesizer has restored the naturalistic speech of a woman with severe paralysis, UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco researchers have announced. The team worked with the patient to develop an AI system able to "synthesize and stream brain signals into audible speech in 'near real time,'" The Independent said. Previous studies had an eight-second delay when decoding speech. Study co-author Cheol Jun Cho called the new research a "breakthrough."

"Ojisan" (older men) cards featuring three different Japanese men — Screenshot taken from FNN Prime Online

Stronger Connections

While kids in most parts of Japan are obsessed with Pokémon cards, the children of Kawara are clutching on to something a little closer to home. Kids in Kawara are trading collectible cards starring the town's middle-aged men. "Ojisan" (older men) cards include noodle-maker Mr Takeshita and volunteer Mr Fujii, whose "card is so sought after that local kids have even started asking him for autographs", said Tokyo Weekender. The game was created by the local council to "strengthen the connection" between children and the older generation. Also in Japan...

Empowering Women

Japan has passed new laws to create a radical four-day work week experiment in a bid to reverse the country’s rapidly declining birthrate. Companies are now required to offer flexible work options for employees with young children, such as reduced working hours and remote work. “We will continue to review work styles flexibly to ensure that women do not have to sacrifice their careers due to life events such as childbirth or child-rearing,” said Governor of Tokyo, Yuriko Koike. “Empowering women, a goal that has lagged far behind the rest of the world, has been a longstanding issue in our country”.

Nihal Tammana with one of his battery recycling boxes — Credit: Recycle My Battery

Impressive Start

Nihal Tammana's nonprofit, Recycle My Battery, has kept more than 625,000 batteries out of landfills worldwide. The 15-year-old from New Jersey works with youth volunteers to place recycling bins in schools, businesses and libraries. The team also educates people on the environmental reasons why they should recycle rather than put their batteries in the garbage. "If I can make the Earth a better place to live, you can," says Tammana. Anyone can now visit Recycle My Battery for instructions on how to make their schools and businesses battery recycling heroes.

Man of The Match

A visiting US college student from Arizona who mistook a Southend supporters' boat for a Thames river cruise has been embraced as an honorary fan. Evan Johnston, 21, realised his mistake after boarding at Tower Pier, but was taken under the wing of fans and ended up in the stands watching the club's National League match against Sutton United. "I had a blast," Johnston told the Southend Echo. "I'm a Southend fan till I die now."

The CG looks like a modified Honda CG125 — Credit: YongLE Rishing

Crazy But True

The snappily named YongLE Risheng CG is a wind/solar motorcycle that sports a roof covered in solar panels to which a wind turbine is mounted for extra boost. It's not the most aesthetic design ever seen on a motorcycle, but hey, it works... apparently. And it's not a rather delayed April Fool's joke... as the CG does appear to be legit; although it's highly unlikely that you'll spot it on the road. Regulators outside China might take issue with the unusual design, particularly the wind turbine. In any case, this motorcycle does tell you that nothing is beyond the reach of a curious engineer. Whether it makes sense or not is secondary.

"Failure will never stand in the way of success if you learn from it." Hank Aaron

On This Day

Noah Webster's 'An American Dictionary of the English Language' in 1828

14 April 1828: Noah Webster published An American Dictionary of the English Language; based on the principle that word usage should evolve from the spoken language, the work was hugely influential, though it was initially attacked for its “Americanism.”