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Good News Friday

Updated: Nov 30, 2023

Wrapping up the week with some tasty bite-sized chunks of positive news.


Meteor shower
The Leonids

Tomorrow night will feature a wonderful celestial event that should be clearly visible (if there aren't clouds) because the Moon will still be very small - only 6 days old in its lunar cycle. Earth will pass the peak of the Leonid Meteor Shower, named for the constellation Leo. Leo will be lounging in the northeastern sky for most people, according to Space Tourism Guide, and if you can spot the Big Dipper/Plough, you’re in the right part of the sky to spot some shooting stars. You can expect around 15 Leonids per hour. Why not wrap up and look up?


Old woman's hand touching a baby's foot
Pint-Sized Workers

In Kitakyushu, Japan, nursing home director, Kimie Gordo, came up with the idea of bringing infants into her nursing home after her own newborn granddaughter was visiting and she saw how happy it made the residents. "When I saw the elderly people smile, I realized the power possessed by infants," she said. The nursing home now has a team of about 70 "baby workers," who can inspire even the toughest residents. "Just seeing a baby walking around, they smile and they start to speak," said Gordo. The pint-sized team works flexible hours, strolling around the nursing home with their parents, mostly mothers. They are paid in diapers and ice cream. The kids benefit in many ways, including socializing with other children and getting attention from grandparent-like figures.

 
 

Restoration

Forests across West Bengal, India, have been restored through a collective effort that started in the early 1990s with over a hundred villages. In 2017, the government scaled up the project to 450 villages, and today 6,000 acres of land have been re-greened with 66 species of commercial varieties of trees improving the livelihoods of 12,000 households, reports RTBC. Indeed, the forests have increased the average income of households by 15 to 20 percent.


Ferrari GTO Tipo 1962
Credit: Sotherby's
1962 GTO

A 1962 Ferrari has sold for a record $51.7m (£42m) at a Sotheby's auction in New York. The striking red 330 LM/250 GTO model, which is the only GTO Tipo 1962 to have been raced by Formula 1's Scuderia Ferrari, has become the most valuable Ferrari and the second highest priced car to be sold at auction. Dubbed a "once-in-a-generation" chance purchase, the iconic vehicle - which was given the chassis number 3765 - was claimed by its new owner after nearly four decades in private ownership.


Strange But True

In news that seems "almost too Australian to be true", said The New York Times, cattle producer Colin Deveraux escaped from the jaws of death by kicking and then biting a 10ft saltwater crocodile that was trying to drag him into a river near Darwin. Deveraux told ABC that as the croc shook him "like a rag doll", his own teeth caught on the animal's eyelid in a "half-accidental" move. "I managed to have a bite," said Deveraux. "I jerked back on his eyelid and he let go." The rancher fled and escaped in his car, and is now recovering in hospital.


SA Parental Leave

South Africa is the first African country to decide that both mothers and fathers are entitled to parental leave. It will be up to parents how to divide the four months they are given in total.

 

​"You’re not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on." Dean Martin

 
On This Day

17 November 1869: After 10 years of construction, the Suez Canal opened in Egypt.

 





 
Mood Booster

While this hornbill dutifully takes care of her eggs, her devoted partner delivers all of her food to her self-made fortress.



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