Oct 22

Just Good News Tuesday

A tasty smorgasbord of bite-sized chunks of upbeat news to brighten the day.

A Century Overdue

A book borrowed from a school library before the first world war has finally been returned – more than a century overdue. A copy of Poetry of Byron was found by a man in south Wales, who felt it should be returned to St Bees School in Cumbria, where it had been lent out to a schoolboy. Inside the blue clothbound book the name Leonard Ewbank is written, along with the date 25 September 1911. Ewbank, who was born in 1893, was a pupil of St Bees between 1902 and 1911, before going on to study at Queen’s College, Oxford. The school was “honoured” to have the book returned, said the headteacher, Andrew Keep. Keep told the BBC: “It’s incredible to think that a piece of St Bees’ history has found its way back to us after all these years.”

Smart Insulin

For decades, researchers have been working to develop a system that can automatically adjust insulin activity based on the amount of glucose in a person’s blood. Now, Rita Slaaby, a principal scientist at pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk in Denmark, and her colleagues have engineered an insulin molecule with a switch that turns its activity on and off in response to glucose levels in the blood, reports the journal Nature.

Azores Islands

The regional assembly of the Azores Islands - a nine-island Portuguese archipelago - has approved the North Atlantic’s largest marine protected area. Its creation will allow Portugal to meet the United Nations goal of safeguarding 30 percent of the planet’s land and sea by the end of the decade. “We have acted in advance of the international conservation goals for 2030 with the creation of the largest marine park in the North Atlantic, with fully protected areas and highly protected areas,” said a government official. The new marine sanctuary will encompass nearly 115,830 square miles, providing protection for its vast and unique biodiversity - including deep-sea corals and hydrothermal vents.

Brazilian Record

More than 250 Indigenous people were elected mayors, vice mayors, and city councilors this October, the highest in the country’s history and an 8 percent increase compared to the 2020 ballot. Increasing representation of Indigenous people elected in municipal ballots is a key move to ensure the fulfilment of Indigenous rights and conservation efforts.

Walkies!

Forget the Dog Whisperer… this guy is the master of all mutts. A canine-loving Canadian broke a Guinness World Record by taking 38 dogs on a single walk for over half a mile. Mitchell Rudy led a pack of 38 leashed pooches on a .6-mile walk to break the Guinness World Record for the most dogs walked simultaneously by an individual. All the dogs who took part in the record-breaking walk had been rescued locally and were put up for adoption by the KK9R shelter.

Tidal Wave Power

A screw-like tidal energy converter design built by UK-based Spiralis Energy is now a step closer to real-world deployment after successful tests. With an increased demand for renewable energy, a wave (sorry) of technological innovations has been emerging in the tidal energy space. Available round the clock and with predictable intensity, tidal waves can deliver a continuous and reliable supply of electrical energy.

“Giving is a shortcut to happiness.” Arianna Huffington