Good News Tuesday
- 2 hours ago
- 4 min read
Today's tasty bite-sized chunks of positive news from around the world.
Marathon Record Falls
The longstanding two-hour marathon milestone was broken in London over the weekend - not just by one competitor, but two. Kenyan Sabastian Sawe finished the race in 1:59:30, finishing 11 seconds ahead of Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha (in what was the latter’s first official marathon). The winning time is equivalent to running a mile in 4 minutes and 33 seconds, 26 times in a row. Both Sawe and Kejelcha ran in a newly debuted Adidas shoe model weighing less than 100 grams (roughly equal to a deck of cards) and designed to return energy from sole compression with each step. The women’s winner, Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa, also wore the shoes and finished in 2:15:41.
Two-Tone
The crew aboard the Timothy Michael spotted an unusual-looking lobster in their haul while fishing off Cape Cod. One half of its body - stretching from head to tail - was orange-red, while the other half was dark brown, with a straight line dividing the two hues, a rare 1-in-50-million example of a “split-color” lobster. This rare color combination saved it from the dinner plate. Wellfleet Shellfish Company, which pulled in the rare lobster, decided not to sell it. Rather, the company donated the creature to the Woods Hole Science Aquarium, a Cape Cod institution operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries.
Cricket at Olympics
It’s been 126 years since cricket - the second most watched sport in the world - made an appearance in the Olympics. That’s about to change in 2028. Shovels just hit the ground in Pomona, a city in the eastern edge of Los Angeles County, where construction has begun for a 10,000-plus capacity premier cricket stadium. It will serve as the venue for men’s and women’s games, played by six teams in each competition. Peter Della Penna, who has been covering cricket in the U.S. for the past two decades, says this is the first time an international cricket event in the U.S. will have a dedicated venue.
Student Welfare
Meet Isambard Kitten Brunel: the beloved Oxford University library cat - with a suitably erudite name - who keeps students company during their studies. Also known as Issy, the fluffy Siberian forest cat commutes by bus to the library at Lady Margaret Hall, one of the colleges at Oxford, alongside his owner, librarian Jamie Fishwick-Ford. He began bringing Issy to work immediately after adopting him as a kitten six years ago. Issy serves as an unofficial welfare animal, and is particularly favored by resident students who miss their family pets, says Fishwick-Ford. “It can be really tough being away from home for the first time and away from pets you’ve known all your life, and it’s a lot easier to phone up your parents if you miss them than to phone up your cats,” she said.
Canadians-in-Waiting
Millions of Americans who have a Canadian parent, grandparent, or even a great-grandparent, will be eligible to apply for citizenship under a new law. Second citizenship is generally considered to be an excellent asset. Canada’s new citizenship law puts it in line with several European countries that allow one to use family records or genealogical charts to prove familial ties to a country. Filing the new form costs less than $100. It could mean that millions of Americans are potential Canadians-in-waiting. The website for the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship office has seen a flood of requests already, with 56,000 total cases already outstanding.
World-First
In a world-first conservation achievement, Northern Ireland has successfully eradicated an invasive population of ferrets on Rathlin Island - the country's’s largest seabird colony. One of the most effective conservation strategies currently employed on a wide scale, invasive animal elimination has allowed hundreds of islands worldwide to recover their native wildlife populations. Typical invasive targets are rats or rabbits, but in the case of Rathlin, it’s the first time anywhere in the world that a population of feral ferrets was eradicated from an island they had overtaken. Other successful eradication programmes include Floreana in the Galápagos Islands which resulted in a bird species being seen for first time since Darwin, and when Lord Howe Island in Australia finished eradicating the entirety of their invasive rat and mouse populations, the recovery of the endemic-Australian ecosystem was near-immediate.
"Simplicity and sincerity generally go hand in hand, as both proceed from a love of truth." Mary Wollstonecraft
On This Day
28 April 1770: British Captain James Cook, aboard HMS Endeavour, first lands in Australia at Botany Bay. The voyage was primarily to observe the 1769 transit of Venus in Tahiti, with secret instructions to search for the "undiscovered southern land". This expedition marked the first European landfall on Australia's east coast, paving the way for later British settlement.
Today's Articles
Venerated Role: Japan has appointed a new steward to look after and develop 1,200 years of cherry blossom data.
Nutrient Powerhouse: Dragon fruit may look ugly, but peel away the skin and you will enjoy a plethora of surprising health benefits within.
Mood Boosting Video
Never Before Seen: The first time that play has been observed in insects. In this case, bumble bees.
