OGN Thursday
- Editor OGN Daily
- Oct 31, 2024
- 4 min read
An eclectic bundle of concise, upbeat news stories to brighten the day.
New Wingsuit Foil
Dare devil Peter Salzmann pushed the limits of human flight, soaring farther than ever before. The Austrian has just taken the Red Bull 'Wingsuit Foil' on its maiden flight in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland. As a result, the extreme sportsman broke the records for the longest BASE flight time (5 minutes and 56 seconds) and the longest flight (7.77 miles / 12.5km) whilst wearing the never-before-seen wingsuit, which uses a hydrofoil-style mast to allow the wearer to glide for longer. The ew device is the result of a collaborative development between Salzmann and wingsuit foil developer Andreas Podlipnik, as well as support from the engineering team at Red Bull Advanced Technologies with their knowledge in F1 and aerodynamics.
One Man's Creation
A man in Brazil has planted over 41,000 trees in Sao Paolo over the last two decades, single-handedly creating a park. Retired business executive Helio da Silva single-handedly built a 3.2km long by 100m wide park known as Tiquatira Linear Park. He did it by planting more than 41,000 trees over the course of 20 years to turn what was a dilapidated area of Sao Paolo into a strip of green space nestled between two of the city’s busiest roads. His work started in 2002 with a mission to transform the banks of the Tiquatira River into a “green oasis” for his neighbours. Elsewhere in Brazil...
Brazilian Beef
IBAMA, Brazil’s environmental protection agency, has fined meat packers and cattle ranchers - including the largest on the planet, JBS - $64 million for buying or raising cattle on illegally deforested land in the Amazon rainforest. The agency said 69 properties had been identified that had sold a total of 18,000 cattle who had been raised on deforested land, reported Reuters. They also found 23 meat packing companies that had bought the cattle in Amazonas and Para states. “We are inspecting the production chain to hold offenders accountable for acquiring products from deforestation and to ensure that crime does not pay,” Jair Schmitt, IBAMA’s chief of environmental protection, told The Associated Press.
Valeriana
After swapping machetes and binoculars for computer screens and laser mapping, a team of researchers have stumbled on a lost Maya city of temple pyramids, enclosed plazas and a reservoir, all of which had been hidden for centuries by the Mexican jungle. The discovery in the south-eastern Mexican state of Campeche was made by Luke Auld-Thomas, an anthropologist at Northern Arizona University, using lidar - a remote sensing technique that uses a pulsed laser and other data obtained by flying over a site to generate 3D information about the shape of surface characteristics. Their analysis turned up a dense and diverse range of unstudied Maya settlements, including an entire city they named Valeriana, after a nearby freshwater lagoon. If you would like to learn more, here's a 2 minute video explainer by the BBC.
Dublin Marathon
Colin Farrell has raised €774,000 ($834,000) for a charity supporting people with a rare skin condition by running the Dublin marathon while pushing one of the oldest survivors of the disease in Ireland around part of the course in her wheelchair. The actor, who was born in the Irish capital, raised the money for Debra Ireland, an organisation that supports people with the incurable genetic condition epidermolysis bullosa (EB), or “butterfly skin”, which causes people to have very fragile and blistering skin.
COP16 Love Motels
Thousands more people than expected are at the biodiversity summit in Cali, Colombia, and hotels are full - leading the city’s council to press less orthodox accommodation into service. Robert Baluku, a Ugandan delegate, is among them after his team’s accommodation was abruptly cancelled. The city’s hotels were packed to capacity with thousands of country leaders, scientists, government ministers and UN negotiators, and Baluku was left scrambling for options - until the Motel Deseos (Desires) came to the rescue. Now, Baluku finds himself among dozens of delegates accommodated by the city’s hourly rate motels, which come equipped with circular beds, “love machine” chairs, dance poles and sex swings.
Hendrix Demos
Four unreleased demo tracks recorded by Jimi Hendrix are heading to the auction block. The London auction is organized by Propstore, a vendor dedicated to selling pop culture memorabilia. Whoever buys the demos will have “the kudos of having your own Jimi Hendrix songs which only you can listen to,” says Propstore's Mark Hochman. The four songs up for grabs - Up From the Skies, Ain’t No Telling, Little Miss Lover and Stone Free - were recorded in 1968 and are expected to sell for about $261,000, reports Artnet. Propstore will auction this off in mid-November, alongside other music memorabilia associated with Oasis, Queen, John Lennon and others. As Hochman says, the Hendrix artifacts are “exceptional” pieces of rock history.
“The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.” Tom Clancy
On This Day
31 October 1941: After nearly 15 years of work, the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota was completed; the colossal sculpture features the heads of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.
Today's Articles
Importance of Optimism: Optimists lead longer, happier lives. So how can the rest of us foster a positive mind-set?
Mood Boosting Video
Flying Visit: Discover the dramatic landscape of Lofoten, located in a Norwegian archipelago.
