Getting the week off to a bright start with an uplifting collection of good news nuggets.
Wildlands
The largest private conservation project in Canada has just been unveiled - 1,450 sq.km (870 sq.miles) of boreal forest in northern Ontario. The protected land is more than twice the size of Toronto, and home to more than 100 lakes and 1,300 km of rivers, streams, and shorelines, including habitat vital to freshwater quality and native fish species. Not only will the Boreal Wildlands provide numerous benefits for the wildlife, the forests and deep peatlands within can absorb vast amounts of greenhouse gas emissions and store carbon.
Down Under
Barrister Lincoln Crowley QC will become the first Indigenous judge to preside over an Australian superior court, after he was appointed to the supreme court of Queensland. Crowley, a Warramunga man, was expelled from a private school in year 11 after a run-in with a teacher. “The deputy principal called me into the office one day and said to me: ‘Your family is Aboriginal aren’t they? They’re the type that end up in jail’,” he said. “He was picking on me and trying to put me down, basically saying I had no prospects in the future and that’s where I was going to end up. I remember thinking, ‘you wait and see, mate’.”
Wind Power
Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium just announced a plan to install a monstrous 150GW of offshore wind in the North Sea by 2050 - half of all the offshore wind necessary to get the EU to net zero. To put that in perspective, total installed capacity worldwide at the moment is 25GW.
Zeugma
The rhetorical device of using a word in more than one of its senses at the same time. For instance: "She stole his heart, and his wallet": "stole" is being used in the metaphorical sense when referring to "heart", and the entirely literal one when referring to his wallet.
Tough Nut
World’s first raspberry picking robot cracks the toughest nut: soft fruit. The next raspberries Brits eat might have been picked by a Kraken-like four-armed robot, rather than a human. Fruit harvested by what is believed to be the world’s first raspberry-picking robot in commercial operation is now on sale in British supermarkets. The machine can pick a kilogram of raspberries an hour and are being used amid shortages of seasonal workers across Europe.
Completely Nuts
A French man has set a new world record for the most bungee jumps in a 24-hour period. Francois-Marie Dibon made 765 jumps in Pitlochry, Perthshire, easily beating the previous record set by New Zealander Mike Heard in 2017, who completed 430 jumps. Each jump was from a 40m (131 ft) height. Dibon, who works as an actuary in Sweden, had previously spoken of how bungee jumping helped him to overcome his fear of heights, and said he chose Scotland as his location due to his love of the country and its people.
Time to Switch
In the United States, the world's second largest car market, an electric car is now cheaper on a monthly basis than a comparable gasoline car in almost every state (once financing, taxes, maintenance and fuel costs are included), reports Bloomberg.
Ebola Defeated
Jean-Jacques Muyembe, the Congolese doctor who first discovered the virus 40 years ago, says that the fight is now over, thanks to vaccines and effective clinical treatments. "For 40 years I have been a witness and a player in the fight against this terrifying and deadly disease and I can say today: it is defeated, it is preventable and curable."
Quote of the Day
"It was June, and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside." Maud Hart Lovelace
On this Day
6 June 1965: Rolling Stones release single "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"
Dive in Deeper
Weight loss is significantly enhanced by when you eat. Plus, there's a host of additional health benefits too. Read on...
Nature Mood Booster
The sifaka lemurs of Madagascar move around like graceful ballerinas.