Happy News Thursday
- Editor OGN Daily
- 17 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Thursday's smorgasbord of tasty good news nuggets to perk up the day.
Stormy Sky
The winners of the 12th International Landscape Photographer of the Year have been announced, and Dennis Hualong Zhang claimed the Stormy Sky Award with his magnificently moody image of a supercell in New Mexico. This year’s contest came with firm rules, so every photo had to be captured by the photographer - no shortcuts, no AI tricks, no machine-made landscapes. Everything you see is real, raw, and shaped by nature’s wild moods. Which makes all the winning photos even more impressive.
Ancient Celtic
It is not likely to be a hefty volume because the vast majority of the material has been lost in the mists of time. But the remnants of a language spoken in parts of the UK and Ireland 2,000 years ago are being collected for what is being billed as the first complete dictionary of ancient Celtic. Experts from Aberystwyth University in Wales say they expect they will end up with more than 1,000 words. Sources for the dictionary will range from Julius Caesar’s account of his conquest of parts of northern Europe to ancient memorial stones. It will include words from about 325BC up to AD500. Elements of modern languages such as Welsh, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Breton and Cornish have some roots in their ancient Celtic counterparts.
Back on Earth
After eight months aboard the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Jonny Kim and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky have returned home. The trio launched into space April 8 on the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft and traveled nearly 104 million miles during their time in the cosmos, orbiting Earth 3,920 times. Kim said that “the bond that we shared together” is what he’ll remember most from his experience, adding: “I firmly believe that the greatest quality of an astronaut, and a human, is not technical competence, or loyalty, or any of the myriad other things we like to ascribe to astronauts. It’s love.”
Lucky Escape
A bear in Arizona was stuck about 40 feet up a telegraph pole and was dangerously close to live electrical wires carrying 7,200 volts, risking electrocution. After local residents reported the sighting, two powerline workmen arrived and first ensured the power to the lines was shut off for safety. One then went up in a bucket truck and used a long fiberglass "hot stick" to gently guide and nudge the reluctant bear down the pole. At one point, the bear comically covered its eyes, as if trying to hide. Happily, the bear finally began to climb down on its own, reached the ground safely, and ran off into the desert unharmed.
Historic Return
White storks, extinct as breeding birds in Britain since 1416, to make a historic return to the UK capital as part of an ambitious rewilding effort to bring charismatic nature into busy city communities. Following the successful reintroduction of the birds to the Knepp estate in West Sussex, 45 miles south of central London, the species will be helped back to the city in a project that will also return beavers to flooded former gravel pits in east London. “It’s thrilling,” said Sam Davenport, the director of nature recovery at London Wildlife Trust. “Species reintroductions like this, close to where people live, spark conversations about the art of the possible in urban areas. It might surprise people that east London has lots of suitable habitat for these species.”
Excel-lent Result
Ireland’s Diarmuid Early has triumphed in the Excel World Championship, demonstrating an unparalleled mastery of Microsoft’s spreadsheet software. Early cracked a series of spreadsheet puzzles faster than his rivals at a Las Vegas showdown “vaguely reminiscent of a wrestling event”, said The Register. Highlights included “a half-time show featuring an ‘Export to Excel’ musical number”. Early received a trophy, a $5,000 prize, and a “wrestling-style belt” for his efforts.
"Of all the months of the year there is not a month one half so welcome to the young, or so full of happy associations, as the last month of the year." Charles Dickens
On This Day
11 December 1972: Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan (pictured left) and Harrison Schmitt (right) became the last humans to walk on the Moon.
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