Just Good News Tuesday

Editor OGN Daily
16 minutes ago
4 min read

Today's bite-sized chunks of positive news to perk up the day.

volleyball player Yuji Nishida diving across the floor to apologise to a female courtside judge — Credit: @harulovesvolley | X

Athletic Dogeza

In Japan, bowing is a customary part of many interactions, including greeting someone, saying thanks, or showing humility. It is also essential in apologizing - the deeper the bow, the more profusely you’re asking for forgiveness. Its most extreme form is the dogeza, which involves bowing down until your forehead touches the floor. While considered rare and outlandish, it was seen around the world after volleyball player Yuji Nishida expressed immense remorse after a serve went wrong. He was mortified to see he had struck a female courtside judge on the head with a ball. In a matter of seconds, the 6'1″ player ran and dived on the floor, sliding face-first across the court to where the woman was to apologize. After doing this athletic dogeza, he continued to bow profusely while kneeling on the floor. The judge, accepting the apology, bowed back at him.

Kate Weimer holding some 3D printed breast tissue material — Credit: Genesis Tissue

Bright Idea

Lumpectomies can be lifesaving treatments for women with early-stage breast cancer, but it also often leaves breasts physically scarred. Biomechanical engineer Kate Weimer wants to change that, reports CNN. The Canadian, whose own mother died from breast cancer at age 50, developed a method using 3D printed breast tissue material, which would be implanted at the same time surgeons remove cancerous masses in the breast. In just one procedure, breast cancer survivors can spend less time healing and more time living in a body that feels more like their own.

a greater Bermuda snail floating in water — Credit: Chester Zoo

Conservation Success

It has a rounded shell, four tiny tentacles, and can fit on the tip of your finger. It’s also at the center of a major conservation comeback story. For decades, the greater Bermuda snail was presumed extinct but 10 years ago one was spotted in an alleyway, prompting a slow and steady recovery effort led by international experts from the U.K.’s Chester Zoo and Canada-based Biolinx Environmental Research. Over several years, the team then gradually reintroduced the snails in protected woodland habitats on the island itself, and today, more than 100,000 are back in the wild and considered safe from extinction. “It’s every conservationist’s dream to help save a whole species - and that’s exactly what we’ve done,” says Tamas Papp at Chester Zoo.

Good News About Wildlife & Conservation So Far in 2026

Pair of bright red LEGO Crocs — Credit: LEGO Crocs

Practical Footwear?

LEGO, the Danish toymaker and the American footwear company Crocs have agreed a new multi-year global partnership. To kick off their collaboration, they have released the somewhat improbable LEGO Brick Clog. These oversized, rectangular shoes are modeled after LEGO’s classic two-by-four toy bricks, and feature four branded studs on top. While they would surely turn heads if you wore them out on the street, Crocs points out that they are more of a collectible than something for comfortable all-day wear. Still, they feature a heel strap in case anyone fancies activating “sport mode.” They will be available globally on 16 February for $149.99.

Rodolfo Liprandi standing next to a giant beaver he created from sticks and branches — Credit: Rodolfo Liprandi | Instagram

Forest Debris

While most people see tree branches, twigs, and shrubs, Warsaw-based artist Rodolfo Liprandi sees raw materials for creating sculptures. He transforms found forest debris into larger-than-life animals and mythical creatures. Around a decade ago, he created his first sculpture - a wild boar - for a festival. Since then, his talents have taken him across Europe, creating commissioned sculptures directly within woodlands, parks, and gardens - and each ethereal sculpture adds a sense of magic to its surrounding landscape. Every piece is made entirely from the materials he finds on site, keeping his environmental impact to a minimum. Find more of his work by following Rodolfo Liprandi on Instagram.

Sunny Africa

Africa had a remarkable year for solar growth in 2025, with installations rising by 54 percent, according to the Global Solar Council. More than half of the growth came from utility-scale installations, but the GSC’s analysis of solar equipment import data points to households and businesses driving adoption, too. The news comes after data revealed that cheap electrotech is enabling India “to industrialise without the long fossil detour taken by China and the west”. Meanwhile...

China's Green Tech

Electric vehicles, solar power and other green tech supercharged China’s economic growth in 2025, according to new analysis published by Carbon Brief. China’s clean energy sectors drove more than a third of its economic growth and was responsible for 90 percent of the increase in investment. In total it brought in business worth over $2 trillion. The country’s clean tech sector has doubled in real value in the three years to 2025, said Carbon Brief. If it was a standalone country, it would rank as the world’s eighth-largest economy.

“Courage is an inner resolution to go forward in spite of obstacles and frightening situations.”

Martin Luther King Jr.

On This Day

Tom holding down Jerry's tail as he tries to run away

10 February 1940: First "Tom and Jerry" cartoon "Puss Gets the Boot" is created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and released in theaters by MGM. While the characters were initially named Jasper and Jinx, this Academy Award-nominated short established the iconic cat-and-mouse formula.