Today's bite sized chunks of good news to perk up the day.
Britain's oldest toaster which is more than 70 years old is still used every day by its owners, who urge others to make do and mend. Jimmy James has a Morphy Richards pop-up toaster which was given to his parents as a wedding present in 1949. Mr James, 69, inherited the toaster from his parents and is committed to his parents' wartime generation mindset: fix broken items if you can, rather than throw them away. He told The Telegraph: "The toaster is now older than I am! It has been used virtually every day of its life. To me, it's second nature to make do and mend. My parents were wartime generation and everything was repaired and recycled - nothing was ever thrown away. You're doing a tiny little bit to preserve the environment and you're manufacturing jobs in the repair industry as opposed to manufacturing jobs in China."
Researchers exploring Antarctica’s seabed have discovered a thriving, unprecedented colony of icefish “about a third of the size of London”. The surprise discovery of about 60 million active nests was made by a team of biologists while collecting routine data of the seafloor of Antarctica’s southern Weddell Sea. Before this discovery, the largest found colony contained only 60 nests. The sheer size of the colony suggests the whole Weddell Sea ecosystem is positively influenced by these nests. Cameras will now monitor the ecosystem to try to establish how it functions.

An invasive shrub that colonised Scotland could produce enough protein to feed millions of people, according to the University of Aberdeen. The invasive gorse bush has long been considered a pest, where it is regularly cleared from landscapes. But researchers at the university claim that it could be used to feed livestock and humans. The university’s Professor Wendy Russell said: “We have a huge amount of gorse all over Scotland and when we did the calculations, just by active removal from marginal land, there’s enough gorse protein to easily feed the country’s population.”

Jordan Maywald has been in charge of his family's Christmas decorations since he was nine. Each year since, Jordan, now 23, has added more to the light display that has turned their Austin property into an annual visitor destination. "It started very small, just a few things in our front yard," he tells Southern Living. "Over the years I expanded across much of our property and now it covers about 3.5 acres." For the past seven years, the Maywalds have used their famous light display to raise money for Make-A-Wish Central and South Texas. This year, they welcomed more than 15,000 visitors, raising more than $80,000 to fund 10 wishes. Each time a wish is granted, Jordan adds a reindeer to the mix.

In this age of technology, where everything connects to the cloud or needs an app, it takes a simple bit of engineering to stand out. A seatbelt for bags while you drive around like there's no tomorrow, as reported by Gizmodo, clearly fits into this category. The best place to put a bag of groceries or even take-out food when you are driving alone is the passenger seat, right next to you, so you keep an eye on it. However, bags that tend to get greasy or leak out some liquid do not deserve a seat of honor and are put where they belong, on the floor. If you are with us so far, then you surely wouldn't mind shelling out $22 to get your hands on BAGO, a harness that secures the bag there.
Scientists have identified antibodies that can target the unchanged parts of the novel coronavirus as it continues to mutate and evolve, an advance that could lead to new therapeutics to neutralise Omicron and other Covid-19 variants. Identifying such “broadly neutralising” antibodies on the coronavirus spike protein, which the virus uses to enter human cells, can help develop better vaccines and antibodies which will be effective not only against Omicron but also against other variants that may emerge in the future, said David Veesler from the University of Washington School of Medicine in the US. “This finding tells us that by focusing on antibodies that target these highly conserved sites on the spike protein, there is a way to overcome the virus’ continual evolution,” Dr Veesler said in a statement.
India's Reliance Industries is to invest 5.95 trillion rupees ($80.49 billion) to set up green energy projects and bolster its retail and telecom arms in the western state of Gujarat, as it targets net-zero carbon emissions by 2035.
Quote of the Day
“Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud." Maya Angelou
On this Day
18 January 1993: Martin Luther King Jr. holiday observed in all 50 states of the USA for the first time.
Dive in Deeper
World's oldest social network: Study finds ancient hunter-gatherers traded eggshell beads over vast area 50,000 years ago to share symbolic messages and to strengthen alliances. Read on...
Careful which button you press...
Definitely don't watch this hilarious animation if you're scared of flying.