Global round up of positive news nuggets to perk up the day.
It's Magic
For as yet unexplained reasons, it turns out that magicians are less vulnerable to mental disorders than other artists, according to new research. A global study, led by Aberystwyth University's psychology department in Wales, measured "psychopathological traits" of almost 200 magicians and compared the results with data from other artistic groups and the general population, said The Guardian. It concluded that magicians scored significantly lower than other types of creatives and "normal" folk.
JazaMiti
Kenya celebrated its first national tree planting holiday this week as part of a government initiative to plant 15 billion trees by 2032. The project includes an app called JazaMiti (Swahili for 'fill with trees'), which people can use to document their planting activity and find which tree species are best suited to their location.
World's Deepest Canyon is Home to Asia's Tallest Tree: The enormous newly-discovered cypress tree was found in a forest in Tibet. It's the tallest in Asia and the second tallest tree in the world. Gigantic...
How's Your Book Club?
It's probably not like a book club in California that took 28 years to read James Joyce’s novel Finnegans Wake. The group in Los Angeles began by reading two pages a month before slowing to a page per discussion. The novel is written in a "torrent of idiosyncratic language" over more than 600 pages, including "made-up words in several languages, puns and arcane allusions to Greek mythology", said The Times. Joyce once described the perfect reader of the novel as "suffering from an ideal insomnia".
European Ski Resorts
In good news for both skiers and resorts, ski season will be starting early in some places as resorts across Europe have welcomed bumper snowfall. After persistently warm weather in October, the Alps have seen chilly weather and heavy snow in the first weeks of November, says EuroNews. With thick snow lying now on the slopes and more to come, several ski resorts have brought forward their opening dates. In France, big-name resorts Tignes and Val Thorens have both announced they will open a week earlier than anticipated, on 18 November. In Switzerland, there are nine areas already open including big hitters Davos, Zermatt and Verbier, the latter of which opened three weeks early.
Aeroleaf
French company New World Wind has developed small, tree-like wind turbines to help households accelerate carbon neutrality. Named WindTrees, the structures have metallic 'trunks' and 'branches' supporting mini turbines that aim to resemble leaves. Silent and blending into surroundings (well, certainly more so than traditional turbines), WindTrees can continuously generate power for a household. Their self-consumption model supplies energy directly to a building's electrical system. So far, the company has deployed 130 units worldwide.
Heartwarming Moment
A little boy named Logan got his first pair of glasses, and when his surroundings and his mum finally became clear, he flashed the biggest smile.
Monoculture Reversal
Indonesia, the world’s largest palm oil producer, will return close to half a million acres of these monoculture plantations to forest and, according to officials, the figure may increase. The initiative, reports ESG News, is part of the government’s efforts to address climate change and better govern an industry that has illegally developed land in conservation areas within this biodiversity hotspot.
​"If I had an hour to solve a problem, I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions." Albert Einstein
On This Day
16 November 1855: British explorer David Livingstone was the first European to see Victoria Falls (known locally as Mosi-oa-Tunya / the smoke that thunders).
Hallucinate has gained an additional definition in the Cambridge Dictionary. Any guesses what it could be? False 'facts'...
Speaking in London this week, the Princess of Wales said children’s social and emotional skills are just as valuable as reading, writing and maths. Shaping up...
Mood Booster
Dolphins Fishing With Mud Nets: Another clever trick by bottlenose dolphins.
Comentários