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Just Good News Wednesday

Updated: Mar 1, 2023

Mid-week global collection of upbeat news nuggets to help put a spring in your step.


Gregory Peck
Peck's Legacy

For decades, the late actor Gregory Peck has captivated audiences with his portrayal of Atticus Finch, the fictional lawyer in small-town Alabama who defends a Black man accused of rape, in the 1962 film adaptation of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Shown to this day in classrooms to accompany lessons about the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and won Peck the 1963 Academy Award for Best Actor. Now, Peck’s admirers have a chance to own a small piece of his legacy. Nearly 250 items that once belonged to Peck and his wife - such as Peck’s To Kill a Mockingbird script and gifts from Harper Lee, who remained close with the Peck family for years - are up for grabs during a Heritage Auctions sale that runs through February 23. Part of the auction’s proceeds will go to World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit that helps provide meals for people suffering from humanitarian, climate and other crises.


Bobi, the world's oldest dog
Credit: Guinness World Records
World's Oldest

At 30 years and 266 days old, a Portuguese dog named Bobi was just crowned the world’s oldest dog ever, breaking an almost century-old record, says Guinness World Records. The previous titleholder, an Australian cattle dog named Bluey, was born in 1910 and lived for 29 years and 5 months. Bobi has lived in Conqueiros, a small Portuguese village, for more than three decades.

 

Whilst OGN Daily isn't as old as Bobi, we hope to be in about 27 years from now. Please share the good news about OGN Daily by telling friends and family about us.

 

Class of One

Halley’s comet - officially known as 1P/Halley - is a monster. With a peanut-shaped nucleus measuring a whopping 9x5 miles/15x8 km wide, this ball of frozen water and gases and dust was last seen in the solar system in 1986. It’s due back in 2061 when it’s predicted to make a relatively close pass to Earth and be as bright as the brightest stars in the night sky. Halley’s 75-year orbit makes it a short-period comet, but it also puts it in a class of one. It’s the only comet ever observed that can be seen twice in one human lifetime. Observations of it date back to 467 AD, though the first person to work that out it was the same comet revisiting was English astronomer Edmund Halley. In 1705 he calculated that his comet would return in 1758. He was right. 2023 is another big year for the comet at it will reach its aphelion - it’s farthest point from the Sun - before making its return journey to loop around our star.


Wheat field in glowing sunlight
US Regenerative Agriculture

This year, Congress will write America's next farm bill governing the way food is produced, distributed, and consumed, but currently, it supports an industrial agriculture system that prioritizes commodities over communities. Project Regeneration is part of a national coalition designed to unite citizens, farmers, ranchers, landowners, non-profits, and companies in order to achieve ambitious goals to improve soil health and reform farming practice. Soil is humanity's common ground and our common good, so if you want to lend your weight to the 2023 Farm Bill and tell Congress that you support regenerative agriculture as a key solution to climate, health, and water crises, go here to sign the #PetitionToRegenerateAmerica.


Going After Big Oil

A leading congressional critic of the fossil fuel industry plans to use his new position atop the Senate Budget Committee to continue investigating Big Oil’s alleged efforts to mislead the public about the causes and consequences of global warming. The strength of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s inquiry could hinge on when - or if - he can get his hands on a massive tranche of internal industry documents obtained by House Democrats in the previous Congress that have been in limbo since Republicans took control this year. “We are interested in trying to make sure their work is not lost and that the tasks that are left undone can still be pursued,” the Rhode Island Democrat told E&E News.


Full Swing

Hot on the heels of Netflix’s tennis-themed Break Point and new episodes of Prime Video’s cricket documentary The Test comes this latest fly-on-the-wall sport series from the producers of Formula 1: Drive to Survive. This time, golf gets the treatment - and with a breakaway tournament threatening the Tour, it’s an interesting time to be tracking the game. Professional golf is a blue-riband, big-money affair. The pressure is intense and it’s fascinating to see, up close, the toll it takes on players such as Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Ian Poulter. Available from today on Netflix.

 

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."

Nelson Mandela

 
On this Day

15 February 1965: Canada officially adopted the Maple Leaf Flag following a royal proclamation.

 





 
Mood Booster

Some people claim that watching a beaver eat cabbage lowers your stress levels. Does it work for you?



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