Tuesday's Positive News
- Editor OGN Daily
- Jan 3, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: Jan 14, 2023
Eclectic bundle of positive news nuggets from around the globe.
Partying in Paris
An unexpectedly large crowd of one million people converged on to the Champs-Élysées to celebrate the start of 2023, after two years of Covid cancellations - with Paris officials calling it a “renaissance” in people wanting to get together again. French authorities had expected about 500,000 Parisians and tourists to flock to the avenue, where a vast display of fireworks was set off around the Arc de Triomphe at midnight. But a staggering one million people turned up. “It was almost 2 million people if you take the wider perimeter,” said the interior minister, Gérald Darmanin. The last Paris new year’s eve gathering on the Champs-Élysées took place in 2019, with 250,000 people present.
What is a New Year’s resolution? Something that goes in one year and out the other.
Act of Kindness
11-year-old Jude Kofie surprised his father one morning with a concert on an old piano keyboard he found down in the basement. It turns out Jude, who has autism, is a musical genius. Jude's father took a video and posted it to social media where it was picked up by Denver7 News. A professional piano tuner technician named Bill Magnusson happened to be watching the news when he saw the video Jude's father shared. He emailed the station and said he wanted to speak with the family. "My first reaction was, 'This kid is Mozart level'," Magnusson said. He was so impressed that he used some of his father's inheritance to pay for the piano. "The ripple effects for the next 70 or 80 years are incalculable," says Magnusson. "It's not just for him. It's for all the people he's going to touch."
Terramation
New York governor Kathy Hochul has just legalized natural organic reduction, popularly known as human composting or terramation, after death. The legislative move makes the state the sixth to do so since 2019 and gives New Yorkers access to an alternative, green method of burial deemed environmentally friendly.
Once in 50,000 Years
A comet that last appeared in the night sky during the Ice Age is about to make a reappearance. Called by the easily memorable name C/2022 E3 (ZTF), the comet orbits the sun every 50,000 years and will pass within 26 million miles of Earth on 1 February. It could be visible to the naked eye from mid-to-late January, though binoculars would be better. The comet "is now sweeping across the northern constellation Corona Borealis in predawn skies. It's still too dim to see without a telescope though. But this fine telescopic image from December 19 does show the comet's brighter greenish coma, short broad dust tail, and long faint ion tail,” wrote NASA in its post about the famous comet. Specialist smartphone apps and websites, such as Star Chart, Sky Safari, and SkyView, can help you track the comet’s position in the sky.
Best Space Pictures From JWST: Since becoming operational in July 2022, the observatory - about one million miles from Earth - has delivered a steady stream of beautiful cosmic pictures. Have a look...
Box Office Bonanza
Avatar: The Way of Water is expected to finish the long New Year’s weekend with an estimated $440 million-plus in the US, well ahead of the first Avatar, which came out of the year-end holidays with $352 million on its way to earning north of $750 million domestically (that includes re-releases). The 2009 film still ranks as the top-grossing movie of all time globally with $2.92 billion in ticket sales. Avatar: The Way of Water passed $1.4 billion in worldwide ticket sales yesterday after sprinting past the $1.37 billion mark on Sunday (Imax accounts for a huge $152.2 million, the fourth-best showing of all time.) That puts it among the 15 biggest films of all time. So far.
"We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run." Roy Amara
On this Day
3 January 1977: Apple was incorporated by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, and is (for the moment at least) the world's most valuable company.
Italian supercars tend towards the thirsty fossil-fuel guzzling type, but not this one. It's powered by plastic waste. Read on...
Congress thinks that reverse-engineered acronyms make bills look snappy. Here are some of the worst (or possibly greatest). Read on...
On a small UK island, one company has a solution to tackle the problem of waste in the fashion industry. Read on...
Mood Booster
Soar above Scotland's wild landscapes in this short aerial video.
