Mid week collection of uplifting news nuggets to brighten the day.
NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins will be the first Black woman to complete a long-term mission aboard the International Space Station for the forthcoming SpaceX Crew-4 launch, the space agency has announced. The launch is scheduled for April 2022 and will be Watkins's first voyage into space.
Boris Johnson is to announce that new homes and buildings in England will be required by law to install electric vehicle charging points from next year. Ministers believe the policy will add 145,000 charging points across the country each year. Newly built supermarkets and offices, as well as buildings undergoing major renovations, will also come under the new law.
Raise a glass to the football team at the California School for the Deaf who have defied the odds with an undefeated season. The Varsity football team went 11-0 this season and has also won their divisional championship game for the first time in school history. The players and coaches rely on American Sign Language to communicate. "It's inspiring for the deaf community quite honestly. 11 and 0 we've never experienced this being this far in playoffs," coach Keith Adams told ABC News. "The community is so excited, the morale has been uplifted, the self-esteem of our players - you can see a major difference."
As a result of global warming, habitat loss, and food scarcity, the wintering population of the orange and black Western monarch butterfly along California’s central coast declined considerably in 2020. Conservationists recorded about 2,000 individuals, a number that pales in comparison to the tens of thousands tallied in previous years. While this year’s count is still ongoing, the good news is that an unofficial count by researchers and volunteers shows there are more than 50,000 monarchs at overwintering sites, reports The Washington Post.
Michelin’s airless, puncture proof tires could be on your car by 2024. They're designed using 46 percent recycled material, and made from a plastic matrix laced with glass fibers that provide a flexible outer layer with a stiffer inner one. Michelin say it should help reduce the 18 percent of all the world's tires that are discarded early due to punctures.
Good news for American's looking to invest in two wheels: Tax credits jump to a maximum of $1,500 for e-bikes and $7,500 for electric motorcycles in the Build Back Better Act, which has been passed by the US House of Representatives.
Back in 2018, the Cape Verde islands, off the north west Africa coast, passed legislation that criminalized the killing, trade, and consumption of sea turtles. Thanks to the new laws, and a total of 20 years of conservation efforts, the sea turtle nests across all 10 islands are now estimated to be almost 200,000 - double what they were in 2015. Cape Verde nesting grounds are considered the world’s third-largest, after Florida and Oman, but experts believe that they will soon become the world’s second-largest.
Over the past few years, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand has undergone an overhaul that puts the country's Maori heritage and language at the center of its operations. The RBNZ's new stylized logo is inspired by the legend of Tane Mahuta, the Maori god of the forest, and builds on the narrative of RBNZ as a giant tree that serves as 'kaitiaki', or guardian, of the financial system.
"A woman is like a tea bag – you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water." Eleanor Roosevelt
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Wonders of Nature
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