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Only Positive News Saturday

Updated: Oct 9, 2023

Celebrating the start of the weekend with a smorgasbord of upbeat news nuggets.


Oldest Post Office

The world’s oldest working post office has been operating continuously in southern Scotland since 1712. But when its owners decided they were ready to retire in 2019, some onlookers worried the facility would close and lose its title. Fortunately, those concerns never came to fruition. Barry and Mary Ford have now taken over the 311-year-old site , a small village situated about 50 miles south of Glasgow in Scotland’s Dumfries and Galloway region. They will be the 17th operators in the facility’s history, reports Smithsonian Magazine.


Letter to Joel Berry from his son
Credit: @JoelWBerry
Govormet Wins

A recent letter penned by a young boy to his dad is doing the rounds on Twitter (sorry, X) making waves for its hilarious attempt at getting what he wants – permission to watch the Iron Man movie. Joel Berry posted a photo of the letter saying "A mailman who looked suspiciously like my 8-year-old put this in my mailbox this morning". Sent from the 'govormet', the letter makes it clear that this is an urgent matter. Joel's initial response was "Torn between letting them watch it and teaching them an important lesson about how we don’t obey unlawful govormet orders in this house." But Dad caved. He later posted a photo of Iron Man playing on his TV and said "The govormet won this round".


Paradigm Shift

Unprecedented numbers of people in their 50s and older are in part-time work, according to new data from the Office for National Statistics. The study revealed that 3.6 million older people are working part-time in the UK: a record high and a 12% increase since 2021. This is also a 26% increase in the past decade and a 56% increase in the past two decades. The findings have been hailed as a "paradigm shift in how we view work and retirement", said The Guardian.


The Right Stuff

Shell employees have said they are “deeply concerned” by the oil giant’s shift away from green energy in a blistering open letter to the chief executive after he set out plans to scale back the company’s investment in renewables in a bid to boost profits. Hats off to them! The world needs more such employees to take their fossil fuel executives to task. The open letter, which was posted on Shell’s internal website and seen by Reuters, read: “For a long time, it has been Shell’s ambition to be a leader in the energy transition. It is the reason we work here. The recent announcements...deeply concern us." The public rebuke was viewed more than 80,000 times on Shell’s internal website and prompted a string of responses from other employees.


eBikes Booming in Asia

The cacophony of small engines spewing pollution is one of the most recognisable sights and sounds in traffic-choked cities across Asia - but soon that may be a thing of the past, as electric two-wheelers explode across the continent, reports The Economist. Half of all new scooters sold in China are already electric, and in places like India, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam, sales of battery-powered two-wheelers are booming.


Volvo Ends Diesel

In an important automotive milestone, Volvo Cars is to cease production of all diesel models in 2024, reports CleanTechnica. The company will redirect its focus entirely on electric powertrains.

 

“The news media are, for the most part, the bringers of bad news... and it's not entirely the media's fault, bad news gets higher ratings and sells more papers than good news.” Peter McWilliams

 
On this Day

30 September 1659: Robinson Crusoe is shipwrecked (according to Daniel Defoe's famous novel).

 





 
Mood Booster

Kookaburra: Are you filming me? Did you get my permission?



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