An eclectic bundle of positive news nuggets to perk up the day.
You Couldn't Make It Up
A trainee driving instructor plowed his Hyundai into the front of the driving school where he worked while trying to park during his second day on the job. Happily, nobody was hurt and there was no student in the car. In a post on X, previously known as Twitter, Lakewood Police in Colorado posted a picture of the vehicle firmly lodged in the front of Community Driving School, but refrained from adding any hilarious captions. The school's owner told The Denver Gazette that the driver had "yet to instruct anything" and that, unsurprisingly, the employee no longer worked at the school.
Handful of Nuts
Eating a handful of nuts every day is associated with a 17 percent lower risk of depression.
Data gathered from the UK Biobank, an online database of medical and lifestyle records of around 500,000 Britons, suggests middle-aged and older adults who consumed a daily 30g serving of nuts - including walnuts, almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, and pistachios - were less likely to report taking antidepressants or getting diagnosed with depression. While the findings, published in the journal Clinical Nutrition, do not explain why this happens, the researchers speculate that anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties of nuts may have a protective effect.
Nutrients to Improve Your Brain Health: Adding foods that are rich in compounds to your diet can help nourish your mind and keep your brain in optimal condition. More...
Remarkable Recovery
Humpback whales have been spotted along Australia’s eastern coast in record numbers, in a sign that the species is thriving after decades of conservation work. More than 4,700 whales were counted by scientists and members of the public on one day in June, more than ever before. There were thought to be just 200 humpback whales on the east coast of Australia in the 1960s, but last year their numbers had recovered so much they were removed from the threatened species list.
Healthy Lives Campaign
Egypt used to have the highest rate of hepatitis C in the world. In 2018, the government decided to implement a massive and unprecedented campaign to screen and treat every citizen, crystallising into something called the 100 Million Healthy Lives Campaign. Today, both the World Bank and the WHO say Egypt has eliminated hepatitis C from its entire population, reports Forbes.
Determination
On his 8th grade graduation day, 14-year-old Xavier Jones discovered that his grandfather's car was not working. He was determined to receive his diploma so he decided to walk the six-mile route to the historically Black school, Harris-Stowe State University. He walked under a fiery sun for over two hours and became so thirsty at some point that he asked strangers to buy something to drink. When he arrived at the university, Collins Smith, the university's president, was so inspired by Jones' determination and effort that she decided to award Jones a full four-year scholarship that would cover all his tuition at the university. "You know, oftentimes in colleges we spend a lot of time on standardized test scores because that's who you are. It's not true," she said. Jones has proven himself to be more than that.
Most Distant Star
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has followed up on observations by the Hubble Space Telescope of the farthest star ever detected in the very distant universe, within the first billion years after the big bang. That makes it roughly 28 billion light-years away. Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera instrument reveals the star to be a massive B-type star more than twice as hot as our Sun, and about a million times more luminous. The star, which the research team has dubbed Earendel, is detectable only due to the combined power of human technology and nature via an effect called gravitational lensing.
"Do what you can. If you can't do something you wanted to do, then you will be forgiven, but if you don't want to try to do anything, you will not be forgiven." Nikolai Vavilov
On this Day
15 August 1620: Mayflower sets sail from Southampton, England, with 102 Pilgrims.
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Mood Booster
Air New Zealand may have made the most epic airline safety video of all time...