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Good News Only Thursday

Updated: Jul 24, 2023

Today's eclectic bundle of upbeat news nuggets from around the globe.


Mural depicting a girl's face wearing sunglasses
Essex Vibes

According to The Times, Americans have become so hooked on the British dating show 'Love Island' that they have started adopting Essex accents. Instructional videos on how to speak in an Essex accent have multiplied on social media, as have videos of Americans trying theirs out for the camera. Anthony Taylor, a 45-year-old from New York, told the paper that he now regularly says “Fank you, babe” to his wife.

 
 
Images of human figures are visible in this Bronze Age painting
Images of human figures are visible in the Bronze Age painting | Jan Magne Gjerde / NIKU
Bronze Age Painting

For most, finding a millennia-old artifact in the wild is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But for Tormod Fjeld, who recently uncovered Bronze Age paintings in Norway, it was just another addition to a staggering collection of finds. He and two friends have brought hundreds of discoveries to light in their free time. “Yes, our families think we are crazy,” he told the New York Times. But Fjeld was with his family when he made his latest discovery. They were hiking about 40 miles south of Oslo and as they sat down for a break, Fjeld noticed a pattern in one of the rocks. He uploaded a photo of it onto a special app on his phone, which helped distinguish between the rock’s natural colors and others that were added by hand. It looked promising, so Fjeld called in the experts and, sure enough, it was a Bronze Age painting.

 
 
Hardback copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Credit: Richard Winterton Auctioneers
Magic Find

A rare hardback copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone has been sold for £10,500 ($13,560) at an auction - having been purchased for only 30p (39 cents). The winning bid, which was well above its estimated value of £3,000 to £5,000, came online from Los Angeles. Published by Bloomsbury in 1997 with a laminated board cover, the book is one of only 500 first edition first impressions. It also has an o missing from the word Philosopher's on its back cover.


Major Raw Material Find

Euractiv reports that a massive underground deposit of high-grade phosphate rock in Norway, pitched as the world’s largest, is big enough to satisfy world demand for solar panels and electric car batteries over the next 50 years, according to the company exploiting the resource. In equally good news, the fact that it's in Norway means that the company will have to observe stricter environmental standards when extracting the minerals, including carbon capture and storage. “The discovery is indeed great news, which would contribute to the objectives of the Commission’s proposal on the Critical Raw Material Act,” said a spokesperson for the EU executive.



Cricket in America

For decades, cricket’s powers have dreamed of making it big in America. Starting today, the grandest, richest attempt yet to get Americans hooked on cricket will begin in a converted baseball stadium (capacity: 7,200) on the outskirts of Dallas. Major League Cricket, as the new competition is known, has money: close to $50m already spent, with another $130m on the way. Only time will tell if cricket can crack America.

 
 
Tonight's The Night

A solar storm forecast for today is expected to give skygazers in the northern half of America (even as far south as Kansas), the opportunity to glimpse the Aurora Borealis, the colorful night sky show that happens when solar wind hits the atmosphere. If the sky is clear where you live, why not head outside tonight and see if you're one of the lucky ones?


Linn's Sondek LP12-50
Credit: Linn
First Since Apple

Jonny Ive was the design guru responsible for Apple's brilliant repertoire of products - from the iPhone to Airpods - and since he left Apple in 2019 to set up his own studio (called LoveFrom), a certain demographic has been gagging to see what his first non-Apple industrial design would look like. Today that changes with a record player called the Sondek LP12-50. Designed by LoveFrom alongside the British audio brand Linn. The iPods and iPads that Ive designed at Apple are icons of mainstream digital music, and Linn’s LP12 is something of an icon in its own rite - albeit analog, high end, and designed for audiophiles. With $60,000 to spare.

 

"I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance." John D. Rockefeller

 
On this Day

13 July 1985: The benefit concert Live Aid was held simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. Organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, the event drew an estimated 1.5 billion television viewers and raised millions for famine relief in Ethiopia.

 





 
Mood Booster

'OK kid, you got the job.' The brilliant audition by Henry Thomas for a starring role in Spielberg's movie ET.



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